Jim Mashek

TOPS CAN’T HOLD 4-0 LEAD AFTER SIX INNINGS; RARDIN’s SQUAD TURNS FOCUS TO ROAD TRIP TO SAN ANTONIO

First-year Western Kentucky University baseball coach Marc Rardin probably knew there would be nights like this.

But this one really hit home.

Former WKU outfielder Jackson Gray, the leadoff man in the University of Kentucky’s lineup, unloaded a 3-2 pitch from Hilltoppers left-hander Cal Higgins over the right-field fence for a dramatic, seventh-inning grand slam, fueling the Wildcats’ topsy-turvy, 10-8 victory before a paid crowd of 682 at WKU’s Nick Denes Field.

The Hilltoppers couldn’t hold a 4-0 lead after six innings. And they fell apart, defensively, in the top of the seventh, as the No. 16 Wildcats needed just two hits to score six runs for their first lead of the night.

They’d extend their lead with four more runs in the top of the eighth.

It was a lead the Wildcats would not relinquish, but Western brought the tying run to the plate in the bottom of the eighth inning against UK reliever Seth Chavez. Tristin Garcia, the Hilltoppers’ talented senior second baseman, sent the ball to the warning track with an opposite-field line drive that was run down by the Wildcats’ Ryan Waldschmidt.

It was the kind of game that left Marc Rardin in a rather introspective frame of mind.

Rardin won three NJCAA national championships and led Iowa Western to the junior college World Series 12 times in 20 years at the Council Bluffs, Iowa, two-year school before his arrival at WKU last June.

The Hilltoppers had a shot at a signature victory on Tuesday night, but they had nothing to show for it.

“Tonight, I feel like it comes back to me,” Rardin told reporters afterward. “We need to have a little bit more solid discipline. It’s that word “process”, but we keep pushing off the bottom of the pool and going back up to the top, but we are not staying there very long.

“That is my job – to get us where we are going to be more consistent – and we’re just not, not right now.”

Seventh-year UK coach Nick Mingione said the Wildcats have been a resourceful squad in building its impressive 22-3 record. In the month of March, Kentucky has gone 18-1, with the sole loss taking place on the road last weekend at the University of Alabama.

Western Kentucky, meanwhile, has endured a series of peaks and valleys, dropping two of three games in its first two Conference USA series — on the road against Middle Tennessee State and at home last weekend against Louisiana Tech — while looking for more consistency, particularly defensively.

Western dropped to 16-10 with the defeat and will resume its season on the road against Conference USA opponent Texas-San Antonio.

“They don’t panic,” Mingione said. “Our guys always feel like they’re in a game. We’ve done it in a bunch of different ways. Tonight, 15 of our last 18 at bats were really good … We can score in bunches.”

And this bunch was weaved together by a former Hilltopper, UK center fielder Jackson Gray.

Gray barely cleared the Mendoza line in his final season on The Hill, batting just .203 with six home runs and 23 RBI, but John Pawloski’s final WKU squad struggled in every way imaginable before finishing 18-36.

He’s been given a new lease on life in Lexington, however, and is sporting a .356 batting average with 13 extra-base hits and 20 RBI.

“It’s pretty surreal, man,” Gray said. “That’s my first career grand slam, too. I got the (pitch) I was looking for after five or six pitches … (WKU reliever Cal Higgins) kind of ran the fastball in, a little bit, and I got the barrel of the bat on the ball.

“I’ve been on both sides of the field here. (Kentucky) is a really mature team. We don’t get too high, too low, we always think we can come back. We spent seven hours coming back from Alabama on Saturday, it was a tough bus ride.

“I think this bus ride will be a lot more fun.”

Tristin Garcia, the Hilltoppers’ talented second baseman, singled in each of his first three trips to the plate, and his RBI single extended Western’s lead to 4-0 in the bottom of the sixth inning.

WKU coach Marc Rardin, meanwhile, was trying to piece together the victory with five or six pitchers, but relievers Jack Bennett and Cal Higgins were done in by a disastrous seventh inning on defense.

First, Hilltoppers center fielder Ty Crittenberger misplayed Hunter Gillam’s line-drive single for his first error of the season.

Then WKU third baseman Aidan Gilroy botched a sacrifice bunt off the bat of Kentucky DH Chase Stanke, and his errant throw sailed over first base, bringing two runs across the plate and trimming the Hilltoppers’ lead to 4-2.

It would only get worse for the home team.

After the Wildcats’ Nolan McCarthy drew a walk from Higgins to load the bases with one out, UK shortstop Grant Smith was called out for a “time violation,” in other words, taking too long to get into the batter’s box.

Which sent UK baseball radio man Darren Headrick into orbit in the Nick Denes press box.

Headrick had already spent much of the game questioning home-plate umpire Micah Holmen, at least when it adversely affected the Wildcats. He was in rare form until the Wildcats took the lead at 6-4 in the top of the seventh, at which point he seemed a little more magnanimous to the revamped Hilltoppers.

Still, the Wildcats’ 6-4 lead was anything but a sure thing.

Kentucky rallied for four more runs, all with two outs, in the top of the eighth.

UK shortstop Grant Smith, the final man in the Wildcats’ batting order, unloaded a pitch from WKU’s Cole Heath over the fence in left-center field for a three-run home run, extending the Kentucky lead to 10-4.

But the Hilltoppers kept hackin’ away at the plate.

“We out-hit them (11-7),” WKU coach Marc Rardin said. “We out-hit everybody. We out-hit Louisiana Tech this whole weekend. We get guys on base all the time. You can’t ask for any more than that, other than getting them in and you don’t always do that.

“We fight, we don’t quit. We’re always dangerous, but we’ve got to be more disciplined.”

Western’s Tristin Garcia had three of the Hilltoppers’ 11 hits. The Tops’ Brett Blomquist and Ty Batusich had pinch-hit, solo home runs in the eighth and ninth innings, respectively, but UK second baseman Emilien Petre made a tough defensive play, deep in the hole, before retiring WKU catcher Camden Ross at first base to end the game.

“Let’s get out of here,” an enthusiastic Darren Headrick bellowed over the UK radio network as the Wildcats completed the task at hand.

Seth Logue (1-0) was the winning pitcher while Evan Jones (2-1) took the loss for the Hilltoppers.

All of which left Rardin in a reflective mood as the Hilltoppers turn their focus to the three-game road trip to Texas-San Antonio (20-6 overall, 5-1 in Conference USA).

“People say, ‘You’ve got to get over that hump,'” Rardin said. “Ours is more like a mountain, now.”