Jim Mashek

WESTERN HITS THE PRACTICE FIELD BEFORE C-USA SERIES AT FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL

They’ve become an explosive offensive team.

They’ve got several capable pitchers, in every imaginable role.

They’ve learned how to win, or so it seems.

Western Kentucky University’s baseball team is on a roll. A pretty serious roll. Then again, it’s nearly one month until Conference USA holds its eight-team postseason tournament at Rice University’s Reckling Field.

In Houston.

The Hilltoppers seem to have their immediate goals in sight.

“Going through life, you’re going to be humble, or being humbled,” first-year WKU head coach Marc Rardin said.

That’s one of Rardin’s many mantras, but WKU’s players are learning them. Learning to embrace them. The Hilltoppers collected 15 hits on Sunday afternoon to outdistance Charlotte, 14-10, and complete an impressive three-game sweep in Conference USA play for the second consecutive week.

Heady stuff for a team that went 18-36 last year.

“We take it day by day, game by game,” junior WKU third baseman Aidan Gilroy said when it was over.

Rardin has clearly changed the culture with WKU baseball over the last 10 months, and the Hilltoppers are starting to establish an identity. They’re intense, yet relaxed, and they can win games in different ways. Charlotte was 12-5 in Conference USA play before arriving in Bowling Green last week, but the 49ers were a wounded team on their way out of town.

Charlotte coach Robert Woodard was written up in the late innings Sunday by home-plate umpire Phil Cundall, who decided he’d heard enough barbs about balls and strikes — a line that isn’t supposed to be crossed — from the 49ers’ dugout in the final moments of the series.

Western Kentucky completed a three-game sweep of the 49ers before a sparse crowd at Nick Denes Field, despite the “Bark at the Park” promotion, bringing dogs of all shapes, ages and sizes into the grandstand and the patios adjacent to the outfield foul lines. It was chilly at times, windy throughout, and rain fell for an inning or two, and a quick hailstorm hit The Nick before it was over, keeping the fans on their toes with umbrellas and ponchos at the ready.

“We’ve grown so much, as a team,” Gilroy said. “We had a pretty good start, and then we hit a slump before we started playing better again. You’ve got to trust the process, trust the coaches, trust each other.”

Trust is another one of Marc Rardin’s buzzwords.

Starting pitcher Dawson Hall — a true WKU freshman from Bowling Green High School — got the Hilltoppers into the sixth inning, before Charlotte’s Brandon Stahlman unloaded his second home run of the game, putting the 49ers briefly in front, 4-3.

Charlotte catcher Kaden Hopson crushed a pitch from WKU reliever Cole Heath for a solo home run to right field in the sixth, extending the 49ers’ lead to 5-3. The Hilltoppers didn’t do anything with the bottom of the inning, but that was the calm before the storm.

Western Kentucky took control of the game in the bottom of the seventh, scoring seven runs on just five hits, along with two walks and a hit batsmen. Aidan Gilroy, the 6-foot-1, 190-pound corner infielder from Pace, Florida, crushed a pitch from Charlotte right-hander Evan Michelson for a mammoth two-run home run to right field, an impressive shot that extended the WKU lead to 10-5.

“(Mickelson) had a really good fastball,” Gilroy said. “I’d seen enough of it that I could sit on the fastball, and he left it up a little bit.”

Before Gilroy crushed it, a two-run home run that sailed over the Charlotte bullpen.

“A big part of that,” WKU coach Marc Rardin said, “was (Tops reliever Cole Heath) putting up that zero in the top of the seventh. That was one of the biggest moments of the game, a quick inning to get back in the dugout to hit.

“It’s all about getting that momentum back.”

The Hilltoppers clearly rolled with that momentum.

Slick-fielding second baseman Tristin Garcia, the Tops’ cleanup hitter, lined a leadoff double off the wall in center field before teammate Lukas Farris was hit by a pitch.

With one out, WKU’s Kirk Liebert lined a pitch from Michelson for a bases-loaded double to left-center field. The 49ers bungled the relay from the outfield, an error that allowed Farris to scamper home.

In the blink of an eye, Western turned a 5-3 deficit into a one-run lead with eight outs to work with.

The Hilltoppers only needed five of them, of course, as WKU relievers Cam Heath and C.J. Weins completed the task at hand. Charlotte hit six home runs — count ’em, SIX — but they were little more than a footnote when it was over.

“The point of emphasis today is what we can do with the rest of the season,” Rardin said.

The Tops don’t have a mid-week game this week, which coincides with WKU final exams, before their road trip to Miami for a three-game Conference USA series with Florida International University (16-27 overall, a dismal 4-17 in C-USA) starting Friday.

The Hilltoppers have three C-USA series in front of them — FIU, Rice and baseball-only member Dallas Baptist — before the conference tournament unfolds in the final week of May in Houston.

“With nine (conference) games to go, we’re just trying to separate ourselves from the eighth spot (in the standings),” Rardin said.

Western and Florida Atlantic University (26-19 overall, 10-11 in C-USA) are tied for sixth in the league standings, and the Hilltoppers swept FAU in a three-game series at The Nick just two weeks ago. Eight of the league’s 10 teams will advance to the conference tournament in Houston, but UAB (14-29, 5-16) and FIU need a lot of things to break right to play their way into the tourney field.

“It could be a lot worse,” Rardin said with a grin. “… It’s awesome to be a part of it, it’s awesome to be in the dugout with them.”

Cam Heath was the winning pitcher, earning his second victory in as many decisions. C.J. Weins earned his seventh save of the season, while Michelson (1-2) took the loss for the 49ers. WKU’s leadoff man, center fielder Ty Crittenberger, had another big day (3-for-4, three runs, two RBI), and the Tops were able to capitalize on four Charlotte errors.

“We have a confidence in ourselves, in what we’re doing,” WKU third baseman Aidan Gilroy said.

Next stop, Miami.