{"id":21010,"date":"2026-04-26T17:19:47","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T17:19:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jimmashek.com\/?p=21010"},"modified":"2026-04-26T17:26:52","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T17:26:52","slug":"piecing-it-together-gavin-perry-wku-bullpen-guide-tops-to-8-6-victory-over-kennesaw-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimmashek.com\/?p=21010","title":{"rendered":"PIECING IT TOGETHER\/Gavin Perry, WKU bullpen guide Tops to 8-6 victory over Kennesaw State"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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DAWSON HALL, A SENIOR FROM
BOWLING GREEN HIGH SCHOOL,
WAS THE HILLTOPPERS’ ‘BRIDGE GUY’
TO ZACH LYLES AND THE NINTH INNING.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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FORMER BGHS STANDOUT DAWSON HALL, SENIOR LEFT-HANDER ZACH LYLES COMPLETE THE TASK AT HAND<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Fourth-year Western Kentucky head baseball coach Marc Rardin was a little more animated, than usual, after the Hilltoppers’ game against visiting Kennesaw State on Saturday evening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that’s sayin’ something.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“That was like pulling teeth,” Rardin told WKU Radio’s Greg Davis, the Hilltoppers’ tennis coach, after the Hilltoppers finally closed the door on Kennesaw State, 8-6, in Game Two of the Conference USA series on a seasonably warm day at Nick Denes Field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Western Kentucky overcame FIVE<\/em><\/strong> errors, a ninth-inning wild pitch and several missed opportunities at the plate, extending the Hilltoppers’ modest winning streak to four games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Tops will take it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We had great pitching … we didn’t have enough timely hitting,” Rardin said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Western Kentucky improved to 24-20 overall, and 9-11 in Conference USA play, with intentions of breaking the logjam in the middle of the C-USA standings. The Owls dropped to 18-21 and 7-13, respectively, and WKU will look for its first three-game sweep of a conference opponent since the Hilltoppers took three straight, on the road, from Florida International in mid-March.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It’s Sunday, now, and we’re only gonna hunt, as long as we’re hungry,” Rardin said. “That’s the way I look at it …”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Game Three of the series is set for Sunday at 1 p.m. Both Rardin and Kennesaw coach Ryan Coe said they’d look at their options, on a starting pitcher, heading into the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“That’s what we’ll be talking about, 30 minutes from now,” Rardin said with a smile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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WKU’s GAVIN PERRY WORKED SIX INNINGS,
CLAIMING HIS FIFTH VICTORY AGAINST ONE DEFEAT.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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THE HILLTOPPERS BROKE A 4-ALL TIE
WITH TWO RUNS IN THE SIXTH INNING.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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WKU’s AUSTIN HALLER MAKES
A LEAPING GRAB FOR THE SECOND OUT
IN THE TOP OF THE FOURTH INNING<\/strong> …<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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… BUT DEFENSIVELY, IT WAS ANYTHING BUT
SMOOTH FOR WKU CATCHER CAMDEN ROSS
AND HIS HILLTOPPERS TEAMMATES<\/strong> …<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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WKU COACH MARC RARDIN:
‘THAT WAS LIKE PULLING TEETH …’<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Senior right-hander Gavin Perry gave the Hilltoppers six solid innings, allowing seven hits and four runs — only two of them earned — while recording six strikeouts without a walk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dawson Hall, the former standout at Bowling Green High School, took over at the start of the seventh and denied the Owls a scoring opportunity in his first inning on the mound. In the top of the eighth, however, Hall surrendered a towering solo home run, a blast to left-center field, off the bat of Kennesaw’s Jackson Chirello.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That trimmed the WKU lead to a 7-5, but the Hilltoppers would respond with a single run of their own in the bottom of the eighth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Senior outfielder Parker Coley slapped a two-out single up the middle before moving into scoring position on a stolen base. WKU’s Cael Frost delivered an RBI single, a line drive to the opposite field, to bring Coley across the plate and push the Hilltoppers’ lead back to three runs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We got a couple stolen bases with two outs that allowed us to do some things, on offense,” Rardin said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hall took the mound, for the top of the ninth, before the Owls’ Trenton Lyons drew a leadoff walk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rardin immediately emerged from the WKU dugout to bring senior left-hander Zach Lyles out of the bullpen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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KENNESAW’s JACKSON CHIRELLO
CUT THE OWLS’ DEFICIT TO 7-5 WITH
A SOLO HOME RUN IN THE EIGHTH.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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THE WKU DUGOUT EMPTIES TO GREET
HILLTOPPERS RELIEVER DAWSON HALL
AS ZACH LYLES TROTS IN FROM THE BULLPEN …<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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WKU RIGHT-HANDER DAWSON HALL.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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WKU LEFTY ZACH LYLES STRIKES OUT
KENNESAW OUTIELDER WESLEY ALIG
TO NAIL DOWN THE VICTORY.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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WKU CATCHER CAMDEN ROSS
CONGRATULATES ZACH LYLES AFTER
THE TOPS’ FOURTH STRAIGHT VICTORY.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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“Dawson Hall did a great job,” Rardin said. “Then, Lyles, all he does is go out there and pump strikes …”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fourth-year WKU coach, who last year guided the Hilltoppers to their first NCAA Tournament appearance in 19 years, was equally effusive about Gavin Perry, his starting pitcher, a sturdy 6-foot-5, 265-pound senior from Oceanside, California.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With a qualifier, of course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Gavin Perry could have gone out for the seventh, but he’d already thrown 93 pitches,” Rardin said. “And he had watched us leave AN ARMY<\/em><\/strong> of guys on the base paths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We finished with FOURTEEN<\/em><\/strong> hits …”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Hilltoppers closed the game with 12 men left on base, half of them in scoring position.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, when it all came out in the wash, the Tops showed plenty of grit, even after they stumbled defensively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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THE TOPS IMPROVED TO 24-20 OVERALL
AND 9-11 IN CONFERENCE USA.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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WKU’s MARC RARDIN HAS
COMPILED A 134-78 RECORD
IN FOUR YEARS ON THE HILL.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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WKU’s ZACH LYLES EARNED
HIS FOURTH SAVE OF THE SEASON.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Junior WKU outfielder\/first baseman Lane Arroyos led the Hilltoppers with three hits, including a leadoff double off the center-field wall in the bottom of the third. Like Friday night’s opening game, WKU’s hard-fought victory that took nearly four hours to complete, the Hilltoppers scored in each of the first three innings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Senior catcher Camden Ross, and the aforementioned Cael Frost and Parker Coley, all had two hits for the Hilltoppers. Frost delivered a pinch-hit RBI single in the sixth before his line-drive single brought Coley across the plate for the insurance run in the eighth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Hilltoppers still have Conference USA series remaining against MTSU, Dallas Baptist and last-place Delaware, before the C-USA Tournament unfolds on May 20 at Kennesaw State’s Mickey Dunn Stadium\/Henssler Financial Field, along with one remaining non-conference game against Eastern Kentucky University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I still don’t know,” Rardin said as he walked off the field, “who’s going to start tomorrow …”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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WKU’s AUSTIN HALLER ROBS
THE OWLS’ CHRIS COLE OF
AN INFIELD HIT IN THE EIGHTH<\/strong> …<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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WKU’s MARC RARDIN HAS MADE
GOOD USE OF HIS BULLPEN IN
THE FIRST TWO GAMES OF THE SERIES …<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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‘MORE<\/em> BASEBALL, TODAY, DADDY? I’LL
TAKE HER TO THE DOG PARK WHEN IT’s OVER.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FORMER BGHS STANDOUT DAWSON HALL, SENIOR LEFT-HANDER ZACH LYLES COMPLETE THE TASK AT HAND Fourth-year Western Kentucky head baseball coach […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21013,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,19,1,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hsbaseball","category-nationalsports","category-potpourri","category-wkusports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimmashek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimmashek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimmashek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimmashek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimmashek.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21010"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/jimmashek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21010\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21032,"href":"https:\/\/jimmashek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21010\/revisions\/21032"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimmashek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimmashek.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimmashek.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimmashek.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}