April 13, 2002
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - The Western Kentucky baseball team extended its season-long winning streak to 10 games Saturday, handing Middle Tennessee a 10-4 setback at Reese Smith Field. With the victory, the Hilltoppers (25-8, 8-2 Sun Belt) claim their third-straight series win, while the Blue Raiders (20-15, 2-6) suffer their second loss in-a-row.
WKU jumped out to an early lead in the top of the first when David Lower (Jr., Alexandria, Ind.) led-off the game with a walk, and Tanner Townsend (Sr, London, Ky.) followed with a double to left, scoring Lower to put the Toppers ahead, 1-0. Two batters later, Townsend crossed home plate after Antone Towns (Fr., Louisville, Ky.) ripped a single to left, and Jeff Pacholke (Sr., Prairie DuSac, Wis.) reached first on a catcher's interference. Nick Turner (Sr., Louisville, Ky.) stepped up and plated Towns with a groundout to third, and Trevor Keesling (Jr., Pendleton, Ind.) followed with and RBI single up the middle, scoring Pacholke to give Western a 4-0 advantage.
The Hilltoppers added another in the top of the second when Townsend recorded his second hit in as many at-bats, this time a single up the middle, and Ryan Cattell (Sr., Minnetonka, Minn.) smashed a double to deep center field, plating Townsend to make it a 5-0 contest.
After a scoreless third, the Blue Raiders cut the lead to four in the fourth when Josh Archer belted a solo home run to left off Hilltopper starter J.C. Faircloth (Fr., Jacksonville, Fla.) to make it a 5-1 game.
In the top of the fifth, MTSU made it a 5-3 contest when Troy Harp hit a lead-off single, and Chad Cooper walked to put two on with no outs. Nathan Jaggers stepped up and scored Harp with a groundout, 4-6-3 double play, and Cooper crossed home plate on a wild pitch from WKU reliever Andy Baldwin (So., Campbellsville, Ky.) to cut the lead to two.
WKU answered the challenge in the top of the sixth, plating three runs highlighted by consecutive, run-scoring hits by Lower, Townsend and Cattell to increase the Topper lead to 8-3.
MTSU made it an 8-4 contest in their half of the sixth when Baldwin walked Cooper with the bases loaded, plating Archer to cut the lead to four.
The Hilltoppers added two more in the top of the seventh, thanks to Townsend's fourth hit of the day, a two-RBI single to center to make it a 10-4 contest.
Faircloth tossed 4 1/3 innings in the start, giving up three runs on four hits with three strikeouts, while Baldwin earned the win, allowing one run on three hits to win his third-straight and improve to 5-3 on the year.
MTSU used three pitchers to give up a combined 15 hits, with Adam Larson earning the loss to drop to 3-3 on the season.
The series concludes Sunday, with first pitch set for 1 p.m. (CDT) at Reese Smith Field.
