April 2, 2002
BOWLING GREEN, Ky. - Nick Turner (Sr., Louisville, Ky.) went 4-for-5 with five RBI, while three other Hilltoppers tallied at least two hits as the Western Kentucky baseball team exploded for a 14-2 win over Austin Peay Tuesday at Nick Denes Field. The Hilltoppers (18-8, 3-2 Sun Belt) improve to 15-3 at home with the victory, while the Governors drop to 14-12 overall.
The Hilltoppers began the evening the same way they did in their two contests at Arkansas State, taking an early lead in the first inning. David Lower (Jr., Alexandria, Ind.) ripped a lead-off double to left-center and Tanner Townsend (Sr., London, Ky.) followed with a single through the right side of the Governor defense. Ryan Cattell (Sr., Minnetonka, Minn.) stepped up and hit an RBI-single, plating Lower to put WKU up 1-0. Two batters later, Trevor Keesling (Jr., Pendleton, Ind.) walked with the bases loaded and Ryan Arnett (Fr., Palestine, Ind.) followed with a sacrifice fly to center to score two more runs for the Toppers, making it a 3-0 advantage after one.
In the top of the second, APSU answered when 3B Jared Walker scored 2B Travis Beech with the squeeze play to cut the lead to 3-1.
WKU added another in the bottom of the third when Cattell took a pitch from Governor starter Stephen Pew and smashed a towering shot over the 400-foot sign in dead center field, his fourth of the year, and two more in the fourth courtesy of a Townsend two-RBI single to put Western ahead, 6-1.
After APSU tallied a single run in the top of the fifth to cut the lead to four, Turner tacked on two more for the Toppers in the bottom of the sixth, launching his third homer of the season over the left field wall to make it an 8-2 contest.
In the bottom of the seventh with two outs, the Hilltoppers blew the game wide open, scoring six runs on just one hit. The inning began with consecutive strikeouts by Governor reliever Justin Scott, but he fell apart after that, allowing two runs on five straight walks, and three more when Turner cleared the bases with his second home run of the game, a three-run shot that gave WKU a 14-2 advantage.
Brandon Miller (Sr., Muncie, Ind.) earned his first win of the season, giving up two runs (one earned) on five hits while striking out seven to improve to 1-2 on the year. Adam Prida (So., Tampa, Fla.) and Igor Roiberg (So., Toronto, Canada) each provided one inning of scoreless relief.
APSU used five pitchers to give up a combined 11 hits, with Pew earning the loss to fall to 3-3 on the season.
The Hilltoppers return to action Wednesday as they host Vanderbilt in a 6 p.m. (CST) start at Nick Denes Field.
