April 30, 2002
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The Western Kentucky University baseball team stranded a season-high 13 runners on base, and Louisville used a five-run third inning to help even the season series with an 11-3 victory Tuesday at Cardinal Stadium. The Hilltoppers fall to 31-11 on the season, while the Cardinals improve to 28-12.
Western grabbed the early lead in the top of the second when Nick Turner (Sr., Louisville, Ky.) drew a lead-off walk and advanced to third after a stolen base and a wild pitch by Cardinal starter Clif Novak . Jeff Pacholke (Sr., Prairie DuSac, Wis.) stepped up and hit a sacrifice fly to left, plating Turner to make it a 1-0 game.
In the bottom of the second, the Cardinals answered when Ken Tirpack scored Curt Stewart with a double to left, and Carl Williams Jr. plated two runs with a double down the left field line to put Louisville ahead, 3-1.
In their next at-bat, the Hilltoppers cut the lead to one when Pacholke collected his second RBI of the day, scoring Ryan Cattell (Sr., Minnetonka, Minn.) with a single to left-center to make it a 3-2 contest.
Louisville responded in the bottom of the third, plating five runs on five hits, highlighted by a solo home run by Mark Jurich to lead off the inning, and a three-run shot by Tirpack to increase the Cardinal lead to six, 8-2.
After three scoreless innings, WKU cut the lead to five when Tanner Townsend (Sr., London, Ky.) ripped a lead-off single up the middle. Three batters later, Ransdell collected his season-high third hit of the game, an RBI single that scored Townsend to make it an 8-3 contest.
In the bottom of the seventh, the Cardinals extended their lead to eight, plating three runs on four hits and taking advantage of three Hilltopper miscues (one error, two wild pitches) to make it an 11-3 game heading into the final two innings.
Grady Hinchman (Fr., Pendleton, Ind.) made his fourth start of the season, allowing two runs on one hit with two strikeouts to fall to 0-1 on the season. Brandon Miller (Sr., Muncie, Ind.) struckout four batters in 4.2 innings of relief.
Louisville used four pitchers to give up a combined 11 hits, with Josh Ring earning the victory to improve to 5-3 on the season.
WKU returns to action Friday at 6:30 p.m. (CDT) at Louisiana-Lafayette in the first game of a vital Sun Belt Conference series. Just a half-game separates the Hilltoppers (11-3 Sun Belt) and Ragin' Cajuns (12-3 Sun Belt) in the league standings.
