March 11, 2003
Louisville, Ky. - The Western Kentucky baseball team's first trip away from Nick Denes Field in nearly a month did not go well Tuesday afternoon as the Hilltoppers fell behind 8-1 after two innings and never recovered against intra-state foe Louisville losing 18-1 at Cardinal Stadium. It was WKU's worst loss since falling 21-2 to Louisiana Tech in 2000.
The Cardinals got their early runs off of Igor Roiberg (Jr., Toronto, Canada) who was making his first start of the 2003 season. Roiberg gave up five earned runs in the first and three unearned runs in the second.
In the first, Curt Stewart powered the Louisville outburst with a three-run home run that just made it over the short fence in right that measures 302 feet. After giving up two runs in the bottom of the fourth, Louisville would add four runs off Joe Shortt (Jr., South Hempstead, N.Y.) in the seventh and four off Travis Sewell (So., Utica, Ky.) in the eighth.
Western's one run came in the top of the first when David Lower (Sr., Anderson, Ind.) walked and moved to second on a grounder by Matt Gunning (Jr., Victoria, B.C). Lower scored from second on a single by Antone Towns (So., Louisville, Fla.).
Other bright spots included a single by Matt Johnston (So., Clarkson, Ky.) to extend his hitting streak to 11 games and Travis Brown (Sr., Kankakee, Ill.) drawing a walk to reach safely for the 11th straight. Rafael Vallejo (So., The Bronx, N.Y.) finished the game 2-for-3.
Western returns to action on Wednesday when it hosts Belmont at 3 p.m.
