May 18, 2003
New Orleans, La. - The Western Kentucky University baseball closed the regular season with a 6-5 win over New Orleans at Maestri Field Sunday afternoon.
With the win, the Hilltoppers finished the regular season with a 31-21 record and a 12-11 mark in the Sun Belt Conference. Combined with Florida International's 6-4 loss to Arkansas State, the Hilltoppers finish the regular season in fourth place. New Orleans finished ninth in the conference with a 7-17 mark and were 23-32 overall.
Western is scheduled to open the Sun Belt Conference Tournament on Wednesday at 3:30 p.m. versus Florida International. This year's tournament is being held in Lafayette, La.
Kenny Hughes (Sr., Indianapolis, Ky.) pitched five innings to get his third win of the season. Matt Wilhite (Sr., Franklin, Ky.) tossed the final 2-2/3 innings to get his 11th save of the season. It was his 34th appearance this season breaking the mark he set as a junior. He has appeared in 106 games in his career.
Trailing 4-1, Western Kentucky rallied to tie the game with three runs in the fifth and took the lead with single runs in the sixth and seventh. Four of the runs were off Chris Bourgeois,who fell to 3-8. Travis Brown (Sr., Kankakee, Ill.) led off the fifth with a triple and scored on a base hit by Dennis Winn (Fr., Bowling Green, Ky.). After a single by David Lower (Sr., Anderson, Ind.), Rafael Vallejo (So., The Bronx, N.Y.) moved both runners up a base with a sacrifice bunt. Winn scored on a sacrifice fly. A single by pinch hitter Matt Ransdell (Fr., Bowling Green, Ky.) brought in Lower tying the game at four.
WKU took its first lead of the game with a run in the sixth. Tim Grogan (Fr., Villa Hills, Ky.) led off the inning with a double and scored on single by Kevin Bearden (Sr., Tallahassee, Fla.) off Josh Euper.
Vallejo pushed Western's lead to two runs when he led off the seventh with a single and scored on a two-out hit by Antone Towns (So., Louisville, Ky.) to left.
The Privateers cut their deficit to one run when Mike Forbes led the seventh off with a home run off Igor Roiberg (Jr., Toronto, Ontario). Roiberg, who allowed two hits in 1-1/3 innings left later in the inning when he took a grounder off his lower leg.
New Orleans scored three runs in the bottom of the first with two outs off Hughes. Chris Adams lined a doubled in the left-center field gap scoring Mike Forbes and Brad Domreis. Adams tallied the third run when he scored on a bloop single to center Mike Sanchez.
The Hilltoppers got one of the runs back in the top of third. With one out, Lower roped a triple to left-center field. Lower scored on a ground out by Vallejo to make it a 3-1 contest.
After having a runner thrown out at the plate trying to score on a wild pitch in the third, Joe Pietro hit a single scoring Mike Sanchez with two outs in the fourth to push the Privateers advantage back to three.
