The Trojans (42-14) now advance to play New Orleans at 7:30 p.m. (CDT) on Thursday, while the Hilltoppers (22-29) will meet Florida International in an elimination game at 12:30 p.m.
“It was a great ballgame with both starting pitchers throwing excellent games,” said Hilltopper head coach Chris Finwood. “We played well enough to win, but just couldn't execute in a couple key situations, and that hurt us in the end.”
Down to its final out in the ninth, Hilltopper second baseman Matt Ransdell lifted a fly ball to right that was misplayed by Mike Felix. On the play, pinch runner Brandon Embry scored from second to tie the game at 2-2.
WKU lived dangerously in the bottom of the inning as Troy got the winning run to third with only one out. But Topper reliever Adam Balcom recorded a pair of strikeouts to send the game to extra inning.
In the bottom of the 10th, the Trojans again got the leadoff man on base as Ian Craze singled and moved to second on a Tom King groundout. Balcom got Felix to pop up for the second out, but Dew lined a pitch into center to score Craze with the winning run.
All the game’s other scoring came over an inning-and-a-half span early on. The Trojans plated the first run of the game in the second inning when Blake Green scored on a two-out single by Edgar Ramirez. But in the top of the third, Ben Cooper put the Hilltoppers on the board when he hit his first home run of the season over the wall in left-center to knot things up at 1-1.
Troy, however, was able to regain the lead in the bottom of the third. After Craze was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning, King hit a ground ball but the feed to second was mishandled as both runners were safe. Felix then laid down a sacrifice bunt, and Craze scored on a wild pitch to make it 2-1.
Hilltopper starter Liam Shanahan held the Trojans at bay over the next five innings. In all, the junior righty scattered seven hits over 8.0 innings, allowing just one earned run and striking out four. Troy starter Joe Hallahan was equally impressive as he allowed just one run on six hits over the first 6.2 innings. Dew (5-1) also picked up the win on the hill as he allowed WKU just one run on one hit over the final 3.1 frames. Balcom (1-1) suffered the loss.
Offensively, Ransdell and Copper each had two of WKU’s seven hits, while Craze, Jared Keel and Ramirez each had two-hit games to pace Troy.
