Ridings, a 6-foot, 170-pound right-hander from Nashville, Tenn., threw his second complete-game shutout of the year in the Hilltoppers’ 2-0 victory at Middle Tennessee Friday, helping WKU clinch its berth in this week’s league tournament. In addition to holding the Blue Raiders to just four hits, he surrendered only seven baserunners in the contest while retiring the side in order on four occasions. Ridings struck out seven.
With the win, he improved to 7-2 overall — posting the most wins by a Topper hurler in three seasons — with a 4.60 earned run average. Ridings leads the team with 86 innings pitched, 70 strikeouts and three complete games, and opponents are batting .255 against him. He’s 5-1 against league opponents in his first year on the Hill.
Ridings is the first WKU hurler to win multiple pitcher-of-the-week accolades since 2003, when Matt Wilhite was honored twice.
The Hilltoppers (25-28 overall, 15-15 Sun Belt), the seventh seed at the conference tournament which begins Wednesday morning in Mobile, Ala., will take on No. 2 seed New Orleans (33-23, 16-14 SBC) in the opening round. First pitch is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. (CDT) at Stanky Field.
