WKU Set to Face Southeastern Conference foes Tennessee, Mississippi State

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. — WKU faces its first two Southeastern Conference opponents of 2010 this week, when it plays host to Tennessee at 3:00 PM on Tuesday and travels to Mississippi State for a 4:00 PM contest on Wednesday. The Hilltoppers took two of three games against Illinois-Chicago this past weekend and enters the game against Tennessee with an 8-3 record. WKU has split four all-time meetings against Tennessee and will be meeting Mississippi State for just the second time on Wednesday.

WKU won the first two games of the series with the Flames, earning a 14-4 victory on Friday and an 11-5 win on Saturday. The Hilltoppers could not wrap up the sweep on Sunday, however, and dropped the series finale, 7-5.

On the weekend, Matt Payton extended his hitting streak to a career-long nine games and hit .500 for the series after going 7-for-14 at the plate. He also added four runs, two home runs and six RBI. Logan Robbins scored five runs to lead the team, and Ryan Huck's five RBI against the Flames were one behind Payton for the most on the team.

With the series win, the Hilltoppers have now won 14-straight home weekend series and 32 of their last 37 games at Nick Denes Field.

Complete game notes are available in .pdf form at the link at the bottom of the page.

Game 12:
Tuesday, March 9 // 3:00 PM (CT)
WKU (8-3) vs. Tennessee (6-5)
Bowling Green, Ky. // Nick Denes Field (1,500)

Pitching Probables:
WKU: Taylor Haydel (Freshman RHP; 0-0, 8.68 ERA)
Tennessee: TBA

Game 13:
Wednesday, March 10 // 4:00 PM (CT)
WKU (8-3) at Mississippi State (8-3)
Starkville, Miss. // Dudy Noble Field (15,000)

Pitching Probables:
WKU: Brian Edelen (RS-Junior RHP; 1-0, 0.00 ERA)
Mississippi State: TBA

• LEADING OFF: WKU plays the first of two-straight Southeastern Conference foes Tuesday afternoon, when it hosts Tennessee at 3:00. The Hilltoppers and the Volunteers have split four all-time meetings with Tennessee winning the last two games, including a 14-8 triumph in Knoxville on March 10, 2009. WKU was 1-3 against the SEC in the regular season in 2009.

• LOOKING BACK: The Hilltoppers could not finish off the weekend sweep of Illinois-Chicago, dropping game three of the series, 7-5, Sunday afternoon at Nick Denes Field. The Flames went ahead 7-0 in the game, and a late WKU rally came up short.

• SCOUTING THE VOLUNTEERS: Tennessee enters Tuesday’s game with a 6-5 record in 2010, one year removed from going 26-29 and finishing sixth in the SEC East Division with an 11-19 mark. The Volunteers return six position player starters and 13 pitchers from the 2009 team.

• NOSE TO THE GRINDSTONE: Tuesday’s game against Tennessee marks the sixth game and eighth day in a stretch of 15 games in 20 days.

• PACKING THEIR BAGS: After Tuesday’s game against Tennessee, WKU hits the road to play nine of its next 10 games away from Nick Denes Field. The Hilltoppers head to Mississippi State on Wednesday and then New Orleans Friday-Sunday, before playing at Vanderbilt on March 16. The Commodores play at WKU a day later, and then the Hilltoppers travel to VCU for three games and Murray State for a midweek contest before returning to Nick Denes Field for their first home Sun Belt Conference series of the year against ULM.

• USING THE LONG-BALL: WKU has hit 12 home runs in a span of five-and-a-half games, dating back to the fifth inning of the February 28 game at Baylor. The 12 home runs were the first 12 of the season for the Hilltoppers, who needed nearly six games to hit the year’s first home run. WKU hit seven in the three-game series against Illinois-Chicago alone and has homered in six-straight games.

• BULLPEN DOMINANCE: The WKU bullpen has only allowed one run in the seventh inning or later all season, good for a 0.28 ERA and a .148 opponent batting average in that time.

• PAYTON PICKING IT UP: Matt Payton has strung together a career-long nine-game hitting streak, dating back to the third game of the 2010 season. He has also scored a run in nine of WKU’s 11 games on the season and has three three-hit games. He is hitting .417 during the streak.

• HILLTOPPER IRONMAN: Senior infielder Jake Wells has started 132 straight games, dating back to the first game of the 2008 season against Bowling Green State.

• HOME SWEET HOME: With two wins against Illinois-Chicago this past weekend, WKU has now won its last 14 weekend series at Nick Denes Field. Also, the Hilltoppers have won 32 of their last 37 home games, dating back to 2009.

• RIDINGS NATION’S LEADER: Entering the 2010 season, WKU pitcher Matt Ridings was the nation’s current active leader in both victories (25) and strikeouts (271). Fellow pitcher Bart Carter was tied for 10th in wins (18) among active hurlers to start the season.

• RIDINGS RIGHT AT THE TOP: WKU senior pitcher Matt Ridings is poised to etch his name at the top of the WKU record books in his final season on the Hill in 2010. He enters the season within striking distance of five Hilltopper pitching records, including wins and innings pitched. He became the school’s all-time career strikeout record-holder with his first punch-out of the season against Kent State on February 19, and he is three victories away from the all-time record in wins. He can also become WKU’s all-time pitching leader in games started, innings pitched and decisions.

• RIDINGS SUN BELT CONFERENCE PITCHER OF THE WEEK: Senior pitcher Matt Ridings has been named the Sun Belt Conference Pitcher of the Week for the week of February 22. He worked six innings against #29 Texas A&M on February 26, allowing just six hits and one run. It is his fourth career conference pitcher of the week award.

• CRACKING THE POLLS: After going 3-0 in the QTI Baylor Classic in Waco, Texas, February 26-28 and starting the season 5-1, WKU found itself ranked 23rd in the Collegiate Baseball Top 30 poll. It is the same publication that positioned the Hilltoppers 23rd in the country at the end of the 2009 season. This ranking is WKU’s first since that final poll of 2009. WKU fell out of the rankings after going 3-2 the following week.

• QTI BAYLOR CLASSIC CHAMPIONS: The Hilltoppers completed a successful weekend in Waco, Texas, at the QTI Baylor Classic by winning three games and earning the tournament championship. WKU defeated 29th-ranked Texas A&M, 5-1, beat Texas State, 4-3, and knocked off Baylor, 6-2, to move its winning streak to five. Hilltopper pitching allowed just six runs, five earned, in the series, holding opponents to a .216 batting average and compiling a 1.67 ERA.

• THREE NAMED ALL-TOURNAMENT: For their efforts in the QTI Baylor Classic February 26-28, Matt Ridings, Rye Davis and Kes Carter were named to the all-tournament team. Carter led the team with a .364 batting average and a .500 on-base percentage in the three games, Ridings pitched WKU past 29th-ranked Texas A&M in the weekend’s first game and Davis finished each of the three games on the weekend and did not surrender a run. In addition, Ridings was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Pitcher.

• A LONG-BALL AT LAST: When Kes Carter and Matt Rice went back-to-back with home runs to lead off the fifth inning of Sunday’s game at Baylor, they provided the first home runs for WKU in 2010. The Hilltoppers had gone 193 at-bats and nearly six games without a home run to start the season. They needed just 30 at-bats before Matt Payton hit the team’s first home run in 2009.

• NOT SHOWING THEIR AGE: Freshmen Tanner Perkins and Taylor Haydel combined on a four-hit shutout of Kent State on February 20, one day after the Golden Flashes offense banged out 16 hits and scored 13 runs. Perkins threw six innings and struck out six, and Haydel earned the three-inning save without allowing a hit. Neither hurler allowed a walk. The duo pitched WKU to its first shutout victory since April 19, 2009.

• BOUNCING BACK: After allowing 13 runs on 16 hits in the series opener against Kent State on Friday, the WKU pitching staff responded by holding the Golden Flashes to just three runs and 12 hits in the final two games of the series. In addition, WKU hurlers limited Kent State to only four hits after the sixth inning all weekend.

• GETTING THE JOB DONE: Of the 36 WKU hits in the first three games of the 2010 season, just five of them were of the extra-base variety, meaning that WKU took advantage of 29 singles. In fact, after a Kes Carter double in the fourth inning of the season opener, there was a stretch of 27 consecutive hits being singles for the Hilltoppers, extending to the eighth inning of the opening series finale on February 21.

• RETURN OF RYE DAVIS: Rye Davis pitched two scoreless innings over two outings opening weekend against Kent State, marking his first appearances since May 31, 2008. Davis is returning from a career-threatening eye injury that cost him the entire 2009 season.

• RIDINGS SETS STRIKEOUT RECORD: With his first strikeout against Kent State in the season opener on February 19, the 265th of his career, Matt Ridings became the school’s all-time leader in career strikeouts.

• MR. ALL-AMERICAN: Junior catcher Matt Rice was named a first-team preseason All-American by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA). It is the third straight season that WKU has had an NCBWA Preseason All-American, as Chad Cregar was voted to the first team in 2009 and the second team in 2008.

• PAYTON NAMED CANDIDATE FOR LOWE’S SENIOR CLASS AWARD: Matt Payton has been named one of 30 candidates for the 2010 Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award, which is given annually to one senior student-athlete who has notable achievements in four areas of excellence. The list of candidates will be trimmed to 10 finalists midway through the regular season, and voting will be opened to the public to determine the winner.

• FOUR VOTED TO PRESEASON TEAM: Senior pitchers Matt Ridings and Bart Carter, junior catcher Matt Rice and senior second baseman Matt Payton were named Preseason All-Sun Belt Conference. The four selections from WKU were the most by a single school in 2010.

• PRESEASON RESPECT: In the 2010 Preseason Coaches Poll, league coaches predicted WKU to finish second in the conference in 2010. The Hilltoppers checked in 11 points behind first-place Middle Tennessee, and received two first-place votes, compared to the Blue Raiders’ eight.

• CHALLENGES THROUGHOUT: The 2010 WKU baseball schedule is loaded with quality opponents from top to bottom. The first three weekend series feature games against teams that either went to the NCAA Tournament or won their conference in 2009, and games against Southeastern Conference foes Tennessee, Mississippi State, Vanderbilt and Kentucky highlight the midweek schedule. In all, WKU is scheduled to play 13 games against NCAA Tournament teams from last season in 2010.

• CONFERENCE POWER: With Middle Tennessee and WKU earning bids to the NCAA Tournament in 2009, the Sun Belt Conference has now seen multiple teams placed in the field of 64 for 21 straight seasons.

• RIVALS LOVES FINWOOD: WKU head coach Chris Finwood found himself in elite company during the offseason, as national collegiate baseball writer Kendall Rogers of rivals.com listed him as one of the nation’s rising coaches and one of the nation’s hottest coaches in two articles in December 2009. Rogers says that “Finwood is one of the few mid-major coaches to watch in the near future,” and that he is “[q]uietly one of the hottest coaches in America.”

• BULLARD BACK TO BASEBALL: Junior Chris Bullard, a linebacker on the WKU football team, will be playing baseball at WKU for the first time in 2010. A 45th-round draft choice by the Los Angeles Angels out of high school in 2007, the Cataula, Ga., native will contend for time in the outfield and at designated hitter.

• TURN ON THE TUBE: WKU’s game at Troy on May 1 and the May 22 showdown at home against Middle Tennessee will be broadcast live on the Sun Belt Network. Game times are 3:00 PM (CT) and 6:00 PM (CT), respectively.

• WKU ACADEMIC SUCCESS: In the first semester of the 2009-10 academic year at Western Kentucky University, 25 of 35 WKU baseball players on the fall roster recorded a GPA of 3.0 or higher - an outstanding 71 percent of the squad. In all, 213 student-athletes at WKU are maintaining a GPA of 3.0 or higher, which represents 52 percent of WKU’s 412 student-athletes. Nine of WKU’s 19 programs have a cumulative team GPA of 3.0 or higher, and the average GPA for all student-athletes is 2.93.

• A SEASON TO REMEMBER: The 2009 WKU baseball season will go down as one of the finest seasons in school history. The Hilltoppers won the Sun Belt Conference championship, its first since joining the league in 1983, en route to a 40-win season and a second-straight trip to the NCAA Tournament. WKU made waves in the NCAA Oxford Regional, defeating Missouri twice and number-eight Mississippi once before being eliminated in a winner-take-all regional final by the host Rebels. Head coach Chris Finwood’s fourth Hilltopper squad finished the season with a 42-20 record, the team’s first 40-win season since 1988.

• NATIONAL RECOGNITION: WKU found themselves ranked 23rd in the final Collegiate Baseball Top 30 poll, its first national ranking since 2001.

• SUN BELT CONFERENCE HARDWARE: In addition to the Sun Belt Conference championship trophy, a pair of Hilltoppers picked up individual conference accolades in 2009. Head coach Chris Finwood was named the Sun Belt Conference Coach of the Year, and senior Matt Hightower was named Sun Belt Conference Pitcher of the Year.

• TAKING NOTICE: WKU third baseman Wade Gaynor completed a remarkable 2009 season, and people on the national stage took notice. Gaynor was named an All-American by both the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) and Baseball America.

• TOURNAMENT TIME: A quartet of Hilltoppers excelled in both the Sun Belt Conference Tournament and the NCAA Tournament in 2009, picking up all-tournament honors. Outfielder Chad Cregar, third baseman Wade Gaynor and catcher Matt Rice were all named to the All-NCAA Tournament Team, and pitcher Bart Carter picked up All-Sun Belt Conference Tournament recognition.

• GOING STREAKING: Junior catcher Matt Rice put together a school-record 31-game hitting streak last season from March 1-April 17. He hit .425 (57-for-134) during the streak.

• DEFENSIVE PROWESS: Chris Finwood-coached squads pride themselves on defense, and 2009 was no exception. The Hilltoppers finished the season with a .979 fielding percentage, tops in the Sun Belt Conference and third-best in the nation.

• CONSISTENT HITTING: WKU recorded a .330 team batting average in 2009, good for second in the conference and 23rd nationally.

• CHICKS DIG THE LONG BALL: The Hilltoppers blasted 88 home runs in 2009, an average of 1.4 per game.

• DEFENDING THE HOME FIELD: WKU was an outstanding 27-3 at home in 2009. The 27 home wins are tied for the most in a single season in Nick Denes Field history, and the .900 winning percentage is tops all-time in the history of the Nick.

• THE 1,500 MARK: With two wins against Albany on March 1, 2009, WKU surpassed the 1,500-win plateau in 90 seasons of baseball.

• FINNY WINS 100TH GAME: In 2009, WKU head coach Chris Finwood became just the fourth Hilltopper head coach to reach 100 wins since 1923.

• MOVING ON: Six Hilltoppers were selected in the 2009 Major League Baseball First-Year Players Draft, the most in a single draft in Hilltopper baseball history. Wade Gaynor became the highest drafted player in WKU baseball history when he was selected in the third round by the Detroit Tigers. Also hearing their names called were J.B. Paxson (13th round, Los Angeles Dodgers); Chad Cregar (15th round; Florida); Terrence Dayleg (22nd round; Florida); Matt Ridings (25th round; Washington) and Evan Teague (35th round; Toronto).

WKU Set to Face Southeastern Conference foes Tennessee, Mississippi State

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