BOWLING GREEN, Ky. - After over a month of preseason work, WKU Baseball will culminate its fall preparation for the upcoming 2015 season with the annual Fall World Series at Nick Denes Field.
The Hilltoppers will take part in a five-game intrasquad series over the next two weekends, with the first three contests running Thursday-Saturday (Oct. 16-18) and the final two games being played next Thursday and Friday (Oct. 23-24).
Thursday and Friday's first pitch times for both weeks is set for 4:30 p.m. (CT) while Saturday's contest is set for noon. The Fall World Series is free and open to the public all five days.
The series will be fans' first opportunity to get a glimpse of the 2015 Hilltoppers, a team that returns six of their top nine hitters from a 2014 squad that ranked among the nation's regular-season offensive leaders in hits (18th - 560), doubles ( 7th - 116) and slugging percentage (26th - .416). Overall, the Hilltopper offense returns 67.2 percent of its hits from last season (386), 65.5 percent of its runs (198), 66.4 percent of its RBI (184) and 63.5 percent of extra-base hits (103).
WKU volunteer assistant coach Casey Dykes (Red) and graduate assistant coach Devin Kelly (Black) drafted their teams on Tuesday afternoon.
RED TEAM (Dykes): Kevin Elder, Sam Higgs, Ryan Messex, John Harman, Thomas Peter, Grant Malott, Jackson Sowell, Trevor Lowe, Paul Murray, Anderson Miller, Connor McHugh, Ben Morrison, Wyatt Terrell, Cody Wofford, Hunter Wood, Austin King.
BLACK TEAM (Kelly): Ryan Church, Brandon Allen, Josh Bartley, Leiff Clarkson, Cody Coll, Kaleb Duckworth, Philip Diedrick, Tate Glasscock, Danny Hudzina, Zach Janes, Ty Hogan, Steven Kraft, Harrison Scanlon, Ethan Simmons, Jacob Smiley, Andrew Stepp, Ryan Thurston, Brennan Pearson, Logan Weins.
Thursday's pitching matchup will feature a pair of sophomores coming off solid rookie seasons on the Hill in LHP Ryan Thurston (Black) and RHP Sam Higgs (Red). On Friday, the black team will throw junior RHP Josh Bartley against red's LHP John Harman, a matchup that features two potential weekend starters for WKU come spring. Senior right-hander Brandon Allen will take the mound for the black team on Saturday to face red's southpaw Austin King.
Pitchers for Game 4 and Game 5 will be released next week.
To keep up with the Fall World Series and for more information on WKU Baseball, follow the team on Twitter at @WKUBaseball.
