Game Notes (Austin Peay) | Live Stream | Live Stats
BOWLING GREEN, Ky. — WKU Baseball travels to Clarksville on Tuesday with Austin Peay waiting in the wings for a 6 p.m. first pitch at Raymond C. Hand Park. The Governors represent 1-of-6 home-and-home midweek matchups with schools in Tennessee or in-state opponents in Kentucky.
In another Volunteer State two-game matchup, the Hilltoppers evened up their series with Belmont with a 3-2 home victory March 7 after losing to the Bruins in Nashville by a score of 11-3 in the team's first midweek matchup of the season Feb. 22. WKU will look to do the same to the Governors, who claimed a 7-3 victory at Nick Denes Field on April 19.
In that contest, Bailey Sutton made his first start of 2017 and allowed two runs in three innings on 69 pitches. He ended his outing with a scoreless third frame while striking out the Austin Peay side.
The Governors took a 7-0 lead going into the bottom of the seventh, when the Hilltoppers added a pair on back-to-back doubles by Hunter Wood and Chris Rogers, then an RBI single by Grayson Ivey with two outs. Colie Currie led off the eighth inning with his team-best fifth triple of the year and scored on a Steven Kraft base hit to center field.
Lefty John Sparks started for the Governors and pitched four shutout innings. He was relieved by righty Tyler Thompson, who threw three innings and allowed the first two WKU runs. It will be Thompson who gets the initial nod for Austin Peay in the second meeting, while the Hilltoppers plan to send Michael Hicks to the mound.
The freshman righty will make his third start of the year, but first since March 12 vs. Illinois State. Hick started back-to-back Sunday's against the Redbirds, as well as the previous week vs. Ohio and was handed a pair of tough-luck losses. In those two appearances, he threw 7.1 innings and allowed only four earned runs, but the team was able to put up three total runs of support.
Over the past seven games, shortstop Kevin Lambert is slashing a team-best .429/.455/.524 with a triple and a 1-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio. The freshman is 1-of-2 players (with Currie) to start all 41 games so far this season.
During his team season-high 10-game hit streak that ended during the second game of the Rice doubleheader Saturday night, Hunter Wood slashed .378/.452/.568 with four extra-base hits, five walks and two stolen bases. The senior catcher is a Johnny Bench Award Watch List member.
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