HOUSTON, Texas — For the second straight weekend, closer Ben Morrison secured a three-inning save to protect a slim lead, as WKU Baseball earned a 5-4 victory at Rice on Saturday afternoon.
Morrison allowed only one hit over the last three frames and tied a career high with six strikeouts, helping the Hilltopper bullpen shut out the Owls after the fourth.
Colie Currie had a career-high three doubles and scored two runs, while Richard Constantine and Tyler Robertson also notched three-hit performances. Robertson hit his fourth homerun of the season to highlight a four-run top of the first inning.
WKU defeated Rice for the first time as Conference USA members. The Hilltoppers had lost 11 consecutive games to the Owls, with the most recent wins being March 9 and 10 in 1990.
Currie got things going with an opposite-field double on the very first pitch of the game from Rice starter Kendal Jefferies, matching WKU's hit total from Friday night's 4-0 loss instantaneously. After Jacob Rhinesmith singled him home, Robertson hit a towering two-run homerun over the left-field fence to give the Hilltoppers a 3-0 lead.
But the long ball was not a rally killer for the visitors, as consecutive singles by Ray Zuberer III, Constantine and Luke Brown brought in a fourth run before the Owls even grabbed the bats.
WKU starter Colby Taylor stranded six Rice baserunners in the first three innings, allowing only one run in the process. Then the Hilltoppers (11-12, 2-3) added their fifth run in the top of the fourth when Steven Kraft singled in Currie, who made something out of nothing with a two-out ground-rule double.
The bullpen mastery began in the bottom of that inning, when Taylor gave up a two-run homerun to Andrew Dunlap and then two more hits brought in another run that cut the WKU lead to 5-4.
With runners on first and second and one out, lefty Evan Acosta came in out of the bullpen to strand both of the Owls (10-15, 1-4) and hold the lead.
The next inning, righty Michael Martin returned the favor to Acosta when Rice had runners on the corners and two out. The graduate transfer from UC Irvine walked Trei Cruz to load the bases, but then got three-hitter Braden Comeaux to pop out to Kraft at second base.
After Martin pitched a scoreless sixth, in came Morrison for what ended up being a three-inning save, protecting a one-run lead the whole time. The Bowling Green native struck out the side - all swinging - in the seventh, pumping his fastball up to 95 MPH.
He allowed a one-out double to Comeaux in the eighth, but then stranded him on a pair of punch outs. It was a clean ninth, with two ground outs to shortstop Kevin Lambert and a swinging strikeout for the 27th out and a 5-4 win for the Hilltoppers.
Topper Notes
- It took Ben Morrison 41 pitches - 30 strikes - to get the final nine outs. On March 18 vs. Middle Tennessee, Morrison earned a four-inning save on 46 pitches - 35 strikes. His six strikeouts tied a career high, previously achieved April 28, 2015, against Austin Peay.
- Colie Currie came into the game with two doubles through 22 games and upped that number to five in his first four at-bats. He was the lone Hilltopper to score twice, his 15th career multi-run game. It was the seventh time in Currie's WKU career that he knocked a career-high three hits.
- Richard Constantine started at designated hitter for the first time since the fifth game of the season. He responded with a three-hit game, which also marked his first multi-hit game on The Hill.
- Luke Brown had a pair of hits, as did Jacob Rhinesmith. The freshman Brown recorded his fifth RBI, while Rhinesmith notched his team-leading 23rd of the year. The JuCo transfer from Indian Hills Community College has put up 12 multi-hit games in the first 23 contests.
- Relievers Evan Acosta and Michael Martin had nearly identical - and equally effective - appearances out of the bullpen. Both faced stranded two inherited runners, faced six hitters, hit one and retired four. Acosta allowed a base hit while Martin issued a walk. Acosta recorded his second straight scoreless performance, while Martin did not allow a hit for the fifth consecutive outing.
Up Next
WKU and Rice will both be gunning for their first C-USA series win of the season, as Hilltopper righty Paul Kirkpatrick is set to go up against Owl righty Addison Moss. First pitch of the rubber match is a 1 p.m. start at Reckling Park, WKU is 3-1 this season when Kirkpatrick starts the game.
The last time the Austin, Texas, native pitched in the Lone Star State, he tosses a complete game April 8, 2017, at UTSA in a 4-3 win against the Roadrunners. It was the first complete game by a Hilltopper since Justin Hageman on March 21, 2014, in a 4-1 win vs. Texas State.
