BOWLING GREEN, Ky. — Steven Kraft continued his hitting tear, but WKU Baseball dropped a 6-3 decision to visiting FIU on Saturday afternoon. The senior second baseman went 2-for-3 with a walk, two runs scored and an RBI, increasing his Conference USA-leading batting average to .385.
Jacob Rhinesmith went 2-for-4 for his team-leading 21st multi-hit game of the season and added his 13th stolen base. Nick Brunson was on base in all three plate appearances, racking up a pair of walks and his seventh extra-base hit of the season.
After starter Troy Newell blanked the Panthers in the top of the first, the Hilltoppers racked up three base hits off FIU starter Tyler Myrick and a run when Colie Currie lifted a sacrifice fly that scored Kraft.
The Panthers tied it up at 1-1 in the second frame, getting their own sacrifice fly while drawing three walks off Newell. With runners on first and second and one out, righty Colby Taylor came in for relief and induced an inning-ending, 6-4-3 double play to keep the score knotted.
Myrick was lifted after one inning of work due to an apparent injury, and righty reliever Danny Brown posted zeroes over the second, third and fourth frames. In the meantime, FIU scored four runs, all courtesy of Eddie Silva.
The freshman second baseman knocked in a run with a two-out single in the third, then hit his second three-run homerun of the series in the top of the fifth to push the lead to 5-1 in favor of the Panthers.
Kraft ripped his team-leading 12th double down the left-field line in the bottom of the sixth, scoring Brunson all the way from first base. Then Currie scored Kraft again in the eighth, this time on a ground out to shortstop, to trim the deficit to 5-3.
The relief combination of Maddex Richardson, Austin Tibbs, Michael Darrell-Hicks and Conner Boyd kept the FIU bats silent in innings six, seven and eight. But the Panthers did tally a run in the ninth with a pair of hits off righties Michael Martin and Jacob Green, to make the final score 6-3.
Topper Quotes
- "FIU's a hot-hitting team and swinging the bats very well, and we did everything we could to keep the game close. I thought we did keep it close, just unfortunately were unable to get it done today." — Head coach John Pawlowski
- "Our defense has been very consistent this year, we've gotta pitch better than we have recently and we have to find a way to score runs. For us to do what we want to do, we have to have all those facets going well. We need to come out and have a good ballgame tomorrow." — Head coach John Pawlowski
Up Next
First pitch of the series finale will be on Sunday at 1 p.m. It is Senior Day for 10 Hilltoppers, who will be honored prior to Game 3 beginning at 12:25 p.m.
