BOWLING GREEN, Ky. — A five-run second inning for Memphis was the difference on Thursday afternoon, as WKU Baseball fell to the visiting Tigers by a score of 9-6. Jack Wilson and Dillon Nelson each went 3-for-4 with one run batted in, recording their first three-hit games of the season.
Following a scoreless first frame, WKU starter Eric Crawford got in some trouble in the top of the second. The righty walked four, allowed two extra-base hits and threw two wild pitches as Memphis took a 4-0 lead. Crawford was replaced by righty Collin Lollar out of the bullpen with runners on the corners, and he proceeded to a wild pitch that scored a fifth Tiger of the inning.
The Hilltoppers got one run with an RBI double by Wilson in the second that scored left fielder Ray Zuberer III, who started the frame with a bunt single. They got even closer in the next frame, pulling to within 5-3 when right fielder Jake Sanford tattooed the scoreboard in right-center field with a two-run homerun that scored infielder Davis Sims.
It was the third-consecutive game with a dinger for the Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, native, who leads the team with 13 runs batted in and 11 scored, as well as a .644 slugging percentage.
The teams alternated runs in the fourth, but run-scoring singles in the fifth and seventh by third baseman Cale Hennemann added three to the Memphis lead that ballooned to 9-4.
Righty Jeff Ciocco provided some zeroes at the end of the game, posting 2.2 scoreless frames as the final reliever out of the bullpen. He threw 21-of-38 pitches for strikes, allowing only one hit and one walk with one strikeout. On the season, the Blue Anchor, N.J., native has thrown 5.1 innings while allowing only five baserunners with one unearned run against.
The Hilltoppers scratched across two runs in the eighth when Nelson doubled in pinch hitter Richard Constantine, who reached base via hit by pitch to start the inning, and a Tigers' error on a batted by ball Wilson scored Nelson from second base.
Constantine has reached base in four consecutive plate appearances as a pinch hitter and sports a tidy .500/.667/.600 slash line in limited action so far in his junior year.
Up Next
WKU and Memphis plan to play Game 2 of the series at the regularly-scheduled time of 3 p.m. on Friday, March 8, but stay tuned in case that changes.
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