Hilltoppers Down Austin Peay in Midweek Matchup

Tuesday, February 25

Bowling Green, Ky

3:00 PM CT

Western Kentucky University

6-2

Austin Peay

3-5

Austin Peay

WKU

2/25/2020 8:54:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score Box Score Season Stats

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – WKU Baseball downed Austin Peay, 10-5, in its midweek matchup against the Governors Tuesday afternoon at Nick Denes Field.

The win moves the Hilltoppers to 6-2 on the season while dropping Austin Peay to 3-5 on the year.

After the Governors jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in the top of the second inning, WKU used a five-run burst in the bottom of the frame to break the game open and earn the eventual victory.

"I thought out players did a good job of keeping their focus and keeping their concentration," said head coach John Pawlowski. "They found a way to walk out of here with a win against Austin Peay, who has played very well against us as of late. I was glad to see our guys responded and found a way to win today."

Riley Boyd earned the starting nod in his second appearance of the season, allowing four hits and four runs while recording a strikeout in 4.0 frames on the bump.

Collin Lollar entered in the fifth frame to relieve Boyd, picking up his first win of the season after fanning five batters while allowing just two hits and one run over 3.2 innings of action.

Hunter Crosby made a brief appearance in the top of the eighth, where he recorded one out while allowing one hit, before Bailey Sutton closed things out in the ninth inning while striking out each batter he faced.

"Collin [Lollar] was outstanding," said Pawlowski. "He came in when the game was still in the balance and he filled up the strike zone. Hunter [Crosby] came in, same thing, and then Bailey [Sutton] was lights out in the ninth inning. When you have those guys down there you feel really good about our bullpen. All of those guys were outstanding tonight."

Offensively, the Hilltoppers produced their highest scoring output of the young season, racking up 10 runs on eight hits and seven walks.

Kevin Lambert led the way with a perfect 3-for-3 outing while adding three runs and one RBI. Jack Wilson put together a 2-for-5 performance to go along with three RBI and one run, while Eric Riffe collected four RBI on the day off of a double and sac fly.

"Our offense – we're just resilient, we're competitors," said Lambert. "No matter what, we're going to get quality at-bats. We're just going to find ways to score runs."

SCORING SUMMARY
The Governors got on the board first, scoring a runner from third on a groundout to second base in the top of the second.

The Hilltoppers immediately answered back, putting up five runs of their own in the bottom of the frame.

Matthew Meyer sent home WKU's first run of the day, earning a bases-loaded walk to even the score at 1-1. In the next at-bat, Wilson ripped a bases-clearing double to right field, giving the Hilltoppers a 4-1 lead. Wilson later scored on a throwing error by the shortstop to give WKU a four-run advantage.

The Hilltoppers tacked on two more runs in the third inning, with Riffe notching a two-RBI double down the right field line to put the score at 7-1.

Austin Peay put a dent into WKU's lead in the fourth frame, scoring three runs of their own to make it 7-4.

Lambert later used an RBI-single to score Jackson Swiney in the bottom of the fifth, giving the Hilltoppers an 8-4 advantage.

The Governors added their final run of the contest in the eighth inning, with an RBI-single through the right side of the infield making it 8-5.

WKU gave itself some breathing room in the bottom of the eighth, with a sac fly by Riffe to deep center field scoring both Lambert and Matt Phipps to put the score at 10-5 and give the Hilltoppers the eventual win.

UP NEXT
The Hilltoppers will play their first road games of the season as they travel to Spartanburg, S.C., for a three-game series against USC Upstate beginning at 3 p.m. CT on Friday, Feb. 28.