BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – WKU Baseball earned its fourth walk-off win of the season following a 17-16 extra-inning victory over Charlotte in its series finale.
The Hilltoppers jumped out to an early 7-0 lead through two innings of action before the 49ers stormed back to take a 15-7 advantage in the top of the fourth.
WKU slowly battled its way back from there, scoring runs in four consecutive innings to take a 16-15 lead after seven.
Charlotte then tacked on one run in the ninth to send the game to extras before Eric Riffe ripped a bases-loaded RBI-single up the middle to give WKU the walk-off win.
"It was a wild day," said head coach John Pawlowski. "You had two teams that were going at it. We were up seven at one point and we were down eight at one point. I just give our team credit, they just kept battling. They wanted to win today, and it was clearly obvious to me with the energy of the dugout. Today was a great win after a disappointing start to the weekend."
WKU utilized eight different pitchers in the game, with the group combining to allow 16 runs while striking out three batters in 10.0 innings.
Connor Stephens had one of the more impressive outings on the day, entering the game in the sixth inning with the team down 15-11 before tossing 3.1 frames while allowing just two hits and one run, and exiting with a 16-15 lead.
At the plate, the Hilltoppers racked up 17 hits and 15 RBI, with five players producing multi-hit efforts in the contest. Justin Carlin, Matthew Meyer, Jackson Swiney and Jack Wilson each racked up three hits apiece in the matchup, including a career-high two home runs and six RBI by Meyer, while Riffe added two hits on the day.
UP NEXT
The Hilltoppers will continue conference play with a four-game series at FIU beginning at 6 p.m. CT on Thursday, April 1.
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