THE SCHEDULE
- The Hilltoppers will open their series on Friday, March 5 with a 6 p.m. CT matchup against Tulane.
- WKU will play game two against the Green Wave at 2 p.m. on Saturday, March 6.
- The Hilltoppers will close out their series with Tulane on Sunday, March 7 at 11 a.m.
LAST TIME OUT
- The Hilltoppers took two of three games in their recent weekend series against Cincinnati.
- WKU opened the series with a win in game one, pulling out a 5-4 victory against the Bearcats in a back-and-forth battle that ended with a walk-off two-RBI double by Eric Riffe in the 12th inning.
- The Hilltoppers then clinched the series with a game-two victory, again coming away with a walk-off win as Davis Sims used a sac fly to score Ty Crittenberger for the 5-4 final.
- WKU dropped the series finale to Cincinnati by a score of 11-3.
SERIES HISTORY
- Friday's contest will mark just the second meeting in program history between WKU and Tulane.
- The two squads' first and only meeting came on June 5, 2004, at the NCAA Regional in Oxford, Miss., with Tulane pulling out a 7-0 win.
SCOUTING THE HILLTOPPERS
- WKU is currently 3-4 on the season following its recent series win against Cincinnati.
- Offensively, two players are currently hitting .300 or better on the year in Jackson Gray (.348) and Davis Sims (.308).
- The Hilltoppers have racked up 17 doubles so far this season, which ranks 24th in the nation and third in Conference USA.
- On the mound, WKU pitchers have struck out 80 batters through 65.0 innings of action.
- The Hilltoppers currently rank 43rd in the country with a strikeout rate of 11.1 per nine innings, while Jake Kates ranks 16th in the nation with 18 strikeouts on the year.
SCOUTING THE GREEN WAVE
- Tulane is 3-5 on the season, with two of those losses coming at the hands of No. 5 Mississippi State.
- The Green Wave are currently receiving votes in the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) Poll.
- Three Tulane batters are hitting .300 or better on the season, with Collin Burns leading the way at .378.
- The Green Wave pitching staff currently boasts a 4.70 ERA and has struck out 82 batters in 74.2 innings of work.
