WKU improved to 27-12 with the Saturday sweep and sits at 10-6 in C-USA play, which will be good for the No. 4 seed in next week's Conference USA Tournament. Florida Atlantic moved to 12-35 with the setbacks and 6-14 in league games as the Owls' season ended. WKU will be the first tournament host to make the eight-team field since 2014, breaking a five-season drought.
GAME 38: WKU 3, FLORIDA ATLANTIC 0
Princess Valencia drew a one-out walk in the bottom of the second before coming all the way around to score on a double to the leftfield wall by Brylee Hage for the 1-0 WKU lead.
While Valencia's run would be all the Tops would need, the squad tacked on a couple insurance runs in the bottom of the fifth. TJ Webster connected for a one-out single to roll over the Hilltopper lineup, bringing Paige Carter to the plate who would single as well. After Webster took third base on a wild pitch, the duo completed a double steal as Carter drew the Owls' attention and allowed her teammate to dive into home safely.
Following a delay that ensued, Florida Atlantic's head coach and assistant coach would be ejected but the break didn't bother the Hilltoppers bats as Kennedy Sullivan would deliver a sacrifice fly that scored Carter for the 3-0 margin.
Carter and Sullivan each finished with multi-hit games.
Sullivan also earned the complete-game shutout win in the circle, allowing just three hits while striking out four batters.
GAME 39: WKU 7, FLORIDA ATLANTIC 0
Carter led off the WKU half of the opening frame with her 17th double of the season – a new single-season program record.
WKU would open the scoring an inning later as Brylee Hage got things going with a one-out single before moving into scoring position when Kennedy Foote reached on a fielding error. Two batters later, Webster tallied a single and Hage came around to score on a throwing error from the Owls.
Just as in the day's first game, the Hilltoppers wouldn't need any additional run support, but they would go on to add six more runs. WKU tallied a pair of runs in each of the third, fourth and fifth innings for the final 7-0 margin.
Jordan Ridge connected for a solo home run to lead off the third inning before Maddie Bowlds and Hage delivered back-to-back doubles to push the lead to 3-0.
Sullivan and Kendall Smith would post RBI in the fourth inning with a base hit and sacrifice fly, respectively.
In the bottom of the fifth, Hage, Davis, Webster and Carter would all add base hits with the latter two batters each driving in a run.
Eight different Hilltoppers racked up 13 collective hits across the regular-season finale. Hage and Webster each turned in three-hit outings while Carter finished with a pair of Senior Day knocks.
Katie Gardner earned the complete-game shutout win over the Owls while allowing just four hits and striking out six. The redshirt-freshman retired the first 11 batters she faced in the game and allowed zero free bases.
UPCOMING SCHEDULE
- Conference USA Tournament – Bracket released Sunday
- C-USA Tournament – May 12-15 | Bowling Green, Ky.
How to Follow the Hilltoppers: For complete information on WKU Softball, follow the team on Twitter at @WKUSoftball, Instagram @WKU_Softball and Facebook /WKUSoftball
