HOUSTON, Texas – WKU Baseball earned a 5-3 series-opening win over Rice on Friday night at Reckling Park.
Starting pitcher Devyn Terbrak provided a dominant performance on the mound to help the Hilltoppers end their losing skid.
"Devyn was outstanding tonight," said head coach John Pawlowski. "When I look at the numbers, our staff had nine innings of work with no walks. Devyn had some 3-0 counts where he fought back and struck a couple guys out. I'm just proud of the way he threw the ball. We talked about how we have to make them beat us, and we certainly didn't beat ourselves tonight."
Terbrak went 8.0 innings in the outing while surrendering just two runs and not allowing a walk to go along with eight strikeouts. Mason Vinyard closed out the final frame, picking up his seventh save of the season while striking out two batters.
At the plate, the Hilltoppers tallied eight hits and three walks, with three players producing multi-hit performances. Andrew Delaney, Aidan Gilroy and Ty Crittenberger all contributed two hits apiece, while Justin Carlin and Ricardo Leonett each added one hit.
SCORING SUMMARY
WKU opened the scoring in the second inning, with Delaney using an RBI triple to plate Carlin before scoring later in the inning off a wild pitch to make it 2-0.
The Hilltoppers extended their lead in the sixth, with an RBI single by Gilroy making it 3-0.
WKU tacked on another run in the seventh inning, as Leonett ripped an RBI single to center field to put the score at 4-0.
Rice scored its first run of the game in the bottom of the seventh, using an RBI single to make it 4-1.
The Owls then used a solo shot in the eighth to put the score at 4-2.
The Hilltoppers added an insurance run in the ninth, as Gilroy scored from first on a failed pickoff attempt followed by a throwing error by the first baseman.
Rice tacked on one more run in the bottom of the ninth off a solo shot, but were shut down from there, leading to the 5-3 win for WKU.
UP NEXT
The Hilltoppers will continue their series against Rice at 2 p.m. CT on Saturday, April 30 at Reckling Park.
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