BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – WKU Baseball clinched a series win over FIU with a 9-2 victory on Saturday afternoon at Nick Denes Field.
After earning a 7-4 win over the Panthers in their series opener on Friday, the Hilltoppers used a strong performance from true freshman starting pitcher Cooper Hellman to propel them to the series-clinching victory in game two.
"Cooper certainly stepped up today," said head coach John Pawlowski. "We talked about winning the free-base war, and just one walk from him in seven innings, that's outstanding. He challenged guys and he filled up the strike zone. I'm really proud of what he did, an outstanding job from Cooper."
Hellman captured the first win of his freshman campaign in the outing, allowing just two hits and one walk while striking out five in 7.0 frames of scoreless action. Jake Kates then closed out the final 2.0 innings of the game, surrendering three hits and two runs (both unearned) while recording four strikeouts.
At the plate, the Hilltoppers tallied eight hits and five walks, with two players producing multi-hit performances. Andrew Delaney went 2-for-3 in the game, recording a home run and four RBI, while Tristin Garcia hit 2-for-5 in the contest.
SCORING SUMMARY
As they did in the series opener, the Hilltoppers opened the scoring in the first frame, using an RBI single by Brian McAuliffe and RBI double by Delaney to make it 2-0 early on.
WKU extended its lead in the third inning, with a three-run long ball by Delaney making it 5-0.
The Hilltoppers added three more runs in the sixth, using a two-RBI double by Jackson Gray and sacrifice fly by Eric Riffe put the score at 8-0.
WKU tacked on another run in the eighth, with Riffe recording his second sacrifice fly of the day to make it 9-0.
FIU finally got on the board in the final frame, taking advantage of two Hilltopper miscues to score two runs in the ninth, leading to the 9-2 final.
UP NEXT
The Hilltoppers will close out their series against FIU at noon CT on Sunday, April 10 at Nick Denes Field.
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