Hilltoppers Suffer First Loss of Season on Sunday

Sunday, February 26

Bowling Green, KY

1:00 PM CT

Western Kentucky University

7-1

Ohio

2-5

Ohio

WKU

2/26/2023 4:19:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score Box Score

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – WKU Baseball dropped its series finale with Ohio, 6-4, Sunday afternoon at Nick Denes Field.

The loss snapped a seven-game win streak to start the season for the Hilltoppers, moving the squad to 7-1 on the season. Despite the loss, WKU claims its second straight series win, taking three of four games against the Bobcats.

"Winning series, man, that is what it is about, but it is hard to win a four-game series," said head coach Marc Rardin. "Just the emotion, the energy that goes into the long days in college baseball with batting practice, the doubleheader yesterday and the long nine innings today. They are a good program, they are a prideful program, so you know they are going to show up. They came out and punched us in the mouth. The reality of it is, in the first inning we had second and third with no outs and we do not score. That was just the start of the avalanche of lack of momentum at the plate, being able to get a two-out hit, and being able to score a guy from third. They were getting two-out hits, two-out RBI, they were SAC flying and we were not, and it added up."

LHP Devyn Terbrak earned the starting nod on the mound for WKU, allowing six hits and four runs while striking out five in 4.0 innings. The Hilltoppers utilized four relief pitchers from there, with the group combining to allow four hits and two runs while recording three strikeouts in 6.0 frames.

Offensively, WKU tallied eight hits and three walks, with three players producing multi-hit performances. Drew Reckart led the way with a 2-for-4 outing and an RBI, while Kirk Liebert went 2-for-5 to go along an RBI and a walk.

SCORING SUMMARY

Ohio opened the scoring in the first inning, using a two-RBI double to left center to take a 2-0 advantage.

The Bobcats tacked on another in the second, recording an RBI-single to left field to make it 3-0.

WKU put its first run on the board in the bottom half of the frame off an RBI-single from AJ Fiechter to put the score at 3-1.

Ohio extended its lead in the fifth off an RBI single making it 4-1.

The Bobcats added another run in the sixth inning, recording a sacrifice fly to go up 5-1.

The Tops cut the lead in half to 5-3 in the seventh inning off an RBI single from Kirk Liebert and an errant throw by Ohio to score Liebert a few batters later.

A solo shot from the Bobcats in the eighth added another making the score 6-3.

The Tops attempted a two-out rally in the ninth with Drew Reckart scoring Ty Crittenberger with an RBI single, but the squad was unable to put any more offense together from there, leading to the eventual 6-4 defeat.

UP NEXT

The Hilltoppers will host Bellarmine for its first midweek game of the season beginning at 3 p.m. CT on Tuesday, Feb. 28 at Nick Denes Field.

How to follow WKU Baseball: For complete information on WKU Hilltopper Baseball, visit WKUSports.com or follow the program via social media @WKU_Baseball on Twitter and @WKUBaseball Instagram.