Hilltoppers Head South for Road Series at UAB

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – WKU Baseball will head to Birmingham, Ala. for a three-game, weekend series against the UAB Blazers beginning at 5 p.m. CT on Friday, April 14 at Young Memorial Field.

THE SCHEDULE
• The Hilltoppers will open their series on Friday, April 14 with a 5 p.m. CT matchup against UAB at Young Memorial Field.
• WKU will then play the Blazers at 2 p.m. CT on Saturday, April 15.
• The Hilltoppers will close out their series against UAB on Sunday, April 16 at 1 p.m. CT.

LAST TIME OUT
• The Hilltoppers broke their eight-game losing streak on Tuesday night with a 6-2 win over Evansville at Nick Denes Field.
• Nine Hilltopper pitchers saw action in the midweek matchup with RHP Beau Coffman picking up the win in his first decision of the season while RHP CJ Weins earned his fifth save of the year, striking out five batters in the final 2.0 frames without allowing a run on no hits.
• Camden Ross was the lone Hilltopper to produce a multi-hit effort in a 2-for-4 outing with one RBI and a run scored while Kirk Liebert notched two RBI in a 1-for-3 day at the plate.

DOUBLE TIME
• Through 34 games the Hilltopper offense is top 20 in the nation and leads all of C-USA in doubles (73), while also being at the top of the league in doubles per game (2.1).
• The top three spots of the C-USA doubles leaders belong to Hilltoppers in INF Drew Reckart (14), OF Ty Crittenberger (11), and INF Tristin Garcia (10).

TOP OF THE CHARTS
• Only 14 C-USA players are hitting .335 or better through the first eight weeks of the season and WKU carries two of them in INFs Drew Reckart (.356), and Tristin Garcia (.339) who rank 6th and 13th in the league thus far.
• The Hilltoppers rank 3rd in C-USA in batting average (.289) as a team.

MOUND MARVELS
• WKU ranks 3rd in the league in saves (9) while ranking 2nd in the conference in opponent batting average (.243) and the staff has only surrendered 27 home runs through 34 games, ranking 3rd in C-USA.
• LHP Devyn Terbrak ranks 8th in C-USA with a 3.45 ERA while owning the 13th-most strikeouts, fanning 39 batters in the 2023 season.

TEAMWORK MAKES THE DREAM WORK
• WKU's offense currently leads all of C-USA in sacrifice bunts (32), almost doubling the next best team, UAB (17), while ranking as one of the top five teams in the nation in the category.
• The top three C-USA leaders in sacrifice bunts are all Hilltoppers in AJ Fiechter (6), Kirk Liebert (5), and Aidan Gilroy (4).

SERIES HISTORY
• WKU and UAB have met 72 times in program history, with the Hilltoppers owning a 39-33 all-time series edge.
• The teams met for a weekend series last season that saw the Hilltoppers win the series, taking two-of-three against the Blazers in Bowling Green.

SCOUTING THE HILLTOPPERS
• WKU is 17-17 on the season after beating Evansville 6-2 on Tuesday night to end its eight-game losing streak.
• Offensively, seven Hilltoppers are hitting .300 or better with Drew Reckart (.356), INF Tristin Garcia (.339) and OF Ty Crittenberger (.312) leading the charge.
• On the mound, WKU has compiled a 4.50 team ERA while striking out 278 batters in 294.0 innings of action.

SCOUTING THE BLAZERS
• UAB is 10-22 on the year after falling to Mississippi State 7-3 last Tuesday on the road.
• At the plate, the Blazers have two players hitting .300 or better, led by Logan Braunschweig who currently owns a .354 batting average.
• The UAB pitching staff has produced a 5.21 team ERA while recording 238 strikeouts in 269.1 frames.

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.

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Players Mentioned

Beau Coffman

Ty Crittenberger

AJ Fiechter

Tristin Garcia

Aidan Gilroy

Kirk Liebert

Drew Reckart

Camden Ross

Devyn Terbrak

CJ Weins