The Western Kentucky baseball team isn’t picky about its midweek wins.

The Hilltoppers have beaten teams as high as 25th in the RPI in the midweek, and as low as 218th.

But with their pitching depth lacking, they’ll take every single one of them.

WKU (17-11) notched another such victory Tuesday, outlasting Evansville 6-5 at Nick Denes Field.

“The last two weeks have been a struggle for us,” WKU junior right-hander Cody Coll said. “But every game counts for us. Every win counts. It wasn’t the prettiest game, but we got it done.”

The Tops made a five-run fourth inning stick against the Aces (15-12), whose rally over the final innings fell short.

WKU spotted Coll a four-run lead, and he exited with a 5-3 advantage after five innings.

Things got interesting after that, but the Tops’ last three pitchers combined to allow just two hits and no runs.

Redshirt junior closer Jackson Sowell notched his sixth save of the season and delivered Coll his first win of the year in his seventh start.

“Cody Coll did a great job for us today,” WKU coach John Pawlowski said. “We were hoping to get five out of him. We got five out of him and then turned it over to the bullpen. Some of those guys, they’re going to pitch sooner or later, and I thought they did a good job.”

Coll gave up seven hits, three runs and three walks over five innings with two strikeouts.

He’s been the team’s midweek starter the last few weeks, including in a victory at Kentucky (25th in RPI), but the last two outings weren’t kind to him and his teammates.

Coll worked 7 2/3 combined innings in home losses to Austin Peay and Louisville and allowed five total runs. However, those games got away from the bullpen as WKU was outscored a combined 33-2 in the defeats.

“You look at the games that he’s pitched the last few weeks, and when he’s gone out of the game, the games have been where they could still swing one way or another,” Pawlowski said. “Unfortunately, we weren’t able to keep the games close. The final score is not indicative of the way he’s pitched. Great job from him tonight.”

The issue for the Hilltoppers has been finding ways to stay competitive with their pitching in the midweek while preserving their best arms for more important weekend series.

That’s forced many young pitchers into bigger roles than they might have anticipated, but Pawlowski said all they can do is rise to the occasion.

“Before the game today, I challenged our team,” Pawlowski said. “I said, ‘You want to walk off the field with some pride today. The last two midweek games, we’ve walked off the field with our head tucked – embarrassed.’ Today, they feel much better about what they did.”

The Tops turned to freshman left-hander Evan Acosta after Coll. Acosta gave up four hits, two runs and a walk over 1 2/3 innings, but the final three WKU hurlers were virtually untouchable.

Freshman righty Micah Kaczor recorded the final out of the seventh and gave up a hit to start the eighth, and senior left-hander John Harman sat down the next three batters to earn praise from Pawlowski. The flawless effort lowered Harman’s earned-run average to 9.00.

“He hadn’t performed the way he’s certainly capable of or wants to perform, but today he was outstanding,” Pawlowski said of Harman.

Sowell, who’s taken over as the team’s closer for injured junior Ben Morrison, struck out two in the ninth for his sixth save, lowering his team-best ERA to 1.02.

On offense, the Hilltoppers finished with 12 hits, including two apiece from sophomore second baseman Steven Kraft, sophomore designated hitter Kaleb Duckworth, junior right fielder Paul Murray and freshman shortstop Steven DiPuglia.

Evansville struck first with a run in the top of the fourth before the Tops gave their pitchers a boost with five runs in the bottom of the inning.

“They’re growing a lot,” Murray said. “They’re getting their opportunities, and they just have to make sure they execute. If they execute, they’re going to have a great outing. Whoever comes in to hit, just make sure they put a good swing on the ball, and things will happen.”

With a scheduled Wednesday trip to Austin Peay canceled, WKU is back in action at home Friday against Conference USA foe Louisiana Tech. 

APSU would have been WKU’s 13th game so far this season against teams in the top 100 of the RPI.

The Tops are 4-8 so far against the top 100, 4-4 against the top 60 and 2-1 against the top 25.

“That’s one of the great parts of coming to Western Kentucky,” Coll said. “You play in a great conference. You play great midweek games. You can’t complain. That’s what you want to do.”

— Follow Assistant Sports Editor Zach Greenwell on Twitter at twitter.com/zach_greenwell or visit bgdailynews.com.