Western Kentucky’s baseball team beat UNC Asheville 12-0 for its second consecutive run-rule win on Friday evening at Nick Denes Field.

The win moves the Hilltoppers to 12-1, marking just the second time in program history WKU has won 12 of its first 13 games – 1928 and 2025. The 1928 Hilltopper baseball team finished the season with a 15-1 record.

“We only had six hits. They gave us 11 walks,” WKU coach Marc Rardin said in a news release. “It was hard for us to get some things going. I didn’t think we did a lot ourselves. I thought we needed to be a bit more offensive, but yet, it was kind of hard to. We were patient enough to take the 11 walks, but I know we’re going to have to be better tomorrow that’s for sure.”

Joe Siervo hit his first home run of the season – a three-run blast over the left-field wall – and collected four RBIs, while Treyson Peters pitched 5 2/3 shutout innings on his way to his first winning-decision as a Hilltopper.

WKU put up six runs in the first inning that started with an RBI walk from Camden Ross before Thomas Marsala singled to score two more. In the next at-bat, Siervo blasted his first home run of the season over the left-field wall to give WKU a 6-0 lead.

Ross added his second RBI of the day with a sacrifice fly in the second inning to extend the Hilltopper advantage to 7-0.

Five more came across for the Tops in the sixth. Carlos Vasquez and Ethan Lizama plated runs in back-to-back at-bats before Marsala and Siervo had back-to-back walks with the bases loaded. Ross later scored on a wild pitch to put the final tally at 12-0.

WKU improves to 4-2 all-time and 4-0 at home against UNC Asheville with the win.

Peters made his fourth start of the season on the mound for the Hilltoppers. The right-hander picked up his first win of the season after tossing 5 2/3 shutout innings with five strikeouts while only allowing two hits in his longest outing thus far.

Cole Heath and Hunter Small made appearances out of the bullpen for WKU. Neither allowed a hit in 1 1/3 frames, with Small recording one strikeout.

WKU scored 12 runs on six hits and 12 free passes with 11 RBIs. Siervo led the way with four RBIs, a home run and a run scored while Marsala tallied three RBIs and a run scored.

Ross also had a multi-RBI performance with two runs scored.

WKU and UNC Asheville continue the four-game series Saturday afternoon with a doubleheader. First pitch of game one at Nick Denes Field is schedule for seven innings at 1 p.m. Game two will start approximately 30 minutes following the conclusion of game one.