Western Kentucky junior outfielder Ryan Wideman became the first player in program history to hit for the cycle as the Hilltoppers beat Southern Illinois 21-2 for a run-rule win that established the best start in program history on Tuesday at Nick Denes Field.

The Hilltoppers improved to 16-1, marking the best start in program history through 17 games. The 2025 WKU baseball team exceeds the 1928 squad that finished its 16-game season 15-1.

Wideman recorded the first cycle in program history in a four-hit outing with nine RBIs to help the Hilltoppers score 21 runs – their most in a game since 2017 – in the seven inning, run-rule victory.

“It means a lot,” Wideman said in a news release. “I just want to thank God for giving me the opportunity to do this tonight, I want to thank coach for always putting me out there and my teammates for a high scoring game. It was just a really fun game.”

Southern Illinois was first to the scoreboard as a sacrifice fly gave them a 1-0 lead in the first inning.

WKU knotted it up in the bottom of the frame with a sacrifice fly of its own from Camden Ross.

A solo homer from the Salukis put them back in front 2-1 in the top of the second.

Three runs came across for the Hilltoppers in the second that started with a Wideman two-RBI double before Thomas Marsala drove in Wideman with an RBI single.

WKU pushed its lead to 9-2 with a grand slam from Wideman and an RBI single from Ross in the third inning.

The Hilltoppers tacked on three more in the fourth. Carlos Vasquez brought one in with a sacrifice fly before Reid Howard scored on a wild pitch. Austin Haller stole home on a double steal play to extend the WKU advantage to 12-2.

Five more were added in the fifth as Howard, Vasquez, Joe Siervo and Wideman drove in one run each.

WKU put up four more in the sixth as Caleb Niehaus and Haller brought in runs while Wideman tallied his eighth and ninth RBIs of the night with a single to clinch the cycle and the cap the scoring. That made the final score 21-2.

The Hilltoppers are on an 11-game winning streak. That ties the 2002 WKU Baseball team for the fourth-longest winning streak in program history — 15 of the Tops’ 16 wins have come at Nick Denes Field. This is the first time WKU has started 15-0 at home in program history.

The Hilltoppers have now won the last six meetings against Southern Illinois dating back to the 2014 season.

“We’re playing good baseball. We got a good group of guys together — some pitching, some hitting, some defense,” WKU coach Marc Rardin said. “We have some depth in our lineup. We have some depth on the mound. We’re still getting some guys healthy. I just thought there was a meter there for us tonight to kind of see where we were at.

“We played a really good Southern Illinois team, and they come in here 11-3 and they are a good team. It was a Tuesday night, so not everybody is throwing necessarily what probably would be their best pitching, maybe. It was still the best lineups, and we did what we did, and we took care of business.”

Lucas Litteral made his first start as a Hilltopper on the mound. The southpaw registered four strikeouts in three innings while allowing two runs on one hit and two walks.

Dawson Hall, Zach Lyles and Luke Wright saw action out of the bullpen for WKU. Hall earned his third win of the season in relief in a scoreless two-inning outing. The Bowling Green native surrendered just one run and tallied two strikeouts. Lyles and Wright put up shutout frames in an inning apiece, with Lyles fanning two Salukis.

WKU scored 21 runs on 16 hits and 10 walks with 19 RBIs. The last time the Hilltoppers put up 20 or more runs was April 25, 2017, when WKU defeated Austin Peay 22-17 in Clarksville, Tennessee.

Wideman hit for the first recorded cycle in program history in a 4-for-6 outing with nine RBIs, a grand slam, a triple, a double, two runs scored and a stolen base. The last time a WKU player had eight or more RBIs in a single game was Justin Carlin on May 1, 2021 – a 15-5 run-rule win against Marshall in Huntington, West Virginia.

Ross had a three-hit night with two RBIs, a double and two runs scored.

Marsala and Howard had multi-hit outings with an RBI each. Vasquez and Haller brought in two RBIs apiece, with Vasquez scoring three runs and Haller scoring five runs. Haller is the first WKU player to score five runs in a single game since March 24, 2019, when Jake Sanford did it in a 15-1 run-rule win over FIU in Miami.

WKU will play its final nonconference series of the season with a three-game set against UT Martin at home this weekend. First pitch on Friday is scheduled for 6 p.m. at Nick Denes Field.