No. 25 Tops erupt for 11-run rally in 13-9 home win

Published 11:30 pm Tuesday, April 8, 2025

By Jeff Nations

Western Kentucky got its first shot at playing as a nationally-ranked baseball program for the first time in 15 years Tuesday at Nick Denes Field.

The No. 25 Hilltoppers did not disappoint, using an 11-run rally in the bottom of the fourth inning to build an insurmountable lead on the way to a 13-9 win against Southern Indiana.

The victory improved WKU (28-5) to a still perfect 22-0 at home this season, the best such stretch in program history.

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“It’s always fun to play in front of some fans,” WKU senior outfielder Ethan Lizama said. “We had a good crowd today. We always talk about maybe it’s the first time that someone has come out to see the Tops play and we want to show them something good. That was the goal today.”

The Tops did most of their entertaining with that devastating 11-run outburst in the fourth.

Already leading 1-0 after Carlos Vasquez led off the bottom of the first inning with a first-pitch solo home run, the Tops went to work against the Screaming Eagles in the fourth. Kyle Hayes brought in the first run with a bases-loaded RBI groundout.

After a Southern Indiana (16-16) error allowed two more runs to score, the Tops got back-to-back singles from Austin Haller and Lizama to drive in three more runs. Ryan Wideman followed that up with an RBI double before Thomas Marsala tripled off the top of the fence in left-center field to score two more. Camden Ross drove in another run with a sacrifice fly and Drew Barragan added an RBI single to cap the scoring and extend the Hilltopper lead to 12-0.

It the first time the Hilltoppers have scored 11 or more runs in a single inning since April 20, 2010, when WKU posted 16 runs in the second of a 24-8 win against Kentucky at Bowling Green Ballpark.

“It’s very fun — guys in front of me, guys behind me doing their job, it’s all you could really ask for,” Lizama said. “We just hope to keep doing that as the season goes on.”

Already planning to use several pitchers for a mid-week, non-conference game, WKU coach Marc Rardin began to remove most of his starting lineup — each of whom had at least one RBI — shortly after that fourth-inning rally.

The Screaming Eagles started chipping away at the deficit. A pair of Hilltopper errors in the top of the sixth helped SIU score four runs, then the Screaming Eagles scored three more in the top of the seventh off a balk followed by Patrick McLellan’s two-run double.

The Tops got one run back in the bottom of the seventh when Caleb Niehaus scored on a throwing error, but Southern Indiana scored twice more in the top of the eighth to get within four runs.

WKU reliever Cal Higgins finished off the win with a 1-2-3 ninth.

“You’re trying to win a game, you’re trying to give some opportunities to guys,” Rardin said. “There’s a fine line of trying to play the game, win the game, get guys in the lineup, do some different things while not messing up the game. I almost got it all done and messed up the game. So kudos to Southern Indiana, man — they just kept playing and they made it interesting for us a little bit.”

Starting pitcher Gavin Perry earned the win for the Tops after tossing four scoreless innings, allowing just one hit while striking out four. He was the first of seven pitchers for WKU on Tuesday — Southern Indiana had nine different pitchers in action.

The Screaming Eagles outhit the Tops 9-8, with Cole Kitchens going 2-for-5 with a home run and four RBIs. McLellan was 2-for-5 with two RBIs and Charlie Marisca was 2-for-3 with three runs scored.

Barrigan was 2-for-4 with an RBI for the only multi-hit performance for WKU. Lizama and Marsala tallied two RBIs each.

Vasquez had perhaps the flashiest day for the Tops, starting with that leadoff homer before coming up with a pair of fantastic catches in left field — a position the redshirt junior infielder doesn’t play all that often.

“Taking a little bit of a break just on his shoulder — he’s had a little bit of a sore shoulder,” Rardin said of playing Vasquez in left. “But the big thing is just keeping his bat in the lineup, freeing up a little bit more in the infield and just trying to get some more bats in the lineup.”

UP NEXT

The Tops return to Conference USA action with a weekend series at Liberty starting Friday in Lynchburg, Virginia. It will be WKU’s first trip to Liberty since the Flames joined CUSA last year. The Flames host the CUSA tournament next month.

“They’re a really good team,” Rardin said. “They’ve got pitching and they’re right up there with us right now early in the conference standings. It’s another weekend where it’s not do-or-die by any means, but you definitely want to try to take two out of three. It’s a successful weekend if you can get two out of three.”

Sports Editor, Bowling Green Daily News

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