Western Kentucky’s baseball team beat Indiana State 6-5 in 10 innings Friday evening at Nick Denes Field.

Parker Coley drove in the winning run with a base hit to right-center field in the bottom of the 10th inning, scoring Hayden Robbins from second base. Coley finished with two hits and an RBI in five at-bats. The walk-off win is the first for the Hilltoppers in 2026 and the first since the Conference USA Championship Game in 2025.

With two outs in the top of the first, the Sycamores broke open the scoring with a base hit to left field to take a 1-0 lead.

The Hilltoppers had runners on the corners in the bottom of the inning as Camden Ross hit a single into center field to drive in JP Acosta and tie the game at one apiece. The RBI marked the 13th of the year for the senior.

The next three innings went quietly but in the top of the fifth the Sycamores plated two runs on a triple down the left field line to take a 3-1 lead.

In the bottom half, Coley reached on an infield hit, stole second and a base hit for Austin Haller advanced Coley to third. The Hilltoppers cut the deficit in half as Coley scored on an RBI groundout from Acosta.

To start off the bottom half of the eighth, Kyle Hayes singled to left. Then, Lane Arroyos drove out his third home run to give WKU a 4-3 lead.

Ross then walked and Manny Alberto came in as a pinch runner and recorded the fifth stolen base of the game for WKU.

Reid Howard stepped to the plate and ripped his first triple down the right field line to bring in Alberto and give WKU a 5-3 lead.

The Sycamores tied the game in the top of the ninth on a sacrifice fly with the bases loaded.

In the bottom of the 10th back-to-back walks from Robbins and Logan Luckett put runners on first and second with two outs. Coley drove a fly ball into the right-center field gap to score Robbins and give WKU its first walk-off win in 2026.

With the win, WKU moves to 8-7 on the year and 8-6 at Nick Denes Field. WKU now holds an all-time series lead of 6-4-1 against the Sycamores and a 4-2-1 mark against Indiana State in Bowling Green.
Gavin Perry got the starting nod for the Hilltoppers on Friday, throwing four innings, allowing three earned runs on six hits with four strikeouts. The Hilltoppers used five relievers on Friday in Mick Uebelhor, Sam Frizzi, Jude Favela, Zach Lyles and Nathan Lawson.
Lawson was credited with the win Friday night throwing an inning, striking out one batter. The win is Lawson’s first as a Hilltopper. Uebelhor had a team-high five strikeouts in the win, allowing just one hit in 12 batters faced in 3 1/3 innings of work.

Offensively, the Hilltoppers were led by Coley who had two hits and one RBI, driving in the winning run for WKU in the bottom of the 10th inning. Coley has now had back-to-back two-hit games, driving in a run in both.

Arroyos also added two hits and two RBIs including the then go-ahead two-run home run in the bottom of the eighth. Seven Hilltoppers combined for WKU’s nine hits on Friday.

Friday marked the first walk-off win for WKU since they defeated Jax State in the 2025 CUSA Championship Game 6-5 in 11 innings.

WKU had a season high six stolen bases in the game on Friday. Howard stole two bases on Friday and now has 11 on the year. The sophomore shortstop finished with one RBI on a 1-for-5 night.
Howard recorded just the second triple of the season for WKU, driving in Alberto in the bottom of the eighth inning. The triple was the first of Howard’s WKU career. Howard’s two stolen bases match a career high that was set twice in 2025 (EKU on Feb. 25, 2025 and UT Martin on March 14, 2025.

The Hilltoppers will host Indiana State for Game 2 of the weekend series on Saturday. First pitch is set for 4 p.m.