The Western Kentucky baseball team has had tonight’s contest against Kentucky at Bowling Green Ballpark circled on their calendars since a January news conference announcing the matchup.

But now, not only is tonight’s game a chance for WKU to showcase its program to a potentially larger-than-usual crowd, it also carries extra weight as the Hilltoppers try to get their season back on track.

WKU tangles with the Wildcats for the second time this season at 6 p.m. tonight at Bowling Green Ballpark. The Hilltoppers are hoping to set a home attendance record while snapping a season-long, four-game losing skid.

“It’s an exciting thing, having a chance to play in front of what we hope will be a great crowd – I just wish we were playing a little better, to be honest with you,” said WKU coach Chris Finwood, whose team lost three straight games over the weekend at Sun Belt Conference foe Florida Atlantic. “We’re going through a little bit of a tough stretch and hopefully we’ll be able to get this thing turned around and give the fans something to cheer about down there.”

The Hilltoppers (27-12) won 6-3 in Lexington in their first meeting against Kentucky (22-14) this season March 31.

But after falling to Louisville in a nail-biter last week and dropping three straight in Boca Raton, Fla., WKU is out of the national top 25 polls for the first time in nearly a month. It has also seen its RPI slip from the top 20 down to No. 31.

In other words, a showcase game against an in-state rival – with another coming Wednesday at Louisville – perhaps couldn’t come at a better time for WKU.

“Guys will be fired up. We’ve got two of them this week and then we’ve got (Florida International at Nick Denes Field) after that,” Finwood said. “It’s a huge week for us. We did enough in the first part of the season to put ourselves in position to be talked about in the postseason – and then in a week, things change in a hurry and you put yourself probably on the bubble.

“I told our guys that it’s all up to us – we’ve got 17 games left. If we play well, we could win them all; if not, we could lose them all. It’s in our hands.”

The Hilltoppers probably must get back on track the hard way tonight, as Finwood said senior second baseman Matt Payton is doubtful for tonight’s game and is day-to-day with an oblique injury. Payton suffered the injury during batting practice Friday at FAU, and subsequently missed all three games with the Owls over the weekend.

Payton leads WKU with a .397 batting average and is first on the team in triples (nine), slugging percentage (.718) and on-base percentage (.472). He’s also tied for first in hits (62).

“When you lose the Sun Belt Player of the Week in BP, the guy who is basically our nuts and bolts this season, that hurts us,” Finwood said. “We haven’t had a lot of adversity as a group this year and we got our first taste of it this weekend, and winners find a way to get it done in those situations, and we didn’t play like winners this weekend.

“Guys have to step up and decide that’s what they want to do, and that’s really where we’re at right now.”

WKU will send junior righty Brian Edelen (3-0, 3.62 ERA) to the mound tonight, while UK’s starter has yet to be determined.

Tonight also marks a chance for the Hilltoppers to top their own school-record crowd of 3,057, which saw WKU and UK tangle at Denes Field in 2008.

While Finwood says it’d be great to be able to consistently draw those type of numbers at WKU’s actual home park, he doesn’t mind having to move the game across town to accommodate demand.

“It’s great for college baseball in the state. It’s an opportunity to have two quality teams in a good facility during a midweek game,” Finwood said. “For all practical purposes, this game has sort of outgrown our facility – and that’s great. We’d love to keep playing them right here (at Denes Field), but if we’ve got a chance to maybe double our attendance than I think that means a lot for both college baseball and our baseball program.”