In his first Division I start in his home state, Western Kentucky’s Paul Kirkpatrick pitched a complete game and led the Hilltoppers to a 4-3 victory Saturday over UTSA.

The righty from Austin, Texas, retired 15-of-16 batters to cap the game with five scoreless frames as the Hilltoppers hung on to a one-run lead and evened the Conference USA series.

Thomas Peter sparked a two-out rally in the first inning when he flared a single over the head of the third baseman, and Hunter Wood followed by drawing a four-pitch walk. On a 3-2 pitch with the runners on the move, first baseman Nathan Methvin laced a double down the right-field line to score both.

But the Roadrunners responded with two of their own in the bottom half. With runners on first and second to lead off the inning, Kirkpatrick seemed to escape damage when Bryan Arias lined to second baseman Tyler Robertson, who tapped the base to his right for a double play. But Ben Brookover, the next man up, hit a two-run shot to left field to set the contest back to square one.

Wood led off the third inning with a towering solo home run to right-center field, his fifth of the season, to give WKU (11-21 overall, 4-7 C-USA) its lead back. Two frames later, UTSA put the tying run across once again with an RBI groundout by Mason George with runners on the corners.

Kirkpatrick held the Roadrunners scoreless from there with only one baserunner for the rest of the game.

WKU took the lead for good in the sixth, when Wyatt Featherston was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning and Kevin Lambert bunted him to second. UTSA (15-15, 5-6) then made a pitching change from its righty starter Tyler Giovanoni to lefty reliever Karl Craigie to face Bryson Smith. The Hilltoppers’ freshman – making his first-career start at third base – hit an RBI liner up the middle for the eventual game-winning run.

The Hilltoppers look for their third series win of the season Sunday with first pitch against the Roadrunners at noon CDT. The hosts will send a southpaw, Steven Dressler, to the mound, while WKU’s starter remains TBA at this time.{&end}