Western Kentucky's Steven Kraft tosses the ball to second base Wednesday, March 21, 2018, during Louisville's 8-5 win at Nick Denes Field. (Bac Totrong/photo@bgdailynews.com)

After a five-day break in the schedule, Western Kentucky’s baseball team resumes play against the first-place team in Conference USA: No. 13 Southern Miss.

The Hilltoppers and Golden Eagles will play a Friday-to-Sunday series at Pete Taylor Park, with all three contests to be streamed on CUSA.tv.

While the Hilltoppers have not played since a 9-5 victory vs. UTSA on Saturday, Southern Miss has played three games in the past five days.

The Golden Eagles (20-8 overall, 6-2 C-USA) took the first two games vs. Rice last weekend (12-1, 8-7), but were not able to finish off the sweep and lost 7-6 on Sunday to the Owls. Then, Southern Miss split a midweek two-game home set vs. Louisiana-Lafayette, with a 9-8 victory followed by a 7-4 loss.

The trio of Luke Reynolds (.357/.508/.673), Hunter Slater (.348/.416/.589) and Matt Wallner (.347/.492/.633) lead the Golden Eagles at the plate. They have combined for 94 runs and 87 RBIs, and have tallied 45 of the team’s 86 total extra-base hits.

On the mound, righty Nick Sandlin has been one of the nation’s best through the first half of the season. The reliever-turned-starter owns a 4-0 record with a 1.31 ERA through seven starts; he is holding opposing hitters to a .161 batting average and boast a 73-to-6 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 48 innings.

Lefty Stevie Powers (2.97 ERA, 35-to-7 ratio in 36.1 innings) and righty Walker Powell (3.56 ERA, 26-to-8 ratio in 30.1 innings) are likely to follow Sandlin in the rotation.

On the WKU side, lefty Ryan Thurston has a 3.25 ERA in 44 1/3 innings of work with a 50-to-17 strikeout-to-walk ratio.

Thurston has received 33 runs of support in seven starts (4.7 average), but 31 of those came in a span of three starts vs. Northern Illinois, West Virginia and Bowling Green. Meanwhile, the senior has gotten only two runs of support in the four other starts, including three of the team’s four times being shut out.

At the plate, Jacob Rhinesmith is one stolen base and one home run away from becoming only the second player in Division I to reach the 10-10 mark this season (Bren Spillane, Illinois).

Steven Kraft boasts a team-high .360/.467/.480 slash line and 18-game on-base streak. The senior was 1-of-3 C-USA players to reach base in every game he played in the month of March.