Western Kentucky finished a four-game sweep of Marshall on Sunday at Nick Denes Field.

The Hilltoppers’ pitching again dominated the Thundering Herd, and WKU closed out its third series against a Conference USA foe with an 8-1 victory.

Luke Stofel got the start – the second of his WKU career – and allowed three hits and one run in five innings of work. He struck out three and walked one in the outing. Ryan O’Connell allowed four hits and struck out four in four shutout innings of relief.

WKU pitchers Devyn Terbrak, Jake Kates and Sean Bergeron threw three straight complete games in the first three games of the series with the Thundering Herd. It was the first time since at least 2005 that the WKU pitching staff has three consecutive complete games from its starters. Over 23.0 innings of action in the first three games of the series, the trio has combined to allow just two earned runs and two walks while striking out 19 batters.

Marshall (4-19 overall, 0-12 C-USA) took a 1-0 lead in the top of the second when Kyle Schaefer grounded out to second, scoring Ryan Leitch, but the Herd wouldn’t plate another run.

WKU (16-16, 6-6) took the lead with a two-run third inning, and added pairs of runs in each of the fifth, seventh and eighth innings. Jackson Gray went 3 for 3 with three RBIs and Richard Constantine drove in two runs. Ray Zuberer III and Eric Riffe posted multi-hit days, and Justin Carlin and Jackson Swiney drove in a run each.

Gray singled up the middle to score Matthew Meyer and draw things even in the bottom of the third, and Constantine brought in Zuberer with a ground ball to take the lead later in the inning.

Gray scored Zuberer in the fifth on a single up the middle and Constantine added his second RBI with a groundout to third that scored Carlin.

Gray scored WKU’s first run of the seventh on a Marshall error and Swiney drove in Constantine with a single to right to make it 6-1 later in the inning.

The Hilltoppers added two more runs in the eighth with a Carlin groundout to second that scored Meyer and a Gray single through the right side that scored Zuberer.

WKU is next scheduled to host Middle Tennessee in a four-game series at Nick Denes Field starting Friday at 5 p.m. The series will continue with a Saturday doubleheader, with first pitch in game one scheduled for noon, and the series will conclude Sunday with a 1 p.m. game.

Marshall is scheduled to travel to West Virginia for a 6:30 p.m. game Wednesday.