Tops continue historic start with sweep of UT Martin

Published 10:35 am Monday, March 17, 2025

By Micheal Compton

The Western Kentucky baseball team’s historic start continued with a 7-2 win over UT Martin on Sunday at Nick Denes Field.

The victory is the latest in a nearly perfect month of baseball for WKU (19-1). Since opening the season against Illinois State on Feb. 14, the Hilltoppers have secured five series sweeps — the latest coming with three wins over UT Martin this weekend.

WKU has won 14 straight, trailing only the 19-game win streak by the 1980 team for longest streak in program history — and are 18-0 at home. This is the best start in program history and ties the 2008 Central Florida team for the best record through 20 games by a Conference USA team.

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It’s a success that the Hilltoppers are not taking lightly, especially with CUSA about to start on Friday.

“We’ve done it for a little while now that it is just kind of status quo,” WKU coach Marc Rardin said. “We don’t take it for granted. We’re pretty humble about it and we just go about our business. I think that’s what I appreciate about us. I think that is what we’ve talked about enough. Just kind of be who we are. Not who we think we are. You’re either humble or being humbled, so we just kind of enjoy it and we have fun with it.”

Designated hitter Thomas Marsala said the dominant run is unlike anything he’s ever experienced at any level.

“I’ve never been a part of something so large and so many wins in a row,” Marsala said. “Our pitching staff really picks us up every game. I think we have one of the best ERAs going into mid-major baseball. Without them we wouldn’t be able to win. They hold each team to a low amount of runs and our offense is always picking us up too.”

Sunday’s win was a microcosm of WKU’s season to date, with the Hilltoppers piling up some early runs and the pitching and solid defense making it stand.

WKU struck for a pair of runs in the first inning on an RBI single from Camden Ross and an RBI double by Kyle Hayes.

Hayes struck again in the third with his second RBI double of the day to extend the lead to 3-0.

Marsala delivered the big blow in the bottom of the third to double the margin to 6-0 — a three-run homer to dead center over the batter’s eye that traveled an estimated 443 feet.

“As soon as I hit it, I thought it just burnt the center field,” Marsala said. “It kept riding up and riding up. I was sitting fastball. I needed that pitch to do it and it was right down the middle. He gave me my pitch.”

UT Martin (6-12) got on the board with a run in the sixth, but WKU answered with an RBI double by Ethan Lizama in the bottom of the inning. UT Martin added one more in the ninth before Evan Jones was able to finish off another sweep of an opponent.

Jack Bennett tossed four scoreless innings to earn the win and improve to 4-0 on the season, allowing two hits with six strikeouts. Bennett has not allowed a run in 22 innings of work this season, spanning four starts.

Lizama had three hits, while Marsala and Hayes added two hits each.

Of all the success in the first month, it is the ability of his team to be able to compete at a high level every night that perhaps has been most impressive to Rardin.

“People are like, well look at their schedule,” Rardin said. “This is Division I baseball. This isn’t football where physically we could go out and manhandle them or basketball where you physically manhandle them. You’ve got to throw strikes. You have to hit the ball. You have to get outs. On any given day somebody can beat somebody. For us to be 19-1, especially doubleheaders and things like that, I will admit it is impressive to show up and say, ‘Listen, the scoreboard is on. Today maybe isn’t our day or we’ve already won two out of three and we could just give this game away. It’s just not our day.’ Our team hasn’t done that. Our dugout hasn’t done that.”

WKU now looks to take this hot start and continue it in conference play. WKU plays at Eastern Kentucky at 5 p.m. CDT on Wednesday and then will open conference play at Kennesaw State with game one of the three-game series scheduled for 5 p.m. CDT on Friday.

Rardin said conference play will be another steep test for his team, adding he expects some bumps along the way, but so far he likes how his team has played and feels like this success can lead to similar kind of success during conference play.

“We are not going to go 55-1,” Rardin said. “Something is going to happen. I think the biggest thing to be able to handle something is talk about it before it even happens and that is what we do. (This) just shows that we can do it. It shows what is within us, that we can do some things. We can pitch. We can play some defense. We’ve got a pretty potent offense. We can put some days together. We can put some weekends together. We can put some weeks together.”

UTM 000 001 001 — 2 8 0

WKU 201 301 000 — 7 12 2

WP: Bennett LP: Thornton

I am a sports reporter and movie critic for the Bowling Green Daily News.

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