Western Kentucky starting pitcher Ryan Thurston delivered a strong outing and reliever Jackson Sowell locked down a four-out save to lead the Hilltoppers to a 5-4 win over Ohio University on Friday at Nick Denes Field.

Thurston posted a career-high-tying, 11-strikeout effort in the opening game of the teams’ weekend series at Nick Denes Field. Thurston pitched 7.1 innings and had at least one strikeout in each of the eight innings, including in each of the second, third and fourth frames.

After Thurston retired the Bobcats 1-2-3 in the top of the first inning, the Hilltoppers (4-6) responded with a pair of runs in the bottom half. Steven Kraft – who had a season-high three hits on the day – led off with a single and scored on a Thomas Peter ground out. Grayson Ivey started a two-out rally by walking on four pitches, and came around two batters later on an opposite-field double by Paul Murray.

Although Hunter Wood was thrown out at the plate on the play, WKU took a lead it would hold through the entire game.

Ohio (5-5) got on the board with a solo home run by Michael Klein in the fourth inning, but it was only a hiccup in Thurston’s stellar effort. He posted scoreless frames in the fifth, sixth and seventh, as the Hilltoppers added to their lead in the fifth when Ivey pulled a 1-0 Gerry pitch into left field to score Kraft and Colie Currie to give his team a 4-1 lead.

With WKU leading 5-1 in the top of the eighth, the Bobcats put together a four-hit inning to get within one, but Sowell came in to strand runners on first and second, and then continued with a hitless ninth to earn his second save of the season on 31 pitches.

WKU and Ohio face off for Game 2 on Saturday, with first pitch at 1 p.m. at Nick Denes Field. Righty Paul Kirkpatrick will start for the Hilltoppers, where he will square off against Bobcats’ lefty Butch Baird.