Within three outs of securing a win at No. 5 Vanderbilt, Western Kentucky saw the Commodores tie the game in the ninth inning and walk it off in the 10th by a score of 5-4 on Tuesday night.

WKU starter Jack Lambert went a career-high 4 1/3 innings on 89 pitches – including 55 strikes – and allowed two earned runs. He allowed five hits and walked three, but was able to pitch out of a bases-loaded situation in the bottom of the second while allowing only one run.

The Hilltoppers led 2-1 at that point, after back-to-back two-out, RBI doubles by shortstop Kevin Lambert and third baseman Sam McElreath put two on the board for the Tops. That was after infielder Jack Wilson led off the top of the second with a double.

WKU added another run in the third when designated hitter Dillon Nelson grounded home Davis Sims after the first baseman led off with a double and moved to third on a ground out.

Jack Lambert got one out in the fifth, but allowed one run and saw the potential game-tying run on second base when WKU coach John Pawlowski went to the bullpen. Tops reliever Bailey Sutton stranded the Vanderbilt base runner, getting a line out and strikeout to escape the frame with a 3-2 lead.

WKU’s Ray Zuberer III got things started from the top of the lineup in the eighth. The junior from Owensboro worked a nine-pitch walk after facing an 0-2 count, then Sims lifted a single to left field to put a pair of runners on base for right fielder Jake Sanford.

The back-to-back reigning Conference USA Hitter of the Week – having doubled in the first inning to break a 16-inning streak of no extra-base hits allowed by Commodore starter Mason Hickman – forced a move to a lefty from the bullpen.

With a 1-2 count, Sanford grounded an opposite-field single that brought Zuberer home for a 4-2 lead.

Sutton and righty Jacob Green held Vanderbilt scoreless in the eighth, with Green coming in with runners on the corners and only one out to strand both of Sutton’s base runners.

After WKU was retired in the top of the ninth, Green tried to close it out. Third baseman Austin Martin led off with a solo home run to bring the Commodores within one, then right fielder J.J. Bleday hit the game-tying shot – his 12th of the season – against lefty Dalton Shoemake to make it a 4-all game.

Shoemake retired the next three batters to get the game to extra innings – a situation where the Hilltoppers had been 2-0 on the season – but again the offense went down in order in the 10th.

Righty Maddex Richardson began the bottom of the frame and the Vanderbilt lineup circled back around to Bleday with two outs and the bases loaded. This time, the reigning SEC Co-Player of the Week blooped a single to center field for the game-winning hit, as the Commodores claimed the 5-4 win.

WKU travels to Middle Tennessee for a three-game series this weekend. The Friday-to-Sunday Conference USA set in Murfreesboro, Tenn., will have first pitch times of 6 p.m., 4 p.m. and 1 p.m., respectively.{&end}