Topper Baseball Sweeps Liberty, Takes First Place Heading into Last Month of Regular Season
Taking care of business against a team ballooned by a weak CUSA schedule thus far, the Tops found a way against a high powered offense in Liberty, winning three close ones to seize control of CUSA.
Western Kentucky Baseball has done something truly rare in its 105 year history. The Tops sit alone in first place with three conference series remaining with games in hand. La Tech can only tie WKU’s 11-4 pace by week’s end, and WKU may have three more conference victories by that point.
Setting the Stage
WKU sits alone atop Conference USA for the first time in its ten year history with the conference. Even in the Sun Belt days, WKU rarely was the class of the league. Only three times did WKU ever take home the conference title, and they were not the favorite every time they danced. Western Kentucky has only been to the NCAA Tournament in baseball four times in its history: 1980, 2004, 2008, 2009. For such a storied athletic department, baseball has rarely been a top flight sport at WKU.
That may all be about to change, because Marc Rardin and his transfer and junior college-laden roster is knocking on the door of the astounding.
At 29-12 and 11-4 in CUSA, WKU certainly is working on rewriting the regular season history books, but if they were to win the #1 seed in the Conference USA Tournament and go on to win the tournament, that would honestly possibly be enough (regardless of the NCAA Tournament result) to justify 2024 as the greatest season in WKU Baseball history.
WKU has never made a Super Regional, but came close in 2009, when they were a couple of innings away against Ole Miss in Oxford.
Tops Sweep Liberty
This weekend, WKU had a pretty epic battle set up for them. First placed Liberty (picked second in the preseason) had a disappointing non-conference, but was (and still is) in position to make a run at a Conference USA regular season title. They will need to beat out three top 100 teams and get some help, but they are certainly no slouch team.
Liberty has a good offense, but their pitching is a little more suspect. WKU’s 4.42 team ERA makes Liberty’s respectable 5.29 look like their main weakness.
Ultimately, WKU got the timely pitching and hitting that it needed to win the series. Looking at the numbers, it felt obvious that WKU needed to score runs, and that’s what they ultimately did. WKU beat Liberty 6-4 on Friday, with Lucas Litteral shutting it down late in that one. Western won 10-7 Saturday, coming back from 6-4 down and tightening up the pitching after some early inning woes. Western then won a left-on-base battle Sunday, winning 5-4 and getting just enough.
Nation leading closer Mason Burns made it about as interesting as possible, leaving bases loaded and men on second and third at the end of his two finished innings. However, at the end of the day, he came in for more than one inning and didn’t allow a capable Liberty lineup a single run despite their chances.
What’s encouraging is WKU didn’t necessarily win the way it always has this season: Small ball and pitching. Instead, WKU still had some executed sacrifices and still gave up a respectable six runs per game against a good offense, but mainly did damage with some home runs and timely pitching and defending. Interestingly, in the most offensive game of the series (10-7 WKU) Saturday, the Tops didn’t homer a single time, only getting two extra base hits. Go figure that in the highest scoring game, WKU manufactured nearly all of its runs.
WKU’s pitching staff was not invincible this weekend, but it had defense to back it up in tough spots, and they did buckle down when they had to. Given that there was no more than a four run lead at any point all weekend for either team, the fact that the pitching did as well as it did in a fairly offensive series says a great deal about WKU’s togetherness as a team and their will to win.
At the end of the day, WKU won two of its games by avoiding giving up runs despite baserunners, and hitting the long ball. WKU had five home runs in those two outings. Considering WKU only has 28 home runs in 41 games, this was way above their normal production. On Saturday, it was very windy, and both teams struggled to get the ball up and out. However, WKU was able to find ways to score an impressive ten runs, playing small ball for most of the game, completing six total sacrifices.
Injury Report
Cristian Garcia played in Friday’s game, but injured a lat and is expected to be back soon. However, he did miss Saturday and Sunday’s game nursing his injury, so watch out for Garcia to enter back into the lineup sometime before the end of the regular season.
Jaylin Rae, in an amazing show of toughness, banged a foul ball straight off of his knee and crumpled to the ground. He laid there clearly in pain for a couple of minutes, ran it off, and went back up to bat. He then cranked a home run for one of the most incredible at-bats you’ll ever see. However, in the postgame interview on the radio, he did say that his knee was killing him and that when he got on first after being hit by pitch (again, ouch) on his shoulder, if he had to run, he wasn’t sure how he would do on the bases. Clearly he had some swelling and hopefully has minimal damage going forward. We’ll see if he misses the game Tuesday at Louisville. With less than two days to recover, that may be a difficult ask. Jaylin is a very versatile player and has played at five different positions so far this season.
Lizama Red Hot
With two home runs, six hits, and eight RBI this weekend, Ethan Lizama really had his bat going. With at least one hit and an RBI in each game, in a close series, it could be argued he single-handedly helped the Tops sweep Liberty. A monster series, Lizama is now tied for the team lead with five home runs and stands alone as the Toppers’ number one RBI guy at 33.
WKU Nationally Relevant at 82 in the RPI
We can debate about the relevance of the RPI in college baseball, but while we have it and use it, WKU is in the top quarter of all of NCAA Division I at 82 this week. WKU plays #84 U of L with yet another opportunity for a top 100 win.
To clarify some tweets and comments from our social media, we had said that WKU has an outside shot at an at-large bid, that even if WKU doesn’t win CUSA, as a top 100 caliber team, they may be on a couple of consideration lists by the NCAA Selection Committee, and that has not happened in a decade for WKU. Essentially, the point was that WKU is relevant. Even if WKU sweeps the rest of its schedule, it is almost impossible for WKU to even be on the bubble, and WKU will certainly need to win CUSA to make the NCAA Tournament. However, if WKU were to win out or maybe lose one more game, they will find their RPI in the 50s or 60s by year’s end, an amazing achievement for a program that is quickly gaining momentum.
WKU is now one of five CUSA programs in the top 100 of the RPI: Dallas Baptist (17), La Tech (56), Sam Houston (66), WKU (84), and FIU (100). Once again, CUSA has proven itself solid in baseball, and Western Kentucky is in unfamiliar but thrilling position in the top 100 of the RPI.
Up Next
Rivalry Week is more like a fortnight for the Tops as Louisville hosts WKU Tuesday. An interesting matchup, WKU beat Louisville at The Nick a couple of weeks, and I’m sure the Cardinals will be a little juiced up to not lose to their in-state rivals for the second time in a row.
After Louisville, it’s a trip down to Murfreesboro to take on arch rival Middle Tennessee. WKU struggled against MTSU last season, so even though MTSU is at the bottom of the league in the standings (T-7th at 4-11 in CUSA), don’t write off the Blue Raiders to try to spoil the party.
Each game will be crucial down the stretch, and with a trip to Ruston to battle La Tech on the horizon, WKU needs every game against inferior opponents to go as planned. WKU could easily get swept in front of a truly passionate baseball crowd in Ruston. La Tech has a losing record on the road and a 19-5 record at home.
Before La Tech, WKU goes to UNC Asheville, a team that has had a tough season but has a 15-9 record at home themselves. Surely Asheville will have their bullseye straight on the surging Hilltoppers.
The only other remaining games on WKU’s schedule are at home against Bellarmine on May 7, and a home CUSA series vs. New Mexico State before the CUSA Baseball Tournament starts Wednesday, May 22 in Ruston, Louisiana.
If you can’t make it up to Louisville Tuesday, or make it to Murfreesboro over the weekend, as always, tune in to @ TheTowelRackWKU on Twitter/X, and tune in to @ RedoutPodcast for our video content, secondary content, and of course, WKU’s longest running podcast.
GO TOPS!