WKU’s hope for a series sweep was stopped, along with much of its offense, Sunday as the Lady Toppers dropped the series finale against Louisiana-Monroe in Monroe, La.     

The pitching that was a strength for WKU the entire weekend stayed strong as sophomore pitcher Emily Rousseau allowed just one run in the 1-0 losing effort.

The one run the Warhawks scratched across came in the fifth inning when Rousseau walked a batter with the bases loaded.

WKU got a hit in the sixth and seventh innings, but neither base runner would come around to score and WKU was shut out for the first time since a March 16 loss against Louisville.

Head Coach Tyra Perry was pleased with how Rousseau pitched Sunday and was particularly impressed with Rousseau’s control.

“She really didn’t have a lot of walks,” Perry said. “She had one key walk but other than that she pitched really well.”

Rousseau gave up five hits and three walks to go along with three strikeouts in her six innings of work.

Rousseau, who gave up one run in a winning effort in the series opener, said she felt comfortable in the circle this weekend and said that she tried to attack hitters in a few different ways.

“We were trying to spread (the ball) around,” she said. “We recognized from yesterday where they were standing in the box so we threw a lot on the outside today.”

Rousseau also mentioned that her screwball, curveball and changeup were all moving well and that she had control over all three pitches.

While Perry was happy with how Rousseau performed, she was more critical of the offense on Sunday.

“We didn’t make adjustments,” Perry said. “We needed to hit the ball on the ground and we hit too many in the air.”

WKU had five hits on the day and got four base runners into scoring position.

Perry also said after the way the first two games of the series went, that she wasn’t expecting such a low scoring games on Sunday.

“We scored a lot of runs off of their pitcher yesterday so I thought we would do the same today,” she said. “But we didn’t get timely hits.”

The Lady Toppers will be back at home this week for the beginning of a seven game home stand that starts with a game against conference opponent Middle Tennessee State on Tuesday.

Rousseau said she is looking forward to the longest stretch of home games on the schedule.

“We’re excited about this next weekend,” she said. “We’re going to be at home so its going to be a lot more intense and a lot more fun.”