WKU Baseball will continue its road trip April 4-6, traveling to No. 17 Dallas Baptist for a three-game Conference USA series.
The Hilltoppers are coming off a 5-4 extra innings loss to No. 23 Vanderbilt on Tuesday. The loss took WKU to 4-4 on the road and an overall record of 25-4. WKU also holds a 4-2 CUSA record.
Against Vanderbilt, the Hilltoppers’ top three hitters, juniors Carlos Vasquez and Ryan Wideman, and senior Ethan Lizama, went 6-for-15 with two RBIs and scored all of the Hilltoppers’ runs. The Hilltopper pitching allowed nine hits, two walks and struck out six batters.
This season, WKU’s pitching staff has been vital to the team’s success. WKU has a 2.54 ERA, tied for the best in all of college baseball, along with 276 strikeouts.
Senior Jack Bennett will start game one of the series. Bennett currently holds the second-best ERA in college baseball with a 0.86. In his last outing, Bennett threw 5.2 shutout innings, allowed zero runs, three hits, three walks and struck out six.
Junior Dawson Hall will take the mound in game two. Haller made his first start last weekend against Sam Houston, going three innings, keeping SHSU to zero runs, two hits, one walk and striking out five.
Sophomore Drew Whalen will pitch game three. Whalen started game two against SHSU, throwing 6.2 innings, keeping them to three hits, four walks and striking out 10. Whalen sits at a 1.93 ERA with 11 walks and 57 strikeouts this season.
Dallas Baptist comes into the weekend with a 19-9 record and a 4-2 conference record. The Patriots are coming off a 14-4 midweek win against UT Arlington. Last weekend, DBU traveled to La Cruces and took two of three games from New Mexico State. The Patriots outscored NMSU 33-24 in the series.
The series will begin Friday at 6 p.m. and will continue on Saturday at 3 p.m. The series will close on Sunday with the first pitch set for 1 p.m.
Sports Reporter David Quintanilla can be reached at davidquintanilla0610@gmail.com.
