Dallas Baptist uses middle innings to even series
Published 11:11 am Sunday, May 10, 2026
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Western Kentucky third baseman JP Acosta (4) runs home to score a run on single by right fielder Ethan Reynolds (35) in the Hilltoppers’ 5-3 loss to the Dallas Baptist Patriots at Nick Denes Field on Saturday, May 9, 2026. (Grace McDowell / The Daily News)
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Western Kentucky right fielder Ethan Reynolds (35) bats in the Hilltoppers’ 5-3 loss to the Dallas Baptist Patriots at Nick Denes Field on Saturday, May 9, 2026. (Grace McDowell / The Daily News)
The Western Kentucky baseball team couldn’t build off momentum, dropping Saturday’s game to Dallas Baptist 5-3 on Saturday at Nick Denes Field.
Coming off a huge walk-off win in Friday’s series opener, WKU (27-24 overall, 12-14 Conference USA) was unable to secure the series win — with Dallas Baptist (29-22, 17-9) taking control in the middle innings and holding off the Hilltoppers to set up a rubber match in Sunday’s series finale.
WKU got out to a 2-0 lead after three innings.
Ethan Reynolds opened the scoring with a two-out RBI single in the second inning, with Lane Arroyos adding an RBI double in the third.
Dallas Baptist got two runs to tie it in the fifth — including a two-out RBI double from Brooks Sartain — before taking the lead in the sixth. Chayton Krauss opened the inning with a solo shot to left to make the score 3-2. Dylan Cupp added a two-out RBI single and then got caught in a rundown trying to steal second, allowing Dylan Schlaegel to score from third before the out was recorded.
“I really thought the fourth and fifth inning (were the difference),” WKU coach Marc Rardin said. “The bottom of the fourth — 7,8,9 hole and they were just easy out and rollovers. Then they scored two in the top of the fifth. They had momentum. And then in the bottom of the fifth after they scored two, our leadoff and our two hole and three hole were out easy. So there is two quick innings, no stress in those innings. Then they go and score three more. The momentum just shifted and was just glowing out of their dugout.”
WKU got a run back on an RBI double by Daniel Stewart in the bottom of the sixth, but stranded two runners in scoring position. The Hilltoppers put two more on in the eighth but couldn’t make a dent into the deficit. It was the final scoring chance of the day, with WKU going in order in the ninth.
“Baseball is about the two-out, two-run RBIs,” Rardin said. “The two-out hits that score two. It’s about hitting balls forward. It’s about hitting them harder. You have to do that with what your approach is. If you are just in there to try to put everything in play, you can do that but it’s going to be rollovers and popups and not be competitive. That’s not who we are.”
WKU finished with eight hits — including two each from Arroyos and Camden Ross. The Hilltoppers finished 3-for-12 with runners in scoring position, stranding eight.
Despite the loss, WKU pretty much locked up a spot in the Conference Tournament later this month. WKU ends its home schedule on Sunday before closing out the regular season at Delaware next weekend.
“You have to keep working every game and getting better,” Rardin said. “You are trying to get momentum at the end of the season — get a little hot and get a roll going. We were right here today. As bad as we can sit here and think that we played from the fourth inning through the ninth inning, you would think it was a 15-3 ballgame. It was a 5-3 game with a couple of different times to tie it up and we didn’t. I’d rather be in that position and have a chance then to go my office and be like man, we had no shot today.”
About Micheal Compton
I am a sports reporter and movie critic for the Bowling Green Daily News.
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