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Author: Matt Ridings WKU Hilltoppers


Tops Continue to Struggle, get ready for rival MTSU
May 17, 2010 at 5:51 pm

After missing last week, I’m finally back! The past two weeks have been so hectic that I couldn’t even find time to do my weekly blog so I apologize to anyone who got online looking for one this past week! After our weekend series against Arkansas Little Rock (UALR) two weekends ago, we had basically two days to take all of our exams before we left Wednesday to head to Lafayette, Louisiana. The weekend against UALR started off great as we scored 3 runs in the bottom of the 9th to come from behind and win 5-4. Saturday was another very eventful day for the WKU Baseball program as we celebrated 100 years of WKU sports with the dedication of the Paul Orberson Clubhouse. We were all fortunate enough to get to meet Mr. Orberson as well as the many other people who made our Clubhouse possible. We cannot thank them enough for their donations and everything that they have done to help our program!! Unfortunately, we came up short and lost on Saturday but the pregame celebrations made it a day none of us will forget! Heading into the weekend we had won 17 straight home weekend series and we had a great chance heading into Sunday to make it 18 straight. However, we came up short again, losing 4-2, dropping the series. We were now 13-11 in the conference with only two weekend series left. We knew this series loss had hurt our chances of getting an at-large bid, but with a road trip to Louisiana Lafayette coming up, we had to regroup fast and get ready to face the hottest team in our league.

Well after two tough days of exams for everybody, we were all finally done with classes and ready to head down to Cajun Land! I think I can speak for everyone on the team when I say that we absolutely love going to Lafayette to play! I don’t know how it has worked out this way but this is our 4th straight year going down there and it is also the site of our Conference Tournament Championship from 2 years ago, so a few guys on the team have some great memories from there. The atmosphere is also very different from any other team in our conference, and the fan support there is great! Since classes and finals were over, we headed out Wednesday night, driving to Tuscaloosa, AL and stopping there for the night before arriving in Lafayette Thursday afternoon. Even though it was a long bus ride both there and back, we passed the time by with some catchphrase, some card games, and our new favorite game, changing names in people’s phones in hope of confusing them!! Not everyone had as much fun with that last game however!!

Our weekend once again got off to a great start with a hard fought 2-1 win on Friday night, which ended Lafayette’s 12 game conference winning streak. I was also lucky enough Friday night to get to be on the same field as a movie star almost every baseball player has heard of! Roger Dorn, from the Major League series, made a guest appearance over at First Base for the Hilltoppers! Luckily Saturday and Sunday we got our normal first baseman back, Jake “GiGi” Wells. Unfortunately for the third weekend in a row, we failed to win the series, losing Saturday 12-5, and Sunday 4-3 in 10 innings. Lately we have been playing good enough to win more games, just have not been getting the breaks we need! We just have to keep working hard and continue to fight until the last game of the year and we will be alright!

Just like every other road weekend, we once again had tremendous fan support. And thanks to a well executed surprise, we had two more fans this past weekend than we normally have! My girlfriend and her mom drove the 11 hours to Lafayette without me knowing and surprised me before the game Friday! I had absolutely no idea they were coming but I’m glad they did and it was a great surprise!! Lastly, I wanted to say Happy 29th anniversary to my parents and an early Happy Birthday to my dad!! Coming up this weekend is our last home series of the year as we host MTSU. They have been playing really well lately and it should be another great series! Saturday’s game is also Senior Day as Bart Carter, Garrie Krueger, Jake Wells, Shane Cameron, Matt Payton, Adam Reynolds, David “Cajun” Jones and myself will be recognized before the game! Until next week, God Bless!!


Bart, Shane, Payton, Garrie, Jake, and me.. The Seniors!