Box Score NASHVILLE, Tenn.- The Belmont University baseball team (4-3) saw its hot bats cooled by the visiting Western Kentucky Hilltoppers, as it fell 10-4 Tuesday evening at E.S. Rose Park.
The game originally scheduled for 4 p.m. was delayed an hour and fifteen minutes due to inclement weather. Belmont was the lone OVC team to get its game in Tuesday night as the other contests were postponed.
Freshman pitcher Austin Krzeminski (Roswell, Ga.) was saddled with the loss in his first collegiate start. The Bruins were limited to just six hits as they were stymied by the WKU pitchers.
Alex Ward (Murfreesboro, Tenn.) led the Bruins with two hits.
Connor Etheridge (Springfield, Ill.) was a bright spot out of the BU bullpen as he logged 4.0 scoreless innings with two hits and three strikeouts.
The rain stopped shortly before game time, but the howling winds never died down and certainly impacted the game. Several balls were knocked down by the intense winds but also several aided by the gusts. One of the latter scenarios happened in the top of the third inning when Kaleb Duckworth put WKU on the board with a three-run round tripper to right center. Duckworth broke the game open with a line drive homerun that received some extra juice from the wind. Another example of the windy conditions was highlighted in the bottom of the third when Brennan Washington (Murfreesboro, Tenn.) flied out to left. Washington unloaded on an offering from WKU starting pitcher Logan Weins but saw what could be a homerun on another day result in a towering pop up to the left fielder and an out.
WKU pushed two more across in the top of the fourth off Krzeminski, but Belmont battled back to score three in the bottom of the inning.
For the next four innings, neither team would tally a run as Etheridge and Sam Higgs of WKU both pitched very effectively out of their respective bullpens.
Belmont trailed just 6-3 heading into the ninth, but saw WKU pad its lead with four additional scores. The Bruins rallied in the ninth but came away with just a run and ultimately fell 10-4.
The Bruins return to action tomorrow when they welcome the Evansville Purple Aces to town for a 4 p.m. first pitch at Rose Park.
