BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – The Sam Houston Bearkats were unable to take advantage of early opportunities, and the WKU Hilltoppers owned the middle innings to score a 6-0 win on Friday in the series opener at Nick Denes Field.  

Sam Houston (7-19, 1-3 CUSA) left the bases loaded in the first inning and two more on in the sixth, while WKU (23-3, 2-2 CUSA) scored six runs in the middle three innings and starter Jack Bennett made that stand up with 5.2 shutout innings and six strikeouts to move to 5-0 on the season. 

Bearkat starter Noah Kendrick retired the first eight hitters he faced and was scoreless until WKU scratched across single runs in both the fourth and fifth innings. The Toppers stretched things out when they put up four runs in the bottom of the sixth, an inning which included a 2-run homer by Thomas Marsala.  

Kendrick logged a career-long 5.0 innings in his first weekend start of the year and took the loss to fall to 0-4, freshman Connor Mondey put up a pair of zeros in his two innings of late relief.  

Lucas Hartman turned in a strong relief appearance for WKU with a career-high seven strikeouts in 3.1 shutout innings to earn his first save of the season.

WKU's Joe Siervo had the only multi-hit game for either team, picking up WKU's first two hits with a single in the third and an RBI triple in the fifth that made it a 2-0 game at the time. Addison Smith had a double in the first inning for SHSU, one of only four hits in the game for the Kats' offense.   
 
UP NEXT  
The Kats will look to even things up on Saturday in the second game of the series in a game now scheduled for a 1:00 p.m. first pitch on ESPN+.