BOWLING GREEN, Kentucky (April 8, 2022) – On an unseasonably cold night for early April, the FIU baseball team fell 7-4 to the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers to open the three-game series.
 
Jayden Melendez led the way offensively for the Panthers with the first three-hit of his young FIU career. Noel Perez added two more hits of his own to extend his team-best hit streak to seven games.
 
Robert Sotolongo drove in a pair of runs in the series opener while Jorge Ramirez plated one on this third home run of the season.
 
Shortstop Steven Ondina extended his on-base streak to seven games by earning a walk in the seventh inning.
 
After an hour delay due to wintery precipitation in the area, the homestanding Hilltoppers jumped out to an early 2-0 lead after the first inning by scoring on a wild pitch and a Panther error.
 
Ramirez cut the WKU lead in half in the top of the fifth when the FIU designated hitter took the first pitch of the frame over the left center wall to energize Blue & Gold bats.
 
Following the Ramirez homer, Melendez and Perez tallied back-to-back singles before coming around to score on a Sotolongo single to take a 3-2 lead halfway through the fifth.
WKU regained the lead with a pair in the bottom of the fifth before building a 7-3 advantage by scoring three more in the sixth.
 
Sotolongo drove in the final Panther run of the evening in the seventh by scoring Melendez with a sacrifice fly to cut the score to the final score of 7-4.
 
Patrick Pridgen fanned six over 5.1 innings of work and was handed the loss.
 
In relief of Pridgen, Jan Figueroa tossed 2.2 innings of one-hit ball.
 
UP NEXT
FIU and WKU will play in game two of the weekend set on Saturday. First pitch is slated for 2 p.m. ET.
  
SOCIAL MEDIA
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