BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – The FIU baseball program dropped the Conference USA (CUSA) series opener Friday night, falling to the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers, 15-4, at Nick Denes Field.
 
FIU (7-12) fell behind early after Western Kentucky opened the scoring with a two-run homer in the first inning. Luca Reyes answered in the top of the second with a solo home run to deep left-center field—his fifth of the season—to cut the deficit to 2-1.
 
The Hilltoppers responded with three runs in the second and added another in the third to extend the lead. Reyes delivered again in the fourth inning with an RBI double, trimming the score to 6-2.
 
In the bottom half of the fourth, the reigning CUSA champions erupted for five runs to stretch the lead to 11-2. FIU answered with a pair of runs in the fifth, highlighted by an RBI double from Aidan Cohall and an RBI infield single from Mario Trivella.
 
Western Kentucky added two more runs in the fifth and another in the sixth to secure the run-rule victory.
 
On the mound, Preston Prince made his second start of the season, allowing five runs over two innings with two strikeouts. Quin McManmon worked two innings in relief, allowing four earned runs while striking out four. Cooper Foster tossed one inning with two strikeouts, while Jeremy Urena also saw action out of the bullpen.
 
Offensively, FIU recorded eight hits in the contest, with Cooper Rasmussen, Reyes and Trivella each posting multi-hit efforts. Cohall also recorded his team-leading ninth double of the season, which ranks among the top marks in Conference USA.

UP NEXT
FIU takes on Western Kentucky on Saturday, March 14 at 5 p.m. from Nick Denes Field. It wil be streamed live on ESPN+.

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