Western dropped its third straight conference series with a 7-4 loss to Louisiana-Monroe Sunday afternoon.

The Toppers (16-21, 8-10 Sun Belt Conference) held a 3-1 lead heading into the bottom of the eighth inning, but gave up six runs and didn’t recover.

The Warhawks (25-17, 13-7 SBC) took Friday’s series-opener 13-7, and Western forced a rubber match with a 8-5 victory Saturday.

Freshman pitcher Matt Ridings threw his second career complete game in Saturday’s contest, throwing 144 pitches with 10 strikeouts and one walk.

- Will Perkins

Lady Tops take two out of three

A five-run sixth inning for the Lady Toppers was good enough to get the score back to even against North Texas on Sunday at the WKU Sports Complex.

Western ended up losing the game in the tenth inning 9-7. The Lady Toppers won the first two games on Saturday 5-2 and 2-0.

Sophomore second baseman Terri Ellingsworth went 2 for 5 at the plate. She added three RBIs.

Sophomore pitcher Jennifer Kempf started the game and gave up an early five runs.

Kempf was relieved in the fourth inning by sophomore Ryan Rogge. Rogge quieted the Mean Green bats giving up seven hits in 6 and one-third innings.

The loss ended the Lady Topper’s winning streak at nine.

- Andrew Robinson