Little Rock, Ark. — The Western Kentucky University baseball team sent 15 men and scored 11 runs in the fifth inning to come from behind and win the opener of a three-game Sun Belt Conference series 14-5 over UALR Friday evening at Gary Hogan Field.

The win improved the Toppers to 25-20 on the year, as they matched their win total from the entire 2007 season. The also improved to 12-10 in the league. The Trojans dropped to 11-29 and 5-15 in conference play.

Trailing 5-2 entering the fifth inning, WKU had been limited to just three hits off Trojan starter Levi Laughlin. However, the Toppers quickly loaded the bases with nobody out. Three straight singles by Wade Gaynor, Jake Wells and Jeremy Coleman tied the game at 5-5 and ended the day for Laughlin. After reliever Mike Rogers got J.B. Paxson to fly out for the first out of the inning, Matt Payton singled home Gaynor to give the Toppers their first lead of the game.

Scott Kaskie followed with a two-run single, and Matt Hightower doubled home a pair. After a RBI single by Dayleg — his second hit of the inning — Chad Cregar singled to put runners at the corners. A wild pitch allowed Dayleg to come home with the tenth WKU run of the inning before Gaynor picked up his second RBI of the inning with a double to plate Cregar with the final run of the frame.

Of WKU’ 16 hits in the game, 10 came during the fifth inning.

WKU added its 14th run in the eighth inning when Matt Payton led off the inning with his third home run in the last five games to make it a 14-5 game.

After the Trojans scored five runs on 11 hits in three-plus innings off of WKU starter Bart Carter, the Topper bullpen blanked UALR on just five hits over the final six innings. Evan Teague (3-0) got the win as he struck out four Trojans in 2.0 innings, and was the pitcher of record when the Hilltoppers took the lead in the fifth. Laughlin (5-3) suffered the loss as he allowed eight runs on seven hits in four innings.

The Hilltoppers were able to jump out to an early lead when a one-out double by Terrence Dayleg scored Matt Hightower all the way from first to give WKU a quick 1-0 lead. However, a pair of two-out rallies in UALR’s first two at bats gave it an early cushion. With the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the first, Greg McCarthy singled home a pair to give the Trojans a 2-1 lead. In the next frame, back-to-back singles by Matt Apfel and Robert Taylor drove in two more runs to stretch the UALR lead to 4-1. Both teams added runs in the fourth inning before the Toppers exploded offensively in the fifth.

Both teams finished with 16 hits in the contest, but only one of UALR’s went for extra bases — a double by David Guffey to lead off the bottom of the first. The Toppers had five doubles and a home run scattered among their 16 hits. Dayleg led the way with four hits, while Kaskie, Cregar, Gaynor and Payton had two hits apiece. Kaskie also drove in a team-high three runs. Matt Apfel finished with three hits for the Trojans.

The teams will continue their weekend series on Saturday with a 3 p.m. (CDT) first pitch. The series finale is scheduled for 1 p.m. on Sunday.