Next stop: Oxford, Mississippi; WKU baseball heads to NCAA Regionals

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – Wednesday afternoon, the WKU baseball team was officially sent on its way to the Hilltoppers first NCAA Regional appearance since 2009.

Fans waited outside the entrance of Diddle Arena to cheer on the Tops as they embarked on their road trip to Mississippi for the Oxford Regional on the campus of Ole Miss.

WKU earned its bid to the tournament after clinching the Conference USA Championship on Sunday over the Jax State Gamecocks.

It was the first time the program had earned the title since joining the league in 2015.

As the team boarded the bus to gear up for a monumental weekend, Hilltopper Joe Siervo shared what’s likely to go on during the five-hour trek to Rebels territory.

“ We just play poker on the bus and just make fun of each other,” Siervo said. “We just have a good time and just love being around each other. I think we’re all happy that we’re going to Oxford and it’s just going to be awesome. We know the fans there are a little crazy and the atmosphere is just going to be great, so we’re all hyped.”

Friday will mark the program’s overall fifth appearance at the NCAA Regionals, and it’s no surprise that after this year’s accolades, this squad has reached that achievement.

After finishing the regular season with a record-breaking 42 wins, the Hilltoppers swept the postseason CUSA honors, headlined by Ryan Wideman as Player of the Year, Drew Whalen as Pitcher of the Year and Marc Rardin as Head Coach of the Year.

Before he boarded the bus today, he shared what he hopes these guys take away from the upcoming weekend.

“ You want them to have a good experience,” Rardin said. “You want them to have great memories, and performance goes with that a lot. The excitement’s there and the appreciation of it all. Our guys believe that they’ve earned this, and I believe that they’ve earned it as well. We’re ready to get down there and see what we got and show some people what we got.”