UK baseball snapped its three game losing streak to Western Kentucky on Wednesday afternoon at Cliff Hagan Stadium with a 17-2 rout of the Hilltoppers. Prior to Wednesday’s victory, WKU had won eight of the last ten matchups between the two schools and has become a thorn in the side of UK in recent years.

The Cats used a total of 12 extra-base hits to jump out to a 12-1 lead after three innings and from there on out, UK pitching was able to relax and take control.

Freshman Zack Thompson fired six innings of two-run ball, with just one of those being earned. Thompson held WKU to five hits while striking out seven in route to picking up his first career college victory.

Junior second baseman Riley Mahan led the team offensively and continued his uptick in offensive production with his fifth straight two-hit game. After matching a career-high with four RBI’s Tuesday in the team’s 12-0 win over EKU, Mahan matched that yet again Wednesday going 3-5 with two doubles and a run scored.

UK had four players with three hits on Wednesday afternoon as Mahan was joined by Kole Cottam, Marcus Carson and Evan White.

White, who has been battling injury, returned to the lineup on Sunday and played the field for the first time since opening weekend on Wednesday. With a 3-4 day, White – who increased his hitting streak to 20 games – finished a triple shy of the cycle continuing his torrid start to the season and now holds a .714 batting average to lead the team.

While White’s start to the season is no surprise, both Carson and Mahan have been good compliments to the All-American. Mahan in particular was someone who came into 2017 with high hopes after a solid summer in the prestigious Cape Cod league. The junior has already totaled 14 RBI through 9 games after driving in 32 runs all of last year to establish himself as a key piece of UK’s lineup.

“I’m just really trying to put better at bats together with runners in scoring position,” Mahan said of his improvement. “I feel like sometimes I get away from that and do too much and all of the sudden I am not going to drive in runs. So not trying to do too much and just getting runs across and helping the team win is what I’ve tried to do.”

Mahan and Carson both have provided an especially nice lift to the UK lineup that was without its All-American. However, in its four victories, UK has tallied a combined 64 runs and will look to continue the offensive outburst when No. 23 UC Santa Barbara comes to town beginning Friday at 4 p.m..