The Western Kentucky Hilltoppers four-run 5th inning propelled them to a historic upset of the No. 17/18 Kentucky Wildcats Tuesday night at John Cropp Stadium.

The Hilltoppers (23-5) played with no fear against their nationally ranked, cross-state foe, and were opportunistic on offense.

"They came in with a really good gameplan," said Kentucky head coach Rachel Lawson. "They waited their turn, they were very patient and all of a sudden they had the big inning."

The big inning Lawson spoke of helped the Tops overcome a 1-0 deficit thanks to homers from junior Paige Carter and the sophomore pair of Jordan Thomas and Shannon Plese.

Western's pitcher also put in outstanding performances.

"Their pitcher did a great job on the mound. They kept their team in it. They threw tons of quality pitches and didn't allow many walks," Lawson said.

Junior Kelsey Aikey (6-3) and freshman Shelby Nunn tossed a combined seven innings of three-hit, one run work against the Cats potent offense.

Kentucky (21-11) did itself no favors by leaving four runners in scoring position and seven total runners stranded; a habit they carried over from last weekend's series against Missouri.

The shock of trailing a team that they historically dominate made the Cats overeager in the batter's box.

"I think they were pressing a little bit," Lawson said. "I also think that when we had chances to score and had runners in scoring position that we had a lot of selfish at-bats, which is not characteristic of our team."

Sophomore Mallory Peyton's solo shot in the bottom of the 4th, the Madisonville natives eighth of the year, was the only run the Cats hung on the scoreboard.

Kentucky has scored only four runs in its last 11 innings played. The team averaged better than five during a recent 12-game winning streak.

Junior Autumn Humes (7-6) gave the Cats 4.2 quality innings of work in the circle before back-to-back jacks by WKU chased her in favor of Grace Baalman, who ceded a single run in relief.

So how can the Cats stop their recent skid this weekend in Fayetteville against the Arkansas Razorbacks?

Lawson said her team needs to lean on the upperclassmen.

"Hopefully we have some mature players who are old enough and know how to take control of the situation in the next couple of days and give a little bit better focus," she said.