KALAMAZOO, Mich. – The Western Michigan baseball team is set to head down to Florida for a seven-game slate over break that includes three games at the Stetson Tournament, three games at the Snowbird Classic in Port Charlotte and an exhibition game against the Detroit Tigers Top Prospects at Joker Marchant Stadium.
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First the Broncos will battle three teams in the Stetson Tournament, facing UConn (3-4) on Friday, March 3 at 1 p.m., St. Joseph's (0-6) on Saturday, March 4 at 1 p.m. and then wrapping up the tournament against the host Hatters (3-4) on Sunday, March 5 at 3 p.m.
The Broncos will take Monday off, then head to Port Charlotte to battle Georgetown (4-5) on Tuesday, March 7 at noon before heading the Lakeland, Fla., to face the Tigers Prospects at 1 p.m. on Wednesday, March 8. After another off day on Thursday, WMU will face Northeastern (2-5) on Friday, March 10 and Villanova (0-7) on Saturday, March 11, both at 10 a.m.
WMU is coming off a 2-2 week, with a win over Grace College and East Tennessee State in the final game of a three-game series.
The Brown & Gold come in batting .302 with seven home runs, which rank third and second in the MAC, respectively. Tanner Allison comes in batting .379 with four home runs and eight RBI; he's fresh off being named the MAC West Player of the Week and College Sports Madness MAC Player of the Week. Grant Miller has been hot as well, batting .500 and tying Allison for the team-lead in RBI with eight. Alex Goodwin (.350), Jesse Forestell (.310) and Nick Vogelmeier/Connor Smith (.286) round out the Broncos top-six bats.
Kyle Mallwitz comes in boasting a 0.82 ERA and leads the team in innings (11.0) and strikeouts (16). Jacob Piechota is 2-1 with season after picking up both wins last week, he has 10 strikeouts in 10 innings pitched thus far. Freshman Brandon Petersen still holds an unblemished ERA, pitching 7.0 innings with 11 strikeouts.