Baseball | March 23, 2017

Fighting through losses is nothing new to the men of the WMU baseball team. After getting off to an 0-9 start last season, the young team finished strong by winning its first ever Mid-American Conference (MAC) Tournament Championship. This year, the team got off to another rocky start beginning the season 1-5. Thanks to an unreal performance by the offense where six players finished over .300. The Broncos concluded the spring break tour 5-1 with their only loss coming against Georgetown.

Playing outside and getting more at-bats outside has made a big difference for Western Michigan and helped them to get into a groove of winning, as the team constantly works through the disadvantage of facing teams who are used to outside play and practice.

"The game is meant to be played outdoors and we prepare inside to play teams outside that prepare outside," head coach Billy Gernon said. "We don't make excuses for it we just battle the adversity."

Although the inconsistent weather up north can be a hindrance for proper preparation, the team embraced the chance for it to help them later on in conference play.

"It creates a 'get yourself ready' for conference atmosphere when you know there's other teams coming out of the north that havent been playing outside for a month before you get there," Gernon said. "It levels the playing field."

The spring break trip to Florida was a great experience for both the coaching staff and players. Especially the opportunity to compete against a major league team like the Tigers.

Sophomore shortstop Connor Smith also enjoyed the opportunity to interact and ask the Tigers' players questions, a chance they might not get otherwise.

 "It is fun to compare yourself to those guys and it was really cool to pick their brains while at second base, like asking them what city they are from, things like that," Smith said.

Over spring break Smith either led the team or tied for the team lead in most major stat categories, finishing with a .714 batting average that led to his first career MAC West Player of the Week award, an accolade Smith is really excited about. Western Michigan had back-to-back-to-back MAC West Player of the week awardees before this last week.

Smith believes that the team experience with starting off the season slow taught the young team valuable lessons. Because of the situation the Broncos were in last year, they know how to push through any hardship. Joking that if they can start off 0-9 last year and win it all they can definitely deal with a 1-5 start.

"One through nine we're basically all returners and last year we were all freshmen and being a freshman was tough coming into a situation like this was a little overwhelming," Smith said. "But as a team we're a lot more mature and we know as a team what we need to do to get where we were last year and get beyond that," Smith said.

Western Michigan is one of four Mid-American Conference teams with a record above .500 and is hopeful about the team's overall success as the season plays out.