KALAMAZOO, Mich. – The Western Michigan baseball team saw four of its players named in the postseason All-Mid-American Conference (MAC) Awards Tuesday night, most notably junior Tanner Allison, who was named the MAC Player of the Year as well as First Team All-MAC.
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Tanner Allison: MAC Player of the Year & First Team All-MAC
Allison had a historic year for WMU as the junior hit .368 with a team-leading 17 doubles, nine home runs and 66 RBI. Allison, who broke the WMU Single Season RBI record, finished fourth in the nation in RBI per game (1.32) and ninth in total RBI (66). Overall this season, Allison led the MAC in batting average (.368) and RBI (66), tied for first in hits (75), was second in slugging percentage (.593), finished third in on-base percentage (.438), tied for third in doubles (17) and was third in total bases (121). Throughout the season, Allison had home runs at Georgia Tech, at East Tennessee State, at Northwestern, a grand slam at Evansville in the Broncos 4-3 win over the Aces and had an opposite field home run at Notre Dame among others. He's the second MAC Player of the Year in WMU history, joining Scott Conant who won the award in 1991.
Connor Smith: Second Team All-MAC
In 2016, Smith was named the MAC Freshman of the Year along with being Second Team All-MAC. This season, he hit .349 with 44 runs, 11 doubles, seven triples, two home runs and 34 RBI. Overall in the MAC, he finished third in batting average and led the league in triples. His seven triples this season were tied for sixth in the nation and his 0.15 triples per game was sixth in the nation.
Nick Vogelmeier: Second Team All-MAC
This is Vogelmeier's first MAC postseason award after the senior hit .323 with 42 runs, 11 doubles, two home runs and 25 RBI while drawing 26 walks with a .429 on-base percentage, which was good for fifth in the MAC. He upped his batting average to .358 and a team-leading .450 on-base percentage during MAC play.
Grant Miller: All-MAC Defensive Team
Miller was named to the All-MAC Tournament team a season ago and stayed hot into the 2017 season where he started all 50 games at third base with a .944 fielding percentage. Miller is as dependable as they come over at the hot corner, where the senior has made over 200 starts for the Broncos over his successful career.
