KALAMAZOO, Mich. – With the conclusion of the 2017 Western Michigan baseball season, let's take a look back at what this year's version of the Broncos accomplished.
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WMU finished 24-29 overall and went 12-12 in the Mid-American Conference (MAC), advancing to its fourth straight MAC Tournament and keeping the six-year streak alive of winning at least one game in the tournament in the seasons they qualified. The Broncos won the Stetson Tournament during their spring trip to Florida, defeating UCONN, St. Joes and the host Hatters to help the team to a 5-1 record during the Florida trip. During the regular season, the Broncos earned series wins over Evansville, Miami, Eastern Michigan, Ohio and swept Buffalo to finish out the regular season. WMU also split the season series with Michigan State.
The Broncos, who set a new WMU team record with 591 hits this season, were a tough team to deal with at the plate all season long, where the team finished with a .308 batting average and had eight every day players batting at least .300. The Broncos finished the regular season ranked No. 18 in the nation in batting average and had the highest in WMU team history since hitting .310 in 2002. They also had the most runs scored since 2008, the most doubles since 2008 and the most home runs since 2010.
Individually, Tanner Allison had a breakout year at the plate, where the junior was named to two All-American teams (thus far), won the MAC Player of the Year and was named First Team All-MAC after hitting .356 with 18 doubles, nine home runs, 68 RBI and a .574 slugging percentage. His 68 RBI set the WMU single season record, passing Frank Alferi's record of 63 in 1999. Following the season, Connor Smith and Nick Vogelmeier were both named Second Team All-MAC while Grant Miller was named to the All-MAC Defensive Team.
Along with Allison's single season RBI record, a number of Broncos can be found in the record book following the 2017 season. Allison had the fourth most hits in a single season (77) while Smith tied for the seventh most hits and Vogelmeier tied for the 16th most. Allison's 18 doubles were tied for sixth in single season history and Smith's seven triples tied for third. Throughout the season, Allison had a 20-game hit streak that tied for the second highest in WMU history while Tyler Frank's 15-game hit streak tied for the 12th highest. Miller can be found for his career numbers, where he is fourth in career hits (223) and has a commanding lead in the career hit by pitch tally (52). He also tied for the fifth most walks in school history.
On the mound, Kyle Mallwitz tied for the 11th most strikeouts in a single season (79) while tied for the fifth most appearances (26) in the eighth most innings pitched (93.1) in WMU single season history. Gabe Berman tallied three saves this season, adding on to his WMU career-leading 24.
