Box Score
CHICAGO - Western Michigan softball's offensive output on Tuesday afternoon consisted of Lexi Jager's fourth home run of the season and Samantha Vargocko's race home on a wild pitch, but it was enough to take down Loyola-Chicago, 2-1, in the Broncos' final non-conference game of the season.
Kyla Sullivan was on point in the circle for Western Michigan (18-15) when her team needed her to be, allowing just two hits and no earned runs in her 15th complete game of the season. Sullivan did not allow a Rambler (15-23-1) to reach base until the bottom of the third inning when Haley Ambrosch singled down the left field line with outs.
That hit did lead to Loyola-Chicago's only run of the afternoon. After stealing second, Ambrosch scored on a Jager error at third base when Ellen Kresl recorded an infield single. As it happens in most cases, a defensive error is made in one half of an inning and that person come up to bat in the next half inning.
Jager led off the top of the fourth in a big way, taking her fourth-career home run over the left field wall, tying the score for the Broncos. Western Michigan had an opportunity to tack a couple of more runs on the board with back-to-back base hits from Lauren Fuller and Michelle Bendewald but the inning ended with two stranded base runners on first and second.
Vargocko broke the tie and gave WMU the decisive one-run margin of victory in the top of the sixth. The Joliet, Ill., native doubled with one out in the frame to set up the score. She advanced to third on a Fuller ground out and later scored on a wild pitch from Rambler starting pitcher Amy Solava.
Also registering hits for the Broncos were Becky Bartosz, with a one-out single up the middle in the second inning, and Mandi Sayres, on a base knock to right field in the top of the seventh.
After the two lone hits in the third, Sullivan gave up just two walks the rest of the way. Loyola-Chicago did advance a runner to third base in the bottom of the seventh but failed to bring in the tying run when Solava struck out swinging to end the game.
WMU finished the non-conference portion of its schedule with a mark of 9-8. The Broncos will close out its Mid-American Conference and regulra season schedule this weekend when Ball State (May 2) and Miami (May 3-4) come to Kalamazoo this weekend.
