Game Stats
KENT, Ohio - Sunday afternoon, the final day of the regular season, was the
definition of drama for the Western Michigan softball team as a grand
slam off the bat of Meredith Whitney tied the game in the third and
Lexi Jager decided things in the top of the eighth, setting a new
program record for home runs in a season (8) and a career (13), with a
three-run bomb.
"Even though I didn't have a hit and have been in kind of a slump, coach kept drilling into me to stay over the plate and things will come. Luckily they did today," commented Jager after the game. "I didn't know that it was going to be a home run. I hoped it left the infield or it dropped somewhere in the outfield so we could put another run on the board. It wasn't until I was rounding second that I saw coach and I knew it was over the wall.
"Reynolds kept making me chase outside pitches all weekend and I stayed over the plate, chipped away and made the right adjustments. I am so glad. It was emotional."
The stage could not have been more perfect for the sophomore Kalamazoo native. The first two batters in the eighth went down swinging for WMU. Samantha Vargocko was hit by a pitch to put the go ahead run on board. Mandi Sayres collected her only hit of the day with an infield single to the shortstop, setting the stage for Jager's history-making swing after going hitless in four previous at bats.
Vargocko was key for the Broncos on Sunday afternoon, collecting three hits in four at bats and scoring a pair of runs. She and Amanda McBride (2-for-4) were the only members of the WMU to have multi-hit games in the season finale and accounted for five of the Broncos' 12 hits on the day.
Kent State plated four runs in the bottom of the second with a pair of two-RBI singles but one swing of Whitney's bat evened everything up for the Broncos in the bottom of the third. Samantha Vargocko led off the frame with a double down the left field line. Sayres drew a walk and Jager reached base on a passed ball after striking out. Whitney stroked the sixth home run of her rookie season and third bomb in the last two games to tie the score at four runs apiece.
Not lost in all of the offensive heroics for the Broncos was the job Kelli Zache did in the circle in relief of starting pitcher Meghan Thomas. Zache, working her 10th game in relief of the season, entered the fray with one out left to secure in the bottom of the second. She did so with a strike out, one of eight in 6.1 innings of work for the junior from Niles, Mich. She forced eight fly outs and two ground outs on 90 pitches to earn her first win of the year.
Zache was most helped by the Bronco defense in the bottom of the sixth. Kent State led off the inning with a single, a walk and another base hit up the middle. A sacrifice accounted for the first out and a pop up to shortstop was the second. With the bases loaded and the game tied freshman Jenn Tschetter made a diving catch in right field to end the threat.
Western Michigan ends the season 22-20, marking the eighth 20-win season for Kathy Leitke in nine campaigns at the helm of the Bronco softball program. WMU finished the Mid-American Conference schedule at 16-6, the second best record in the conference, but will be the No. 3 seed in the upcoming MAC Tournament.
