ATHENS, Ohio- Western Michigan baseball defeated Ohio 7-4 on the road Sunday to give WMU two wins in this weekend's three-game Mid-American Conference series. The Broncos also posted a 12-9 victory on Friday.
Western Michigan improves to 10-13 on the season and 3-3 in conference play. Ohio falls to 14-11 and 2-4 in the MAC.
The Broncos scored four of their seven runs in the first inning and got solid pitching and defense in the winning effort. Senior
Jared Kujawa hit a two-out, two-run home run in the first. It was his third home run of the season, matching his total from last year. Junior
Hunter Prince also drove in a run on a fielder's choice.
Ohio committed three errors in the second allowing the Broncos to score two runs without a hit and increase their lead to 6-0. Sophomore
Nick Vogelmeier picked up an RBI in the inning.
Western Michigan added a run in the seventh when
Brett Sunde drove in
Grant Miller with a two-out double. Miller scored three runs in the game and batted 2-for-2 with a walk. Sunde went 2-for-4 with the RBI.
Sophomore LHP
Keegan Akin scattered three hits over the first four innings and struck out three in a 5.1 inning effort. Ohio finally got on the board in the fifth when John Adryan hit a two-run home run for the Bobcats. Akin worked into the sixth before giving way to freshman reliever
Jacob Piechota with one on and one out. Piechota gave up an RBI double and recorded a flyout before handing the ball off to closer
Gabe Berman.
Berman went the rest of the distance, striking out four batters over 3.1 innings pitched. It was his fifth save of the season and school-leading 19th save of his career. Akin earned the victory, upping his win-loss record to 2-1 on the year.
Ohio used three singles to score its final run in the ninth.
The Broncos play Northwestern at Chicago State this Wednesday at 4 p.m. ET and head to Ypsilanti for a three-game MAC series against Eastern Michigan April 3-5.