FORT MYERS, Fla. - The Western Michigan baseball team fell in dramatic fashion to Florida Gulf Coast, 4-3, on Friday night at Swanson Stadium. The Bronco pitching staff combined to strike out seven Eagle batters and left 10 on base.
Sophomore LHP Keegan Akin started the game going 4.1 innings, allowing eight hits, two runs and recording five strikeouts. The WMU offense continued to stay hot at the plate collecting seven hits with freshman Tanner Allison being a spark in the line-up going 2-for-4.
The Broncos (5-5) got the scoring going in the top of the third when left fielder Caleb Caton tallied the first hit of the game for WMU with a double that hugged the left field line. After a fly out to center field moved Caton to third, sophomore Grant Miller brought Caton home on a grounder to the shortstop.
Western Michigan was right back at it in the top of the fourth with one swing of the bat as senior Jared Kujawa blasted a home run to right field, his first of the year, giving the Broncos a 2-0 lead. FGCU (6-8-1) answered back in the bottom half of the inning when shortstop Brian Pruett doubled scoring a runner from first and cutting the deficit to 2-1.
The Eagles were able to grab another run in the bottom of the fifth when junior Tyler Selesky singled up the middle driving in a runner from second to tie the game at 2-2.
The score would not be tied for long however as junior Brett Sunde earned his eighth RBI of the season with a double to the gap in left center field, scoring second baseman Nick Vogelmeier from second. FGCU pulled even once more in the bottom of the seventh off a sacrifice bunt.
The game remained deadlocked going into the bottom of the ninth. With one out, FGCU executed a sacrifice bunt to advance a pair of base runners to second and third. The Broncos looked to intentionally walk the next batter to load the bases. RHP Pat Haynes bounced a ball off the dirt that got away from Sunde at the plate, allowing the winning run to score from third, giving the Eagles the 4-3 victory.
Each collecting a hit in the game, Kujawa and junior shortstop Kurt Hoekstra extended their current hitting streaks to eight games.
The Brown & Gold will take on FGCU in game two of their three game series tomorrow beginning at 2 p.m.
