KALAMAZOO, Mich. – In a wild entertaining contest, the Western Michigan baseball team dropped game three against Toledo, 6-3 in 10 innings on Sunday afternoon at Robert J. Bobb Stadium.
Late inning drama erupted as WMU scored runs in both the sixth and seventh innings to tie the game up at 3-3. With two outs in the eighth, junior Brett Sunde registered his third hit off the ballgame, lacing a single through the left side. A wild pitch moved Sunde to second with senior Jared Kujawa stepping to the plate. Kujawa proceeded to lace a line drive to center field which sent Sunde rounding third on his way home before he was called out on a very close call at the plate, keeping the game deadlocked.
In the bottom of the ninth, the Broncos had runners on first and second thanks to junior Hunter Prince hitting into a fielder's choice and a soft single to centerfield by sophomore Beau Filkins. The scoring chance quickly ended after a groundout to the Toledo third baseman.
Toledo capitalized with two outs in the top of the 10th as with runners on first and second, freshman AJ Montoya rocketed a bases clearing two RBI double to give the Rockets a 5-3 lead. Toledo grabbed an insurance run when freshman Matt Hansen singled up the middle scoring Montoya from second to give Toledo a 6-3 lead. WMU was retired on three straight groundouts to end the game.
The Broncos did pull off a comeback to get the game to extra innings by scoring two runs in back to back innings. Hoekstra smoked a lead-off double to start the sixth inning and two batters later came around to score on a sacrifice fly by Kujawa to cut into the Toledo lead. In the seventh, a perfectly executed sacrifice bunt by Filkins scored Allison from third tying the game up.
On the mound senior RHP Chad Mayle was tagged with the no decision as he went 4.1 innings allowing two runs on five hits. Junior RHP Gabe Berman did an excellent job in relief of Mayle going 3.2 innings giving up no runs on five hits and striking out six. Freshman RHP Josh Bays was given the loss going 1.2 innings allowing five hits and three runs while striking out two.
At the plate, Sunde and Hoekstra went a combined 5-for-10 with one RBI and one run scored. In the first inning sophomore Grant Miller was hit by a pitch, giving him 16 on the season which tied the WMU single season record held by MLB draft pick Andrew Sohn. Overall, the Brown and Gold collected nine hits.
WMU will have two mid-week games starting with Valparasio inside the friendly confines of Robert J. Bobb Stadium on Tuesday with first pitch set for 3 p.m. On Wednesday, WMU will hit the road for an in-state showdown against Oakland starting at 3 p.m. The Broncos then return to conference play next weekend when they head to Bowling Green, April 17-19.
