KALAMAZOO, Mich.- Western Michigan's bats were held off early and the Chippewas cut off a ninth-inning rally as the Broncos fell to visiting Central Michigan 3-1 Thursday.
CMU starting pitcher Sean Renzi scattered four hits over eight shutout innings and the Chips went to closer Tim Black in the bottom of the ninth.
Trailing 3-0 in the ninth, the Broncos were gifted a runner with two outs when freshman
Tanner Allison struck out swinging but reached safely on a passed ball.
Hunter Prince,
Mitchell Ho and
Beau Filkins stepped up to hit three consecutive singles and Allison scored on Ho's poke through the left side. With one run across, the Broncos suddenly had the bases loaded and the tying run at second. The comeback fell short however as pinch hitter
Jordan Tillman grounded out to third.
Senior right fielder
Jared Kujawa had WMU's first hit of the ball game, finding the hole on the right side in the fifth. Junior catcher
Brett Sunde hit his conference-leading 17th double of the season with two outs in the sixth. Allison and Ho each had singles in the seventh, but Central Michigan turned a double play in the inning to minimize the threat.
After allowing a run in the first, WMU junior left-handed pitcher
Derek Schneider kept Central Michigan off the board the next three innings. CMU got back-to-back singles in the top of the fifth from Daniel Jipping and Zach McKinstry. Both went on to score knocking Schneider out of the game after throwing five and two thirds. Schneider (3-4) struck out four in the loss. Freshman reliever
Peyton Gray went the rest of the game for WMU, giving up just two hits.
Western Michigan (21-26,13-12 MAC) and Central Michigan (33-20,18-7 MAC) will meet again tomorrow at Hyames Field for game two at 3 p.m. The series concludes Saturday with game three at 1 p.m.
WMU is looking to clinch its spot in the upcoming Mid-American Conference Tournament. The Broncos need to win one of the two remaining games against CMU or have Miami drop one of its three games against Ohio to solidify one of the eight seeds.
