KALAMAZOO, Mich. – The Western Michigan baseball team worked opposing pitchers for 13 walks and plated eight runs, including seven unanswered, but the Broncos were unable to hold off the hot-hitting Ball State Cardinals in an 11-8 slugfest at Robert J. Bobb Stadium on Saturday afternoon. The Broncos fall to 18-23 overall, 10-10 in Mid-American Conference play.
The Broncos showed tremendous patience and discretion at the dish, walking 13 times while cobbling together eight runs and 10 hits. Ryan Vogelmeier and Jared Kujawa each drove in a pair of runs, while Kurt Hoekstra, Brett Sunde, Tanner Allison, and Drew Farmer all brought runners home.
Ball State struggled early in the game with their pitching, but the Cardinals were able to right the ship and score six unanswered runs to close the game. They shut the Broncos out in the final three innings of action, with Mattawan product B.J. Butler throwing 3.2 scoreless innings of relief to pick up the win.
The Cardinals opened up to a 5-1 lead in the top of the third inning, but the Broncos erased the deficit and then some with a five-run fourth to take the lead. WMU loaded the bases with no outs on consecutive singles by Mitchell Ho, Allison and Prince, with Vogelmeier bring the first run across by drawing a walk. Farmer swatted a single to right field to score Allison and chase starting pitcher Trevor Henderson, but new pitcher Devin Wilburn did no better, walking Hoekstra and making it just a 5-4 ballgame.
Colin Brockhouse came in and promptly retired Grant Miller and Sunde on swinging strikeouts, but Kujawa came up with two down and lashed a single to centerfield to score Farmer and Vogelmeier, giving the Broncos a 6-5 lead. They tacked on a pair of runs in the bottom of the sixth inning, again due to the Cardinals' inability to find the strike zone. Miller led off the frame with a double, followed by Sunde drawing a walk to put runners on first and second. The runners advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt by Kujawa, and Ho was clipped by a pitch on a 3-2 count to load the bases. Alison and Vogelmeier both drew bases-loaded walks to bring home Miller and Sunde, respectively, and the Broncos held an 8-5 edge after six innings.
Ball State chipped away, though, cutting the deficit to 8-6 on a solo home run by Jarett Rindfleisch, and the Cardinals broke through with a three-run effort in the top of the eighth inning. Jarrett James scored the go-ahead run on a sacrifice fly hit by Elbert Devarie to deep right field, making it 9-8, and Brandon Estep knocked a two-run homer over the left field fence to make it 11-8.
