NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The Western Michigan baseball team faced a tough Belmont pitching staff and dropped a 3-1 game on the Bruins home field in the opening day of the 2016 Mule Mix Classic. The Broncos drop to 0-4 overall while the Bruins improve to 3-1 this season.

"Keegan Akin was really good again despite the cooler weather we faced," head coach Billy Gernon said. "It was a true pitching dual tonight and we just didn't provide the run support. I am confident the offense will get going soon as we have the potential to be very solid."

Belmont scored the first run on the game in the bottom of the second inning when Washington led the inning off with a triple and later scored on a wild pitch. The Bruins added one more run in the seventh and eighth inning off a pair of RBI singles.

The Broncos got one run back in the top of the eighth inning where they recorded two of their four hits in the game. Evan Nelson opened the inning out with a double to right field and he was later driven in on a Nick Vogelmeier RBI single to right field. The Bruins forced a double-play ball to get out of the inning.

Junior Grant Miller started off the first and the ninth inning off with singles and finished 2-for-4 on the day while Nelson and Vogelmeier each had a hit.

Akin, the junior, had another quality outing, going 7.0 innings allowing two runs on four hits while striking out eight batters. So far this season, Akin has a 1.80 ERA and has struck out 19 batters in 13.0 innings pitched. Sophomore Jacob Piechota entered in the eighth inning and pitched a scoreless 0.2 innings to keep his perfect 0.00 ERA this season.

The Broncos return to action on Saturday, Feb. 27 on the road at Middle Tennessee State. Game time is scheduled for 3 p.m. ET with Tanner Allison scheduled to take the mound for the Broncos.