PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. -- The Western Michigan baseball team dropped a pair of games at the Snowbird Classic, both of which were almost complete opposite outcomes. First, WMU dropped a pitchers' duel with Illinois State 2-1 and then fell 17-8 in a slugfest with St. Joseph's where the two teams combined for 32 hits. 

The Broncos fall to 1-11 this season while the Redbirds moved to 5-8 and St. Joes improved to 5-5.

In the first game against the Redbirds, the Broncos struck early in the first inning with one run on a pair of hits. Nick Vogelmeier, who was second on the team in batting average entering this game, led the inning off with a single to the third basemen. Drew Farmer led that off with a single to the left fielder, who bobbled the ball and allowed both runners to move up. Grant Miller drove in his team-leading seventh RBI of the season on a groundout to the shortstop.

Junior Keegan Akin had another good outing for the Broncos, pitching 6.0 scoreless innings scattering five hits and two walks with seven strikeouts. Akin's ERA dropped down to 1.50 this season.

For the Redbirds, senior Jacob Hengren, who was named the Preseason Missouri Valley Conference Pitcher of the Year, kept WMU in check in his 8.0 innings of work. He allowed five hits and one unearned run with six strikeouts and no walks.

WMU had a good chance to add on to the lead in the bottom of the sixth inning. Miller hit a single down the right field line with one out. Hunter Prince ripped a double down the left field line on the next at-bat, but Miller was thrown out at home on a bang-bang play.

The Redbirds capitalized by scoring the tying and winning runs in the top of the seventh inning. The inning started with a walk and a hit batsmen before a sacrifice bunt put runners on second and third with one down. Illinois State brought the tying run in on a sacrifice fly and the winning run on a single through the left side.

Kyle Mallwitz (0-1) suffered the loss while freshman Jack Szott entered to throw a scoreless 2.2 innings allowing one hit and two walks with one strikeout, dropping his ERA to 1.65 this season.

Connor Smith finished 1-for-3 while Vogelmeier, Farmer, Miller and Prince all went 1-for-4. ISU did not issue a walk the entire game.

In the second game against the Hawks, WMU once again took an early lead but this one didn't last long. Prince singled through the left side to open the top of the second inning and moved over to second on Jesse Forestell's groundout to shortstop. Freshman Jimmy Roche came through with an RBI single to right field, the first RBI of his young career to give the Broncos a 1-0 lead.

The Hawks grabbed the lead in the bottom of the second inning off an RBI single and a runner scoring on a wild pitch. SJU added on to the lead with three more runs in the bottom of the third to make it 5-1. Two runs that came across in the inning were unearned, as the Hawks had a two-run double after an error in the inning.

After the Hawks had a big fifth inning where they added nine runs to make it 14-1, Roche came through with his second RBI of the game, driving in Nelson with the bases loaded on a sacrifice fly.

The Hawks added three more runs in the bottom of the sixth to make it 17-2, but the Broncos never gave up and came back to put up six runs in the top of the eighth inning. In the inning 10 WMU batters came to the plate. Roche drove in his third run of the day with a single, Andrew Stone drove in his first run of the season on a groundout, Drew Farmer drew a walk with the bases loaded, Miller drove in two runs with a single to left center and Nelson ripped a single to right center to score one and make it 17-8, where the game would stay.

Tanner Allison suffered the loss, pitching 2.2 innings allowing five runs (three earned) while striking out six. Mallwitz entered to throw a scoreless 2.0 innings to end the game.

On offense, WMU pounded out 14 hits and drew seven walks. Roche finished 3-for-4 with three RBI, Prince went 2-for-3 with two runs, Miller went 1-for-4 with 2 RBI and Vogelmeier went 2-for-5 with a double and a run.

The Hawks finished with 18 hits and eight extra base hits. Six players had multiple base hits for the team, including Brian Lau, who went 4-for-5 with three doubles, three RBI and two runs.

The Broncos will finish up the spring break trip to Florida by facing the North Dakota State Bison on Saturday, March 10 at 10 a.m.

Follow the team on Twitter @wMUBaseball for all updates about the team!