KALAMAZOO, Mich. – The Western Michigan baseball team had its highest run and hit total of the season Sunday afternoon at Florida A&M behind the bat of Grant Miller, but the Rattlers defended their home field with a 12-5 win over the Broncos at Moore-Kittles Field.

WMU falls to 0-9 with the loss while FAMU improves to 7-5 and has won four straight games.

The Broncos jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in the top of the second inning where Steve Pastora led off with a single. Senior Mitchell Ho came through with an RBI single up the middle for his first RBI of the season. FAMU came right back in the bottom of the second to grab a 2-1 lead on a two-run home run by Peter Jackson.

The Rattlers struck again for two more runs in the bottom of the third to make it 4-1 before they exploded for four runs in the fourth inning. In the fourth, FAMU had four hits including a three-run double by Dylan Dillard to go up 8-1.

The Broncos answered with three runs in the fifth and tacked on another run in the sixth to make it 8-5 FAMU. In the fifth, Nick Vogelmeier led the inning off with a double to left center and Jesse Forestell hit a single to center field to put runners on the corners with no outs. Miller picked up his third hit of the day with a double down the right field line, also his second double of the day, to score Forestell and Vogelmeier. After the Rattlers retired the next two batters, Tanner Allison delivered a single to left center to score Miller, his first RBI this season. In the sixth inning with two outs, Vogelmeier hit a single up the middle, advanced to second on a wild pitch and was driven in on Miller's fourth hit of the day.

FAMU scored four unanswered runs to end the game with two coming in each the seventh and eighth innings.

Senior Derek Schneider suffered the loss as he pitched 3.1 innings and allowed eight runs on nine hits with two walks and two strikeouts. Jack Szott pitched in relief, allowing no earned runs in 3.2 innings while Kyle Mallwitz entered the throw a perfect eighth inning with a strikeout.

Miller finished 4-for-5 with two doubles and three RBI and now leads the team in hits (12) and RBI (5) this season. Vogelmeier finished 3-for-5 with two runs, Pastora went 2-for-5 with a run and Allison and Ho each went 1-for-4 with an RBI. The Broncos struck out just four times, setting a new season low.

WMU returns to action with an exhibition game against the Detroit Tigers Top Prospects team in Lakeland, Fla. at Joker Marchant Stadium. Game time is scheduled for 1 p.m. on Monday, March 7.