MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. – It took until the ninth inning, but the Western Michigan baseball team claimed game one of the series over rival Central Michigan 2-1 behind Tanner Allison's clutch two-run single and a dominant Broncos pitching staff.

WMU improves to 18-29 overall and 11-11 in the Mid-American Conference (MAC) while the Chippewas fall to 19-35 and 10-12 in the MAC.

Allison delivered the biggest hit of his sophomore season in the top of the ninth inning where the Broncos took a 2-0 advantage. Senior Hunter Prince singled the shortstop and he was sacrificed over to second on freshman Jesse Forestell's bunt. After a walk of Conner Henderson and Alex Goodwin getting hit by a pitch, the Broncos had the bases loaded for Allison, who delivered a clutch two-out two-run single to center field to score Prince and Henderson.

The Chippewas put the pressure on in the bottom of the ninth however, scoring one run and placing the tying run at second base with just one out. Sophomore Jake Bartels got a flyout to left field to end it.

Keegan Akin, who is coming off a complete-game shutout of Ohio last weekend, pitched 5.0 scoreless innings allowing just three hits while adding on to his WMU single season strikeout record with six more today. He's now thrown 17.0 straight shutout innings and he had a streak of 22.2 scoreless innings earlier this season. Sophomore Jacob Piechota had a nice game out of the bullpen, pitching 3.0 scoreless innings and earning his team-leading ninth win of the season. Bartels earned his team-leading fifth save of the season.

CMU's pitching staff had a good day as well, as senior starter Sean Renzi pitched 7.0 scoreless innings allowing three hits and tallying three strikeouts.

WMU got out of a jam in the bottom of the seventh with runners on the corners. The Broncos reached into their bag of tricks to force the runner off of third base for an easy out to end the inning. WMU also forced a nice 5-4-3 double play to get out of the eighth inning.

Hunter Prince had another big day at the plate, making this his fourth straight multiple hit game as he went 3-for-4 and scored the game-winning run. Senior Mitchell Ho and freshman Connor Smith each went 1-for-4 while Allison went 1-for-1 with the big two-run single. Junior Nick Vogelmeier also added a hit in the game.

The two teams will battle again tomorrow at 3 p.m. at Theunissen Stadium as the Broncos look to win their fifth straight MAC series. Follow the Broncos on Twitter @WMUBaseball for all updates about the team!