AVON, Ohio -- The No. 7 seeded Western Michigan baseball team fell for the first time in the Mid-American Conference (MAC) Tournament Saturday morning to No. 6 Central Michigan by a score of 10-3.

The loss sets up a rematch against the Chippewas at 4:30 p.m. in an elimination game, the winner of that game will head to the MAC Championship to face Kent State or Eastern Michigan. EMU would have to beat No. 23 ranked Kent State twice on Saturday to earn a trip to the MAC Championship. WMU defeated No. 2 Ball State on Wednesday and No. 3 Miami on Thursday, making it the first time in WMU's history the team started 2-0.

The Chippewas jumped out to a lead in the early going after they took advantage of a couple of Bronco errors. CMU scored five unanswered runs to start the game, but just two of those runs were earned. The Chippewas scored one in the bottom of the first, two in the bottom of the second, one in the bottom of the third and added another in the bottom of the fifth to take a 5-0 lead through six innings.

The Broncos broke through in the top of the seventh inning manufacturing one run without having a hit in the inning. Pinch hitter senior Drew Farmer drew a four-pitch walk to lead the inning off and freshman Nate Grys reached base on a dropped fly ball to right field. Both runners moved up on a passed ball, which set up junior Nick Vogelmeier's RBI groundout as the Broncos cut into the lead 5-1.

CMU came right back however, extending their lead to 7-1 with a pair of runs in the bottom of the seventh with help from two more Bronco mistakes.

The Broncos battled back in the top of the eighth inning, scoring two runs to cut the lead to 7-3 off of back-to-back-to-back doubles by senior Hunter Prince, sophomore Tanner Allison and sophomore Evan Nelson. A CMU error in the inning put Bronco runners on the corners with one down, but the Chippewas forced two straight pop outs to get out of the inning.

CMU's offense stayed hot in the bottom of the eighth inning, adding three more runs to extend the lead to 10-3.

The Broncos used three pitchers in the game, as senior Derek Schneider suffered the loss, pitching 1.0 innings allowing three runs (one earned), two hits and one walk. Junior Kyle Mallwitz pitched 1.2 innings in relief allowing one unearned run while freshman Jack Szott pitched the final 5.1 innings.

CMU outhit the Broncos 11-4 and WMU was charged with four errors while the Chippewas had two. Nelson finished 2-for-4 with a double while Allison went 1-for-3 with a double and a run and Prince went 1-for-4 with a double and a run. Vogelmeier drove in a run as well.

As mentioned above, the Broncos and Chippewas will play again at 4:30 p.m. following the Kent State/Eastern Michigan game. Follow the Broncos on Twitter @WMUBaseball for all updates about the team!