AVON, Ohio – The Western Michigan baseball team left no doubt on who is the hottest team in the conference right now, as the Broncos defeated Kent State 12-7 in the Mid-American Conference (MAC) Championship game to end a drought of 26 years without an NCAA appearance.

The Broncos sit at 22-32 overall as they await their fate in the NCAA Regionals, which will be announced on Monday, May 30 at Noon.

The Broncos became the lowest seed in the MAC Tournament's history to win the Championship. WMU, the No. 7 seed, defeated No. 2 Ball State, No. 3 Miami, No. 6 Central Michigan and most recently No. 1 Kent State on its way to the first MAC Tournament Championship in the schools storied history. The previous 14 MAC Championships came as regular season titles, making this the teams first championship since 1989. KSU came into this game receiving votes by the National College Baseball Writers Association. 

Four players were named to the All-MAC Tournament Team following the win, including junior LHP Keegan Akin who also was named the Tournament's MVP. Along with Akin, sophomore Jacob Piechota, junior Grant Miller and freshman Connor Smith were named to the All-MAC Tournament team. 

Junior pitcher Keegan Akin, who led the team to a win in day one of the MAC Tournament, was on point once again against the Golden Flashes. He pitched 6.0 innings allowing no runs on just one hit and one walk with nine strikeouts. He's now pitched 30.2 innings without allowing an earned run. The duo of Tanner Allison/Pat Haynes entered the finish out the game.

The Broncos offense was relentless early, scoring four runs in the first two innings to steal all the momentum of the Championship game. WMU added its first run of the game as freshman Connor Smith reached on a fielding error by the third baseman and eventually came around to score on senior Hunter Prince's sacrifice fly to center field to put the Broncos up 1-0.

In the top of the second, junior Alex Goodwin led off with a hard single to left field and senior Mitchell Ho sacrificed him over to second base. After freshman Nate Grys was hit by a pitch and senior Drew Farmer singled to right field, junior Nick Vogelmeier delivered an RBI single to left to extend the WMU lead to 2-0. The next batter was Miller, who kept his good weekend going with a two-run single to right center to put WMU up 4-0.

The Brown & Gold kept on the KSU pitching staff, adding another run in the top of the fourth inning to extend the lead to 5-0. In the inning, Farmer led off with a single to center field and moved up to second on an error by the Kent State center fielder. Vogelmeier sacrificed him up to third base, which led to Smith's sacrifice fly to left field.

Five more runs were pushed across by the Bronco offense in the top of the sixth inning, putting WMU up 10-0. The inning featured a two-run triple by Allison and a two-run double by Smith. Goodwin also drove in a run with a single. WMU had four hits in the inning and drew two walks while being helped out by a KSU error.

WMU pushed the lead to 12-0 in the top of the eighth inning, adding two more runs on a hit and some KSU pitching miscues. Two runs came into score on Grys two-run single down the right field line.

Kent State made it a little interesting late, as the offense came alive in the bottom of the eighth inning to score seven runs and cut the deficit to 12-7. The Golden Flashes had six hits in the inning, including a three-run home run and a three-run triple.

The offense came from all up and down the order, as Miller finished 3-for-5 with two RBI and a run and Goodwin went 3-for-3 with two runs and an RBI. Smith went 1-for-5, but drove in three runs and score twice while Allison had a two-run triple.

Keep a look out to see where the Broncos will be headed for the NCAA Regional by following the team on Twitter @WMUBaseball!

Video highlights will be added asap.