OXFORD, Ohio – Freshman Connor Smith's bat stayed hot Friday night as the Western Michigan baseball team topped Miami on the road 5-3 at Hayden Park.

The Broncos improved to 14-26 overall and 7-9 in the Mid-American Conference (MAC) and have now won three straight series openers. The RedHawks fall to 21-23 overall and 10-6 in the MAC.

Smith went 4-for-5 with a run and broke a 3-3 tie in the top of the eighth inning with an RBI single. He is now batting .550 (22-for-40) in his last nine games and has had multiple base hits in seven of those games.

Junior Keegan Akin had another good outing for the Broncos, pitching 6.0 innings allowing three earned runs and five hits with 12 strikeouts. Akin tied Pat Misch's single season record for strikeouts with 99 set back in 2001. Sophomore Jacob Piechota pitched 2.1 innings in relief and earned the win while junior Kyle Mallwitz and sophomore Jake Bartels each pitched a scoreless 0.1 innings.

The Broncos got on the board early, plating two runs in the top of the first inning. Smith hit a one-out single to get the offense started and junior Grant Miller executed a perfect bunt single. Smith came around to score on a throwing error by the second baseman to make it 1-0 WMU and Alex Goodwin hit into a fielder's choice to score Miller and make it 2-0.

The RedHawks stormed back however, scoring a run in the bottom of the second and taking the lead with two runs in the bottom of the third inning to make it 3-2 Miami.

Each team went scoreless until the seventh inning, where the Broncos were able to tie it at 3-3 in the top of the seventh, take the lead with a run in the top of the eighth and add an insurance run in the top of the ninth. In the seventh, Miller hit a one-out single to center field and senior Hunter Prince hit a double down the left field line to put runners on second and third. Evan Nelson hit an RBI groundout to first base to tie it at 3-3 and get Akin off the hook for the loss.

In the eighth, junior Steve Pastora led off with a single to center field and made it to second on Nate Grys sacrifice bunt. After senior Mitchell Ho was hit by a pitch and junior Nick Vogelmeier hit into a fielder's choice, Smith came through with a clutch RBI single through the right side to give WMU a 4-3 lead.

The insurance run in the top of the ninth came when Prince was hit by a pitch and came around to score on a sacrifice bunt, a wild pitch and an RBI single by freshman Jesse Forestell.

Along with Smith's big day at the plate, Miller went 2-for-4 with two runs and Pastora went 2-for-4 with a run. Prince, Forestell and Grys each went 1-for-3 and Ho went 1-for-4.

The two teams will square off again on Saturday night at Hayden Park at 3 p.m. Follow the Broncos on Twitter @WMUBaseball for all updates about the team!