JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. – The Western Michigan baseball team's offense stayed hot in the final game of three-game series with East Tennessee State, as the Broncos handed the Buccaneers an 11-1 loss Sunday afternoon at Thomas Stadium. WMU put up seven or more runs in each of the three games.
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"We got a great start from Jacob Piechota, and Gabe Berman was stellar out of the pen," head coach Billy Gernon said. "All three games we posted 12 hits or more. We didn't make an error today and really hit and performed when it mattered most."
The game went scoreless for three straight innings to start things off, until the Broncos poured in four runs in the top of the fourth inning off three hits and were helped by an ETSU throwing error. Senior Nick Vogelmeier reached on an error to open the inning and came around to score on Grant Miller's RBI double down the left field line. Evan Nelson brought Miller in with an RBI single to right field and that opened the door for Tanner Allison, who hit a bomb to right field to put WMU up 4-0. During the ETSU series, Allison hit a homer in each game, while batting .429 with a double and six RBI.
After the Buccaneers added their only run in the bottom of the fourth inning, the Broncos tallied two runs in the seventh, three in the eighth and two in the ninth to go up big. In the seventh, Vogelmeier laid down a perfect bunt for a hit and plated Jesse Forestell. Miller brought in Andrew Stone with a sacrifice fly to right field to make it 6-1 WMU.
In the eighth, Nate Grys led off with a double and came in to score on Forestell's bunt single. Later in the inning Vogelmeier hit a two-run single to left center field to plate Forestell and Alex Goodwin.
In the final inning, where Broncos added two more runs, Allison hit a triple down the right field line to score Miller and Forestell delivered an RBI single through the right side to score Allison and make it 11-1.
Junior Jacob Piechota picked up the win, improving to 2-1 this season. He threw 5.1 innings, allowing four hits and one run with three strikeouts while the duo of Gabe Berman and Andrew Reisinger entered to throw the final 3.2 inning scoreless.
Offensively, a few Broncos had huge games as they outhit ETSU 12-6. Four players had multiple hits, including Allison who finished 2-for-4 with a home run, a triple, three RBI and two runs. Forestell went 3-for-5 with two RBI and two runs while Miller went 2-for-3 with a double and two RBI and Vogelmeier went 2-for-5 with three RBI in the leadoff spot.
The Broncos will head down to Florida for the end of next week and spring break, taking part in the Stetson Tournament and facing multiple teams at the Snowbird Classic. WMU will also face the Detroit Tigers Top Prospects at Joker Marchant Stadium on March 8 at 1 p.m.
