MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. – The Western Michigan baseball team out-hit its rival Central Michigan for the second straight game in the series, but the Chippewas claimed game two 10-4 on Saturday afternoon at Theunissen Stadium.
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"We outhit our opponent for the second day in a row," head coach Billy Gernon said. "The free bases are making things very difficult as we had eight walks today along with hitting three, and six of those 11 free passes scored. We will continue to grind and be ready to go tomorrow."
WMU jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning, but the Chippewas used a grand slam in the bottom of the first inning to take a 4-2 lead after one. In the first, Connor Smith drilled an RBI double to left field to score Nick Vogelmeier and Tanner Allison drove in his 46th RBI of the season with an RBI groundout to score Smith.
After CMU scored one in the second inning to make it 5-2, Nate Grys sent a solo home run, his third of the season, to left field to make it a 5-3 game, but CMU answered right back, getting that run back on an RBI single up the middle in the fourth inning to make it 6-3.
In the top of the sixth inning, Grant Miller hit his second home run of the season to left field to make it 6-4, but the Chippewas scored the final four runs of the game to pull away with the win.
WMU outhit CMU 12-7 in the ball game, as four players finished with multiple hits for the Broncos. Four players went 2-for-4 in Vogelmeier, Miller, Jimmy Roche and Alex Goodwin.
The Brown & Gold used six pitchers in the game as Jimmy Townsend-Chase suffered the loss. As relief pitchers, Nic Laio threw 1.2 innings scoreless innings and Jake Bartels pitched the final 0.2 innings scoreless. CMU's Tyler Hankins threw a complete game, with all four runs coming in earned.
The Broncos and Chippewas have one final game in the series on Sunday, April 16 at 1 p.m.
