BUIES CREEK, N.C. – With two outs in the bottom of the tenth and a runner on second base, junior Nate Grys ended the game with a walk-off home run to center field to give Western Michigan baseball a thrilling 4-2 victory over Mid-American Conference foe Miami on Friday afternoon.

Redshirt junior Andrew Stone began the bottom of the tenth with a single down the left field line and then advanced to second on a wild pitch by Miami's Michael Hendricks.
After back-to-back strikeouts by the Broncos, Grys fouled off one pitch before sending the next pitch over the center field wall.

It was the first home run of the season for Grys and 10th of his career. Grys became the first Broncos since Hunter Prince to hit a walk-off home run. Prince also hit his walk-off against Miami on May 25, 2016 in the MAC Tournament.

Western Michigan rallied late to push the game to extra innings, scoring in the bottom of the ninth to tie the game at 2-2. On the first pitch of the bottom half of the inning, freshman Sean O'Keefe connected on his first career home run and first home run of the season for WMU over the left field wall.

The Broncos tallied just seven hits on the day but scored all four runs in three of the last four innings to pick up the first victory of the season. WMU continues play tomorrow at the Campbell Invitational with a match-up against host school Campbell at 5:00 p.m.   

Grys was the leader at the plate for the Broncos against Miami, going 3-for-5 with two runs batted in, one run scored, a double and a home run. WMU had five different players register hits with Grys, O'Keefe and junior Conner Henderson each recording RBIs.

On the mound, the Broncos got a stellar performance from redshirt sophomore Jack Szott who went 5.2 innings, allowing no runs on just three hits and striking out one. Szott retired 10 of the final 13 batters he faced.

After giving up two Miami runs in the top of the eighth, the junior duo of Chris Modrzynksi and Matt McConnell shut the RedHawks down giving up three hits and no runs in three innings of work.

McConnell earned the victory after throwing two innings of one hit ball with no runs given up and striking out one in seven batters faced.  It's the first career victory for the junior left handed pitcher.  

It was a pitchers' duel for most of the game as WMU and Miami combined to have just five hits through six innings of play. WMU got on the board first in the bottom of the seventh as a sacrifice fly by Henderson scored senior Beau Filkins from third.

Filkins led off the inning with a single to center before moving to second on a fielding error that allowed sophomore Drew Devine to reach base on a fielder's choice. Two batters later after freshman Blake Dunn executed a sacrifice bunt, Henderson hit a sacrifice fly to center field to give WMU an early 1-0 lead.

The lead wasn't held for long as Miami began the top of the eight with back to back singles to secure runners on first and second with no outs. A groundout moved the runners over before a sacrifice fly by Cal Elvers to center field tied the game at 1-1. Two pitches later, Miami's Grant Hartwig singled back up the middle to score Dallas Hall from second and give the RedHawks a 2-1 lead.

In the bottom of the ninth, pinch hitter O'Keefe stepped to the plate and swung at the first pitch he saw that cleared the left field wall to tie the game at 2-2. WMU then went down in order to head to extra innings for the first time this season.

Miami brought just four batters to the plate in the top of the tenth before Grys ended the game with a two-out walk-off home run to lift WMU past Miami, 4-2.