MUNCIE, Ind. – In game one of a pivotal Mid-American Conference series on Thursday, Western Michigan baseball put up six runs in the third and four runs in the seventh to cruise to a 10-5 victory over Ball State.
The Broncos registered just seven hits on the day but scored 10 or more runs for the seventh time this season. WMU capitalized on Cardinal miscues as the Brown & Gold drew eight walks while Ball State had four wild pitches and one passed ball.
Six different Broncos recorded a hit on Thursday with redshirt junior
Andrew Stone registering the lone multi-hit game going 2-for-3 with an RBI and two runs scored. Stone has now reached base safely in six straight games.
Junior
Nate Grys extended his team-high hitting streak to 10 games after going 1-for-4 at the plate with two runs scored and an RBI. Grys has also reached base safely in 11 straight games. Freshman
Blake Dunn was 1-for-5 on the day and extended his team-high reached base streak to 13 games.
Overall the Brown & Gold had five different players register an RBI while the one through four hitters of Stone, Grys and juniors
Connor Smith and
Jimmy Roche scored eight of the 10 runs against the Cardinals.
On the mound the Broncos used three pitchers with junior RHP
Nic Laio earning the start going four innings, allowing three runs on six hits and striking out six. In relief sophomore RHP
Zach Mehelich got the win for WMU going 2.1 innings, allowing two runs on five hits. Mehelich improves his record to 1-1 on the year.
Senior RHP
Jake Bartels recorded the final eight outs for the Broncos, allowing no runs and no hits in 2.1 innings of work. Bartels entered the game with the bases loaded and one out in the seventh inning before retiring the final eight batters.
With the win the Broncos improve their overall record to 23-23 and 12-11 in conference play. In the first game of a three-game series this season, WMU is now 8-4 and has won five of the last six game one's. The victory also pulls the Broncos one game closer to securing a spot in the MAC Tournament for the fifth straight year.
The game was scoreless before the Bronco offense erupted for six runs on one hit in the top of the third. Sophomore
Drew Devine led off the third with a walk before advancing to second on a sacrifice bunt by junior
Conner Henderson. Devine then advanced to third on a wild pitch with
Andrew Stone at the plate.
On a full count, Stone roped an RBI single to left field to give WMU an early 1-0 lead. Back-to-back walks loaded the bases before a wild pitch scored Stone from third.
Nate Grys drew a walk to load the bases prior to the third wild pitch of the inning scored
Connor Smith from third to give WMU a 3-0 advantage.
The Broncos had runners on first and third with two outs before the fourth wild pitch of the inning scored Grys from third to extend the Bronco lead. WMU added to its lead thanks to a two out RBI single to left field by Devine to make it 6-0 in favor of the Broncos. In the third the Brown & Gold scored three of its six runs by wild pitches.
Ball State cut into the WMU lead in the bottom of the fifth, scoring three runs on three hits but the Broncos responded with four runs on three hits in the top of the seventh. In the seventh, the Broncos saw nine batters come to the plate as WMU scored two of its four runs in the inning with two outs to take a 10-3 lead.
The Cardinals rallied in the bottom of the seventh scoring two runs on three hits, registering three straight singles with one out. Ball State loaded the bases in the seventh with one out before Bartels shut down the Cardinal offense with a fly out and a groundout to get out of the jam.
In the final two innings, Bartels needed just 17 pitches to record the final six outs and secure the 10-5 victory for Western Michigan.
