KALAMAZOO, Mich. – In a tight Mid-American Conference contest on Sunday afternoon, Western Michigan baseball fell to Miami, 3-1 inside Robert J. Bobb Stadium at Hyames Field.
The Broncos held the Miami offense to just three runs on three hits while the Brown & Gold registered just one run on six hits. WMU loaded the bases in the seventh and eighth inning and had the game-tying run at the plate in the bottom of the ninth. Overall, WMU left 11 runners on base.
WMU grabbed its first run of the ballgame in the bottom of the eighth after freshman
Blake Dunn roped a single to left field, scoring junior
Jimmy Roche from third. Trailing 2-1 in the eighth, the Broncos had the bases loaded and no outs before the next three batters were retired to end the scoring threat.
In the ninth, junior
Connor Smith led off the inning with a single and make it to third base with two outs before a fly out to the Miami catcher ended the game.
The Broncos got a dominant pitching performance from senior LHP
Jacob Piechota, who was making his final start inside Robert J. Bobb Stadium at Hyames Field. Piechota was magnificent going seven innings, allowing one run on one hit while striking out a career-high 13 batters.
The Batavia, Ill., native held Miami hitless through his first 5.2 innings of work. Piechota in his last three outings against Eastern Michigan, Central Michigan and Miami has thrown a total of 20.1 innings, allowing four runs on nine hits with 24 strikeouts.
Over the weekend the Bronco pitching staff was dominant, giving up just 14 hits while striking out 28. The RedHawks had a team batting average of .202 in the three-game series.
Dunn led the Bronco offense on Sunday going 2-for-4 with the lone RBI. Dunn now has 11 RBIs this season and over the weekend against Miami hit .273 with three RBIs.
Junior
Jimmy Roche at the plate went 2-for-5 with a run scored. Roche has now recorded 14 multi-hit games this season which ranks second on the team. Over the weekend, Roche had a team-high .357 batting average with one home run, four RBIs and a .571 slugging percentage.
Sunday's contest also marked Senior Day as Western Michigan baseball honored its six seniors prior to the contest.
Western Michigan now has an overall record of 20-21 and 9-10 in MAC play. The Broncos play their final home game of the season on Tuesday, May 8 against Valparaiso before ending the season with seven straight road contests.
Piechota was dominant on the mound through the first 5.2 innings of play, as the senior lefty held Miami hitless. However, Miami got on the board first with two outs in the bottom of the sixth as Miami's Ross Haffey connected on a home run over the center field wall. It was Haffey's only hit of the series as he went 1-for-11. Haffey leads the MAC in home runs with 13.
In the seventh, WMU loaded the bases after a leadoff single by Dunn followed by two walks and a hit by pitch. With two outs, a fly out to center field ending the scoring threat.
Miami extended its lead to 2-0 in the top of the eighth scoring one run on one hit. With runners on first and third and one out, Haffey laid down a sacrifice bunt up the right field line that scored the runner from third.
WMU loaded the bases twice in the eighth inning but scored just one run on two hits. With no outs, Dunn delivered on a single down the left field line that scored Roche from third and cut the Miami lead to one.
The Broncos had the bases loaded with no outs before back to back strikeouts followed by a fly out to the Miami first baseman ended the inning. Miami grabbed one more run in the top of the ninth while WMU brought the tying run to the plate in the bottom half of the inning before a fly out ended the game and spoiled Senior Day for WMU.
The loss snapped a streak of four straight MAC series victories for the Broncos. WMU has two MAC series on the road at Ohio (May 11-13) and at Ball State (May 17-19) to end the regular season. The 2018 Mid-American Conference Baseball Tournament begins May 23 in Avon, Ohio.
