DETROIT, Mich. – For the second time in three seasons Western Michigan baseball and Michigan State met at Comerica Park, home of the Detroit Tigers with the Broncos falling to the Spartans, 5-2 on Tuesday night.

The Bronco offense, which came into the contest with the nation's 25th best batting average was held to just two runs on four hits, the second lowest total of hits in a game this season. WMU also left a season-high 12 runners on the base paths compared to Michigan State's four.

Of WMU's four hits, two came off the bat of sophomore Blake Dunn who went 2-for-4 and extended his reached base streak to 25 straight games. Dunn recorded his team-high 14^th multi-hit game of the season and 10^th two-hit game.

Junior Drew Devine and sophomore Ryan Missal rounded out the trio of Broncos to register hits on the night with Devine going 1-for-4 while Missal went 1-for-1 in a pinch-hit opportunity in the top of the eighth. Devine recorded both RBI's for the Brown & Gold against Michigan State and his fifth multi-RBI game.

At the plate WMU drew 11 walks with senior Nate Grys, redshirt sophomore Logan Hudson and senior Conner Henderson each drawing two.

Five different pitchers saw the mound for WMU, surrendering no walks while striking out 12 Spartan batters. Redshirt junior Jack Szott had a stellar performance in relief throwing 3.1 innings, allowing no runs on two hits while striking out a career-high seven. During his performance, Szott retired seven straight batters from the third through fifth innings.

The bullpen arms of Szott, redshirt junior Will Mullen and the freshman duo of Brady Miller and Dane Ambrustmacher threw the final seven innings for the Broncos, allowing just one earned run on seven hits.

Western Michigan returns to Mid-American Conference action this weekend for a three-game series against defending conference tournament champion Kent State, April 5-7. The Broncos now have an overall record of 7-18, 1-3 in MAC play.

Michigan State got on the board in the bottom of the first after a double to left field scored runners from first and third to give the Spartans a 2-0 lead. After a groundout moved the Spartan runner to third, a sacrifice fly to right field extended MSU's lead to 3-0 after one.

WMU bounced back in the top of the second after three straight walks loaded the bases for the Broncos with one out. After a strikeout with the bases loaded, Drew Devine was hit by a pitch to score senior Jesse Forestell from third and give WMU its first run of the ballgame.

The Broncos cut their deficit down to one in the top of the sixth scoring one run on one hit and one MSU error. With runners on the corners and two outs, Devine delivered once again with an RBI single to right field, scoring freshman Gavin Doyle from third to cut the Spartan lead down to 3-2.

Michigan State extended its lead in the bottom of the eighth scoring two runs on three hits to propel its lead to 5-2 heading into the top of the ninth. In the ninth, the Broncos got runners on first and second before a swinging strikeout ended the comeback attempt.