TOLEDO, Ohio – Despite scoring nine runs through the first four innings the Western Michigan baseball team was unable to fend off Toledo in a 16-9 loss in the series finale on Sunday afternoon inside Scott Park.
With the series finale loss, the Broncos and Rockets split its weekend series with WMU winning the first two before Toledo won the final two. Western Michigan has now won or split each of its last five Mid-American Conference series.
The Broncos scored nine runs on seven hits in the series finale with two extra-base hits and one home run. WMU had five players earn a hit in the series final with junior
Blake Dunn the lone Bronco to register a multi-RBI game.
It was the top of the line-up that was lethal for the Broncs as the first five hitters for the Brown & Gold went 7-for-19 (.368) with five RBIs and seven runs scored.
D1Baseball.com Preseason Player of the Year
Blake Dunn had a monster day at the plate going 1-for-3 with three runs scored, two RBIs and one home run.
Junior
Sean O'Keefe registered the lone multi-hit game for the Broncos going 3-for-5 at the plate with one RBI and one run scored. After his performance in the series finale O'Keefe in now hitting a stellar .301 on the season.
The duo of
Ethan Hajdukovic and
Drew Devine each registered a hit on Sunday with Devine going 1-for-3 with one double, one run scored and one RBI.
Jimmy Allen also registered an RBI on a sacrifice fly while
Justin McIntyre and
Will Morrison each scored a run.
On the mound RHP
Jack Huisman went 2.0 innings allowing two earned runs on two hits with one strikeout. Out of the bullpen senior RHP
Will Mullen threw 2.2 innings, allowing eight hits while striking out a team-high five batters.
For the weekend the Broncos hit a staggering .307 with 50 runs scored on 43 hits. WMU at the plate hit 10 home runs to go along with eight doubles and an on-base percentage of .420. WMU had four players with over a .300 batting average and five players with at least one home run.
In the four-game series with Toledo,
Ethan Hajdukovic led the Broncos with a stellar .471 batting average with four home runs, 13 RBIs and a staggering 1.235 slugging percentage. Junior
Blake Dunn led the Broncos with nine runs scored while hitting .385 with nine RBIs and three runs scored.
With the series split the Broncos now have an overall record of 15-19 and 14-10 in Mid-American Conference play. WMU continues conference road play next weekend, May 7-9 in DeKalb against Northern Illinois.
Western Michigan got on the board early in the top of the first as junior
Blake Dunn blasted his third home run of the season to give the Broncos a 1-0 lead. Dunn belted his third home run of the season over the right center field wall on a 2-1 count.
The Broncos added to their lead in the top of the second with four runs on no hits with one Toledo to earn a 5-0 advantage. With the bases loaded, Dunn was hit by a pitch to score
Justin McIntyre from first and give WMU its second run of the game. WMU plated three more runs in the top of the second off a Toledo wild pitch and an error by the Rocket first baseman.
After Toledo gained a run in the bottom of the second the Broncos responded with one run in the third and three runs in the top of the fourth. In the fourth, Western Michigan registered back-to-back sacrifice flies from
Drew Devine and
Jimmy Allen to increase its lead to 9-2.
Beyond the fourth inning the Bronco offense was halted as Toledo scored three runs in the bottom of the fourth, six runs in the fifth, three in the sixth and two in the eighth to gain a 16-9 lead. After the fourth inning the Rockets retired 14 of the next 16 Western Michigan batters to secure the seven-run victory in the series finale.
