CARBONDALE, Ill. – Junior lefty
Dane Armbrustmacher allowed just one run over five innings as Western Michigan knocked off Southern Illinois, 11-8, in the opener of the two teams' three-game non-conference series on Thursday.
FINAL SCORE: Western Michigan 11, Southern Illinois 8
LOCATION: Itchy Jones Stadium (Carbondale, Ill.)
RECORDS: Western Michigan (2-9) | Southern Illinois (11-3)
W: Dane Armbrustmacher (1-1)
| L: Jordan Bloemer (1-1)
Save: Hayden Berg (1)
Armbrustmacher limited Southern Illinois to one run on three hits over five innings as he collected his first win of the season. The southpaw struck out four, and induced a pair of double plays.
Hayden Berg tossed the final two-and-a-third innings to register his first collegiate save.
Connor Charping tallied three hits and scored three times for the Broncos, extending his hitting streak to nine in a row and his on-base streak to 21 straight, dating back to the end of the 2021 campaign.
Jimmy Allen,
Justin McIntyre,
Cade Sullivan and
Josh Swinehart notched two knocks apiece for WMU, while Allen and McIntyre each drove in three runs.
Western Michigan wasted little time in grabbing the lead, as Charping led off the game with a single, then scored on a McIntyre triple.
Will Morrison followed with a sacrifice fly to put the Broncos up 2-0. Southern Illinois pulled one back in the home half to make it 2-1 after one.
WMU extended its advantage with a three-run third. Swinehart roped a two-out double to the left-center field gap which scored Charping, and Sullivan followed with a two-run blast to give the Broncos a 5-1 cushion.
The score remained the same until the seventh, when McIntyre launched his second homer of the year, a two-run shot, to extend the margin to 7-1.
Southern Illinois tallied three in the bottom of the seventh, trimming WMU's edge to 7-4.
In the eighth, Western Michigan loaded the bases with no outs for Allen, who cleared the bases with a three-run triple.
Ryan Missal followed with an RBI single, boosting the WMU advantage to 11-4.
Southern Illinois pushed across one in the eighth and three in the ninth, but Berg ended the game with his fourth strikeout of the contest to lock down his first collegiate save.
Western Michigan and Southern Illinois are scheduled to continue their three-game weekend series on Friday at noon.
