EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. – Western Michigan redshirt freshman Dylan Nevar homered twice, but a pair of late runs by SIUE lifted the hosts to a 13-11 victory over the Broncos on Saturday afternoon.
 
FINAL SCORE: SIUE 13, Western Michigan 11
LOCATION: Roy E. Lee Field at Simmons Baseball Complex (Edwardsville, Ill.)
RECORDS: Western Michigan (1-8) | SIUE (5-4)   
W: Taylor Bruninga (1-0) | L: Hayden Berg (0-2) | S: Quinn Waterhouse (1)
 
With his two home runs, Nevar became the first Bronco to have a multi-homer game this season. He also drove in a career-high six runs, the most by a WMU player thus far in 2022.
 
In addition to Nevar, Ryan Missal, Cade Sullivan and Josh Swinehart all had multiple hits for Western Michigan on Saturday. Brendan Harrity homered for the second consecutive day, tying him with Missal and Nevar for the team lead with three. Connor Charping collected a sixth-inning double to extend his on-base streak to 19 in a row.
 
In the bottom of the eighth, SIUE broke an 11-11 deadlock with a solo home run. The Cougars added another tally to take a two-run edge into the ninth inning. Western Michigan brought the tying run to the plate in the top of the ninth, but was turned away.
 
Nevar kicked off the scoring in the second inning, belting his first long ball of the day, a three-run shot, to left field to give the Broncos a 3-0 advantage. SIUE answered with two in the bottom of the inning, then took an 8-3 lead after a six-run third.
 
WMU pulled two back in the fourth, as Harrity launched a two-run homer to make it 8-5. A tally in the home half sent the game into the fifth with the Cougars holding a four-run edge.
 
In the fifth, Sullivan brought in Swinehart with a single, and Nevar followed with his second three-run blast of the game to even the score at 9-9.
 
SIUE briefly regained a 10-9 edge in the bottom of the fifth, but Western Michigan answered right back in the sixth. After stealing third, Charping came around to score on an error to tie the game at 10-10. Swinehart then put the Broncos back on top, 11-10, with an RBI single which plated Will Morrison.
 
SIUE evened the score with a tally in the home half of the sixth, and the contest stayed tied at 11-11 until the bottom of the eighth.
 
The Broncos and Cougars wrap up their four-game weekend series on Sunday afternoon at 2 pm.