AKRON, Ohio – Western Michigan senior right-hander Brenden Lovell threw a total of nine scoreless innings across the two games of Saturday's doubleheader at Akron to help the Broncos sweep the Zips, 2-1 and 12-0.
 
FINAL SCORE (G1): Western Michigan 2, Akron 1 (F/7)
LOCATION: Skeeles Field (Akron, Ohio)
RECORDS: Western Michigan (7-18, 5-7 MAC) | Akron (9-20, 7-11 MAC)
W: Easton Sikorski (1-0) | L: Anthony Fett (0-5)
Save: Brenden Lovell (1)
 
FINAL SCORE (G2): Western Michigan 12, Akron 0 (F/7)
LOCATION: Skeeles Field (Akron, Ohio)
RECORDS: Western Michigan (8-18, 6-7 MAC) | Akron (9-21, 7-12 MAC)
W: Brenden Lovell (2-0) | L: Jackson Hickert (1-3)
 
Lovell came on in relief in the opener with Western Michigan leading 2-1, and held Akron to one hit over three scoreless frames to pick up his first save of the season. The Broncos turned to Lovell again to start game two, and the senior kept rolling, posting another six scoreless innings to pick up the victory. For the day, Lovell worked nine shutout frames, yielded six hits, walked one and struck out eight.
 
In total, the Western Michigan staff did not allow an earned run, and surrendered just eight hits, with three walks and 11 strikeouts over 14 innings on Saturday. Easton Sikorski yielded an unearned tally in his four innings as the game one starter, with Nick Crandell setting the Zips down in order to close out the first shutout for the Broncos since one year ago to the date (April 9, 2021 at Miami).
 
The WMU offense totaled a season-high 15 hits in the second game of the day, with a career-high tying four coming from Justin McIntyre. McIntyre tallied five hits over the course of the two contests. The Broncos also got multi-hit efforts in the finale from Jimmy Allen, Dylan Nevar and Josh Swinehart, while Gavin Doyle reached three times on a hit and two walks. Doyle and Ben Campos each drove in three runs in game two, with Swinehart knocking in a pair.
 
In game one, Will Morrison broke the scoreless deadlock with a solo shot in the third inning. Later in the frame, McIntyre doubled WMU's advantage with a run-scoring two-bagger.
 
Thanks to a pair of double plays, Sikorski faced the minimum through his first three innings. In the fourth, an error allowed the Zips to scratch across their lone run of the day, cutting the WMU edge to 2-1. Sikorski struck out the next hitter to avoid further damage.
 
Lovell came on in the fifth, and retired nine of the 10 Zips he faced to secure a 2-1 game one victory for the Broncos.
 
In the finale, the righty picked up where he left off at the end of game one. In his six innings in game two, the senior allowed multiple baserunners in only one inning, the second. In that frame, Akron had runners at second and third with one out, but a strikeout and a fly ball got Lovell and the Broncos out of trouble. The Zips did not get a runner past second base for the remainder of the afternoon.
 
Western Michigan's offense got off to a fast start in game two, plating four runs in the fourth on RBI doubles by Connor Charping and Nevar, and a two-run single by Swinehart.
 
The Broncos pushed across five more in the fourth, as Doyle cleared the bases with a three-run double, followed by Cade Sullivan and Morrison pushing the advantage to 9-0 with RBI singles.
 
Campos capped the day's scoring with a three-run blast in the sixth, the first home run of his collegiate career.
 
Western Michigan goes for the series victory over the Zips on Sunday afternoon. First pitch for Sunday's series finale is slated for 12 pm.