Box Score FORT MYERS FLA. – The Western Michigan softball team defeated Sacred Heart 6-5 in 10 innings of play Wednesday behind a combined four hits from Haley Boxwell and Rissa Bajusz. Defensively, Jensen Gremillion and Kailey O'Connor combined for five strikeouts. 

With their win over the Pioneers, the Brown and Gold have won five out of their last six games to tie a season-best three games above the .500 mark. On Wednesday, WMU opened the game with an offensive spurt after Riley Dittmar led off with a double during the top of the first inning. After Payton Kelly laid down a sacrifice bunt to advance Dittmar, Boxwell would notch a sacrifice fly to score Dittmar and claim an early 1-0 lead over the Pioneers. During the final half of the inning, the Pioneers responded with a run of their own to tie the game at one all leading into the second inning Wednesday.

Over the course of the second, third, and fourth innings, the Brown and Gold were halted offensively and limited to one walk and one hit. Sacred Heart would eventually take a 3-1 lead over the Broncos in the bottom of the fourth inning. 

The softball team would then see a walk from Addison Hudson in the top of the fifth inning and a single from Megan Welsh during the top of the sixth. However, the Broncos could not gain momentum during the two innings and faced a 3-1 deficit entering the seventh inning Wednesday.

Despite trailing by two runs, in the top of the seventh, the Broncos stayed composed and managed to force extra innings after scoring two runs to tie the game. During the seventh inning, O'Connor and Bajusz singled, to put two on and nobody out for WMU. Later, Hudson would single with one out and Dittmar walked, to score O'Connor. With Bajusz at third base, Kelly would hit a sacrifice resulting in a flyout to score Bajusz to tie the game at 3-3. 

Later, during the top of the eighth inning, Bajusz singled to left field and drove in Welsh to give WMU their first lead since the top of the first at 4-3. However, Sacred Heart would tie the game during the bottom of the eighth by scoring a run of their own to advance the game to the ninth inning.  When Sacred Heart and the Broncos battled on into the ninth inning, Boxwell managed to fly out into center field, which allowed Kelly to advance to second and Hudson to Advance to third base. During the play, Tighe scored and the Broncos took a 5-4 lead over the Pioneers. 

WMU's foes would score yet again during the bottom of the ninth inning and advance the game to the top of the 10th during extra innings. With Welsh on second, Garey placed a sacrifice bunt down, which in turn advanced Welsh to third base. Following Garey's sacrifice bunt, Gabbie Evans doubled to score her teammate Welsh, which resulted in the game-winning run for the Broncos.

Up Next

The Broncos will face the University of Pittsburgh and FGCU on Friday, March 8 at 2:30 PM and 7:30 PM. Make sure to check @wmusoftball on X and wmubroncos.com for potential schedule changes due to weather.