AKRON, Ohio – Trailing 4-1, the Western Michigan baseball team scored three in the sixth and six in the seventh in a come-from-behind victory at Akron on Friday afternoon. It was the fifth consecutive road victory for the Broncos.
FINAL SCORE: Western Michigan 10, Akron 4
LOCATION: Skeeles Field (Akron, Ohio)
RECORDS: Western Michigan (22-16, 13-6 MAC) | Akron (9-32, 4-15)
W: DJ Thompson (3-1) |
L: Spencer Atkins (1-7)
Akron held a 4-1 advantage as the contest entered the sixth inning.
Cade Sullivan opened the frame with a solo home run, his team-leading ninth of the campaign.
Dylan Nevar then walked, with
Connor Ostrander following with a pinch-hit double to put the tying runs in scoring position.
Josh Swinehart brought Nevar around and advanced Ostrander to third with a ground ball, and
CJ Richmond then tied the game with an RBI single.
DJ Thompson kept the game tied with a scoreless bottom of the sixth inning.
With two on and one out in the seventh,
Ben Campos doubled down the left field line to put Western Michigan in front, 6-4. Swinehart then followed with a two-run shot, his third of the season. With two outs,
Michael Maloney and
Grady Mee notched back-to-back RBI singles to complete the six-run outburst.
Thompson picked up the win for WMU after throwing 1.2 scoreless innings of relief and collecting three strikeouts. Behind the sophomore, the trio of
Luke Thelen,
Jake Gernon and
Turner Doran kept the Zips off of the scoreboard in the seventh, eighth and ninth frames to secure the victory.
Akron tallied the contest's first run with two outs in the bottom of the first.
Western Michigan evened the score in the fourth. Sullivan drew a walk to start the frame, moved to third after a pair of groundouts, then scored on a two-out knock by Swinehart. Swinehart drove in a team-high four runs for the afternoon, while Sullivan scored a team-best three times.
The hosts moved back in front on a three-run homer in the bottom of the fourth.
WMU starting pitcher
Brady Miller struck out three in his 4.1 innings of work in the contest. The redshirt senior's outing brought him to 278.1 career innings pitched for the Brown and Gold, tying him with former Bronco, and current Baltimore Oriole, Keegan Akin (2014-16) for fourth in program history.
The Broncos and Zips continue their three-game weekend series on Saturday afternoon. First pitch has been moved up from its originally scheduled time of 1:05 pm to 12 pm.
