KALAMAZOO, Mich. – The Western Michigan baseball team closes out the 2024 regular season this weekend as it visits rival Central Michigan for a three-game series. 

SERIES INFO: Western Michigan (27-20, 17-10 MAC) at CMU (16-36, 7-20)
Game One: Thursday, May 16 | 3 pm | LIVE VIDEO | LIVE AUDIO | LIVE STATS
Game Two: Friday, May 17 | 1 pm | LIVE VIDEO | LIVE AUDIO | LIVE STATS
Game Three: Saturday, May 18 | 12 pm | LIVE VIDEO | LIVE AUDIO | LIVE STATS

FOLLOW ALONG: @WMUBaseball

LEADING OFF

• Western Michigan closes out the 2024 regular season with a three-game series at Central Michigan
• WMU enters the weekend with a one-game lead over Toledo, Kent State and Ball State for the No. 2 seed
• The Broncos are 13-6 in true road games so far this season
• CMU holds a 96-94-1 edge in the all-time series
• The home team has won the regular season series between the two rivals each year since 2015
• Western Michigan is coming off of a series victory against Northern Illinois last weekend in Kalamazoo
• The Broncos closed out the series with their fourth shutout of the season, which tied for the league lead
• WMU's four MAC shutouts are the most in the league, with no other team having more than one
• Sunday was win number 300 for head coach Billy Gernon, making him the third to reach that mark
• In Friday's series opener, Jackson Kitchen became the first Bronco to ever hit for the cycle
• Kitchen was named the MAC Player of the Week on Monday, the fourth WMU player to win it this year
• The Broncos enter the weekend leading the conference with a .316 batting average, which is 13th in DI
• Cade Sullivan (.398) and CJ Richmond (.393) are the top-2 in the MAC in batting average
• Nolan Vlcek enters the weekend third in the MAC in ERA (3.84), strikeouts (77) and innings pitched (72.2)

ON THE ROAD AGAIN
Western Michigan closes out the regular season with a three-game series at Central Michigan. The Broncos are 13-6 in true road games and took two out of three at regular season champion Bowling Green in their last road series. 

SERIES HISTORY
Entering the weekend, Central Michigan owns a 96-94-1 edge in the all-time series between the two rivals. Last season, the Broncos won the regular season series, but CMU won the meeting in the MAC Tournament. In WMU's last trip to Mount Pleasant back in 2022, the Chippewas won three out of four. Western Michigan is looking for its first series win in Mount Pleasant since a sweep in 2008. 

GOING FOR TWO
Western Michigan enters the weekend in second-place in the Mid-American Conference standings and controls its own destiny to get the No. 2 seed and a bye in next week's conference tournament. The Broncos are one game ahead of Toledo, Ball State and Kent State in the race for the two seed and hold head-to-head tiebreakers over both the Rockets and the Golden Flashes. 

LAST TIME OUT
Last weekend, Western Michigan made it eight wins in its last nine home MAC series as it took two out of three from Northern Illinois. The Broncos started with a 15-5 win on Friday to secure their place in next week's MAC Tournament. NIU won Saturday's tilt with a late rally, and WMU then bounced back to secure the series with its fourth shutout of the season in Sunday's rubber match. 

MR. 300
Head coach Billy Gernon earned his 300th win at the helm of the Broncos on Sunday against NIU. In the 300-win club, Gernon joins a pair of WMU Athletics Hall of Famers, Fred Decker, who had 791 from 1976-2004, and Charlie Maher, who racked up 437 victories in two stints with the Broncos, from 1937-43 and 1946-67. 

KITCHEN MAKES HISTORY
Jackson Kitchen made history on Friday, becoming the first player in program history to hit for the cycle. The senior doubled in the first, homered in the third, singled in the fifth and completed the cycle with a triple in the sixth. He then homered again in the eighth to cap his 5-for-5 day and tie WMU single-game records for runs (5) and total bases (14). On Monday, he was named the MAC Player of the Week after going 7-for-12 (.583), scoring six times and driving in nine runs. He joined Cade Sullivan, Grady Mee and CJ Richmond as the four Broncos to be named MAC Player of the Week this season. 

MOWING DOWN THE MAC
The quartet of DJ Thompson (3.2 IP), Joe Shapiro (2.1), Luke Thelen (2.0) and Ryan Watt (1.0) led the Broncos to an 8-0 shutout victory to wrap up the series against NIU, their fourth MAC shutout of the season. Western Michigan is tied for the overall lead with four shutouts and is the only team in the conference to have more than one shutout in league play in 2024. WMU is second in the MAC in overall ERA (5.90) and has the top ERA in league play at 4.97. 

RECORD-SETTING PACE
Led by Nolan Vlcek's 77 strikeouts, third-most in the league, Western Michigan is on pace to set a new single-season program record for strikeouts. The Broncos have 381 so far this year, with the all-time record standing at 395, which was set in 2001. 

OFFENSIVE ONSLAUGHT
The WMU offense leads the MAC and ranks 13th nationally in batting average at .316. The Broncos are also atop the league in total hits (518) and second in OBP (.415).

COUNTING ON CADE
Cade Sullivan enters the weekend leading the MAC and ranking 20th in NCAA Division I in batting average at .398. The senior is also atop the conference in hits (76) and is among the league leaders in runs (59), OBP (.489, 4th) and OPS (1.123, 4th). His 59 runs scored are three away from tying Western Michigan's single season record of 62, which was set by Bob Reimink in 1989. 

WESTERN WORKHORSE
Redshirt senior right-hander Brady Miller continued his climb up the Western Michigan career leaderboards last weekend, moving into second all-time in career innings pitched with 289.2 and climbing to fourth in career strikeouts with 250. This season, Miller is sixth in the MAC in innings pitched (71.0) and 11th in strikeouts (63).