CLEVELAND - Western Michigan left-handed pitcher Joe Shapiro has been selected as the MAC Male Scholar Athlete of the Week, the conference office announced on Wednesday. Shapiro is the fourth different WMU student-athlete to earn a MAC Scholar Athlete of the Week honor during the 2023-24 academic year.

A redshirt junior from Glenview, Ill., Shapiro came out of the bullpen in three of Western Michigan's four games last week and did not allow a run over his 5.1 innings. Across his three appearances, the southpaw limited opposing batters to two hits (.111 batting average) and one walk while racking up seven strikeouts.

Shapiro started the week by striking out three in a scoreless sixth inning in Tuesday's 15-inning win over Valparaiso. In Friday's series opener against first-place Bowling Green, he got the Broncos out of a sixth-inning jam and then proceeded to keep BGSU off of the scoreboard again in the seventh. He closed out the week with 3.0 shutout frames to earn the win on Sunday as Western Michigan blanked the Falcons to secure the weekend series victory.

The left-hander sports a 3.92 GPA and graduated from WMU late last month with a degree in Accountancy.

Shapiro and the Broncos are back home this weekend as they welcome Northern Illinois to Robert J. Bobb Stadium at Hyames Field for a three-game series. First pitch for Friday's series opener against the Huskies is scheduled for 3:05 pm. For tickets to any WMU baseball home game, visit wmubroncos.com/tickets.