KALAMAZOO, Mich. – On the brink of securing its place in the upcoming Mid-American Conference Tournament, the Western Michigan baseball team returns to Robert J. Bobb Stadium at Hyames Field this weekend as it takes on Northern Illinois in its final home series of the season. 

Sunday is Senior Day for the Broncos, with 11 seniors set to be honored with a pregame on-field ceremony. The ceremony is scheduled to begin at roughly 12:45 pm. 

SERIES INFO: Western Michigan (25-19, 15-9 MAC) vs NIU (17-31, 10-14)
Game One: Friday, May 10 | 3:05 pm | TICKETS | LIVE VIDEO | LIVE AUDIO | LIVE STATS
RHP Brady Miller vs RHP Ty Brachbill
Game Two: Saturday, May 11 | 1:05 pm | TICKETS | LIVE VIDEO | LIVE AUDIO | LIVE STATS
RHP Nolan Vlcek vs RHP Adam Brouwer
Game Three: Sunday, May 12 | 1:05 pm | TICKETS | LIVE VIDEO | LIVE STATS

FOLLOW ALONG: @WMUBaseball

LEADING OFF

• Western Michigan closes out its 2024 home schedule this weekend with a three-game set against NIU
• WMU enters the weekend one win away from clinching a spot in the 2024 MAC Tournament
• Head coach Billy Gernon is two wins shy of 300 at the helm of the Brown and Gold
• The Broncos are 10-4 at home this season and have won seven of their last eight MAC home series
• WMU holds a 51-43-1 advantage in the all-time series against Northern Illinois
• The two teams have split the season series each of the last three seasons
• Western Michigan is coming off of a weekend series victory at first-place Bowling Green
• The Broncos closed out the series with an 11-0 win on Sunday, their third shutout of the season
• WMU's three MAC shutouts are the most in the league, with no other team having more than one
• CJ Richmond was named the MAC Player of the Week on Monday
• The Broncos enter the weekend leading the conference with a .316 batting average, which is 13th in DI
• Cade Sullivan (.410) and Richmond (.396) are the top-2 in the MAC in batting average
• Sullivan's mark is 19th in the nation, while Richmond is 25th nationally
• Brady Miller enters the weekend with 283.2 career innings, 5.1 shy of second all-time at WMU

HOME SWEET HOME
Western Michigan returns to Robert J. Bobb Stadium at Hyames Field for its final home series this weekend as it welcomes Northern Illinois to town for a three-game set. The Broncos are 10-4 at Hyames Field so far in 2024 and have won seven of their last eight home series. Sunday is Senior Day for WMU with 11 seniors set to be honored before the game; Hayden Berg, Greg Budig, Ben Campos, Nick Crandell, Jayden Dentler, Jackson Kitchen, Brady Miller, Cade Sullivan, Josh Swinehart, Nolan Vlcek and Ryan Watt will all take part in the ceremony. 

SERIES HISTORY
WMU owns a 51-43-1 all-time record in the series against Northern Illinois. The two teams have split the season series each of the last three seasons, with each winning one contest in a weather-shortened, two-game series last year in DeKalb, and the two teams splitting four-game sets in both 2021 in DeKalb and 2022 in Kalamazoo. 

WIN AND YOU'RE IN
Western Michigan enters the weekend needing just one win over NIU to secure its place in the upcoming Mid-American Conference Tournament. The Broncos have made seven of the last 11 MAC Tournaments. WMU enters the weekend in second-place, with the top-two teams in the regular season standings earning byes in the six-team tournament, which begins on May 22 in Avon, Ohio.

CLOSING IN ON 300
WMU head coach Billy Gernon enters the weekend just two wins shy of becoming the third head coach in program history to reach 300 wins. The two prior head coaches to reach 300 at Western Michigan are 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. 

LAST TIME OUT
Western Michigan is coming off of a series victory at first-place Bowling Green last weekend. The Falcons took Friday's series opener, but the Broncos bounced back to win the next two games, including an 11-0 shutout to seal the series victory on Sunday. Western Michigan also hit four home runs in the finale, with Dylan Nevar hitting a pair. 

MOWING DOWN THE MAC
The trio of DJ Thompson (3.0 IP), Joe Shapiro (3.0) and Hayden Berg (1.0) led the Broncos to an 11-0 shutout victory to wrap up the series at Bowling Green, their third MAC shutout of the season. Western Michigan is the only team in the conference to have more than one shutout in league play in 2024. WMU held the BGSU offense, which entered last weekend as the third-highest scoring offense in the country, scoreless over the final 14 innings of the series, and allowed the Falcons to score in just three out of 25 innings for the weekend. The Broncos have a 5.22 ERA in MAC play, just a shade behind Miami (5.21) for the league lead. 

RAKING RICHMOND
CJ Richmond had multiple hits in all four of WMU's games last week and went 12-for-18 (.667) with seven RBIs to claim the MAC Player of the Week award, joining Cade Sullivan and Grady Mee as the three Broncos to win a Player of the Week award in 2024. Overall, Richmond has collected multiple hits in six consecutive games to raise his batting average to .396, the second-highest mark in the league behind Sullivan. The Indianapolis native is also second in the MAC in OPS (1.181), third in hits (67), OBP (.495) and slugging (.686) and fifth in RBIs (53). 

COUNTING ON CADE
Cade Sullivan enters the weekend leading the MAC and ranking 19th in NCAA Division I in batting average at .410. The senior is also atop the conference in hits (73) and on-base percentage (.505). His 58 runs scored in 2024 are tied for the second-most in a single season at WMU. The single-season record is Bob Reimink's 62 runs scored in 1989. Last Saturday, Sullivan passed Chris Lewis (2007-10) for second in career RBIs at Western Michigan with 157. 

50/50
Both Dylan Nevar and CJ Richmond eclipsed the 50-RBI mark for the season last weekend against Bowling Green to become the first WMU teammates to surpass 50 RBIs in the same season since Matt Mieske and Damon Saetre in 1989. Nevar is fourth in the MAC with 55 RBIs, while Richmond is fifth with 53. With his multi-homer, 5-RBI game on Sunday, Nevar moved into fifth in career RBIs at WMU with 144.

OFFENSIVE ONSLAUGHT
The WMU offense leads the MAC in batting average at .316, which ranks 13th in NCAA Division I, and in total hits with 486. The Broncos rank second in the league in on-base percentage (.414), the 35th-best mark in the country.