AKRON, Ohio –  The Western Michigan softball team concluded the 2024 season after a 6-0 loss to sixth-seed Ball State and a 4-3 defeat to fifth-seed Central Michigan in the Mid-American Conference Championship. In game one Taylor Garey produced a team-high two hits, in game two, four Broncos tallied two hits, including Payton Kelly, who tied a game-high with two RBI.

Game One 

The Brown and Gold combined for a total of four hits as a team in the game one defeat Wednesday afternoon.

Down 2-0 during the top of the second inning, graduate student Megan Welsh drilled a single to right field to lead off the inning to start up the Bronco offense. Following Welsh's hit, Garey followed suit and singled to right field to put two on and nobody out for the Brown and Gold. Eventually, Cassidy Brendtke advanced the Bronco base runners to third and second base after hitting a sacrifice bunt for the first out of the inning. Despite the two Broncos in scoring position, the Brown and Gold concluded the inning with consecutive outs. 

WMU would see singles from Addison Hudson in the bottom of the third and Garey later in the bottom of the fourth. However, the Broncos were unable to score their base runners. Ball State would later score two runs in the top of the sixth, and eventually defeated the Broncos 6-0 in game one. 

Game Two 

In game two's defeat to Central Michigan, WMU combined for 11 hits, behind two hits each from Kelly (plus two RBI), Rissa Bajusz, Riley Dittmar, and Haley Boxwell. 

With both teams held scoreless in the first inning, Boxwell sparked the Bronco offense by hitting a leadoff double on a 1-2 count. Later, pinch runner Emily Yacapraro would advance to third after a single from Bajusz and reached home with Garey at the plate. Garey would score Yacapraro after hitting a sacrifice flyout to right field, which gave the Broncos an early 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second inning. 

CMU eventually took a 4-1 lead after scoring in the top of the fourth and fifth innings Wednesday. In the bottom of the fifth inning, the Brown and Gold mounted a comeback effort by scoring two runs to cut the Chippewa lead down to one. Brendtke and Haleigh Smith opened the bottom of the fifth by hitting back-to-back singles, while Kelly followed by doubling to score Smith and pinch-runner Megan Malartsik. Later in the inning, Kelly was thrown out at home, which would have tied the game at four all. The Broncos would later see back-to-back singles from Dittmar and Boxwell but were unable to score the tying run in the inning. 

To lead off the bottom of the sixth inning, Bajusz singled to left field. Following the lead-off single, Garey advanced pinch runner Taylor Wolfe with a sacrifice bunt. Despite advancing Wolfe to second base, the Broncos could not score the base runner before recording three outs in the inning. 

In the seventh after notching a two-out single, Dittmar was the only Bronco to reach base in the final inning. 

Historical Notes 

After tallying two hits each Wednesday, Kelly and Dittmar became the first teammates since Mackenzie Swinehart (66 hits) and Kaylen Glenfield (50 hits) in 2021 to total at least 50 hits in a single season. 

Bajusz's 12 strikeouts in games one and two improved her total to 218 on the season and 516 during her career. The MAC Pitcher of the Year's 218 strikeouts ranks fifth for the most K's accumulated in WMU single-season history, while her 516 career punchouts rank third all-time in program history. 

Head coach Marlee Wilson concluded her historic first season at the helm with the Brown and Gold totaling 27 wins, marking the most victories set by a first-year softball head coach at WMU. Wilson would also lead the Broncos to 16 MAC wins, which is tied for the fifth most conference wins in a single season. This year, Wilson and the Broncos capitalized on their 16 MAC wins by completing two notable win streaks, with a seven-game win streak spanning from March 24-April 6, and a six-game win streak from April 13-April 20. 

Overall, the Brown and Gold scored 200 runs in 2024, which is the seventh most runs scored all-time for WMU in a single season. The Broncos would also create 181 RBI, which is tied for the fifth most in a campaign, and saw the seventh most doubles in a single season with 61.