EVANSVILLE, Ind. -- The Western Michigan softball team is at the University of Evansville for the 2025 Aces Tournament on Sunday and Monday.
The tournament was originally scheduled for Friday-Sunday, but had to be moved due to weather. WMU will now take on the host Aces on Sunday at 1 p.m. ET, followed by UT-Martin at 6 p.m. On Monday, the Broncos open things with the Skyhawks at 11 a.m. and finish things off with Evansville at 1:30 p.m.
LAST WEEK
The Broncos went 2-2 last weekend at UT-Martin's Skyhawk Invitational. WMU fell to the hosts 4-3 before pounding Purdue Fort Wayne 11-3. On the second day, WMU had a double-header with Murray State. Western Michigan took the first game 7-1 and saw its comeback effort fall just shy in the second game, falling 7-5.
BEST OF THREE
With the restructuring of the Aces Tournament, the Broncos and the Skyhawks now get to fight it out in a best-of-three series. UT-Martin took the first game last week at their tournament, in a 4-3 pitcher's dual. All the scoring happened in the second inning, with the Skyhawks putting up four runs on a pair of home runs by Krysten Brown and Alli Robinson. In the bottom of the inning, the Broncos took advantage of some UTM errors and scored runs on singles by
Riley Chumbley and
Micaela Booth. Chumbley scored WMU's third run on a passed ball. After that, the pitchers took over. WMU's
Casey Fazzini ended up pitching 5.2 innings of shutout ball, while Elly Ekrich pitched 4.0 innings with four strikeouts before Rylee Tittle came in for a 2.0-inning save with four strikeouts.
OUCH
After getting hit by a pitch four times last weekend, junior infielder
Riley Chumbley is now third in the nation in hits by pitch with eight on the season. Chumbley had one in each game against Michigan State, one against Washington, one against Arizona, two against Purdue Fort Wayne, one against UT-Martin and the eighth and final one in the second game of the double-header against Murray State. Because of her prowess for getting pegged and for drawing walks, she leads the team in on-base percentage at .552 despite having just four hits on the season.
INSTANT IMPACT
Freshman infielder
Micaela Booth has made an instant impact on the team this season. The Allen, Texas, native has played and started in all nine games and currently leads the team in home runs (3) and RBIs (11). She's second on the team in total bases with 16. Booth has had a RBI in six of the nine games this season, including a five-game streak that was snapped in the second game against Murray State.
ON THE HORIZON
The Broncos head south to Gainesville, Fla., and the University of Florida for the T-Mobile Tournament beginning on Friday. WMU opens the tournament with games against Troy at 10 a.m. and Florida A&M to follow. On Saturday, the Broncos have games against the host Gators at 2 p.m. and then Samford afterward. WMU closes out the weekend with an early 9 a.m. game against the Trojans on Sunday.
