KALAMAZOO, Mich. -- The Western Michigan softball team took two out of three games in a home series against Buffalo over the weekend at Fran Ebert Stadium.
Buffalo took the opening game of a doubleheader on Friday, 6-3, but the Broncos bounced back to take the second game 5-2. In Saturday's rubber match, WMU came away with a 9-7 win.
GAME 1
Western Michigan got on the board first after
Tristen Head hit a single to center to score
Riley Dittmar in the bottom of the first inning. The Bulls used a big third inning to take the lead. Mia Mitchell hit a RBI double to score Emily Gorman to tie the score at 1-1. Abbey Nagel then hit a two-run home run to score Mitchell and give UB a 3-1 lead.
WMU tied it up after
Micaela Booth hit a sacrifice fly to score
Taylor Wolfe in the bottom of the third to cut the lead to 3-2. Dittmar then singled in the bottom of the fourth to score
Emily Yacapraro to tie it up at 3-3. Buffalo retook the lead with a RBI double by Lily Lauck in the top of the fifth and then added two more runs in the top of the seventh to seal the win. Dittmar finished the game going 2-for-2 with a RBI, a run scored and two walks.
GAME 2
Western Michigan was again the first on the board, this time in the bottom of the second inning. Dittmar singled to score both
Caitlin Tighe and
Haleigh Smith thanks to a throwing error. Head then hit a RBI single to left field to score Dittmar to push the lead to 3-0. In the bottom of the third,
Jadeyn Merrill hit her second home run of the season, a solo shot to left center to make it 4-0.
Isabella Smithson countered with a solo home run in the top of the fourth to cut the lead to 4-1, but the Broncos added an extra run in the fifth inning when
Analeez Niles grounded out to second, scoring pinch-runner
Parker Ostach. Nagel hit her second home run of the day, this time a solo shot to left field to cut the lead to 5-2 in the top of the sixth.
Freshman
Kaylee Salyer was on the mound for the duration and struck out two of the final three batters in the top of the seventh to earn her first collegiate win. Salyer had a career-high eight strikeouts in the victory and allowed just five hits.
GAME 3
On Sunday, the Broncos jumped out to a big lead, scoring five runs in the first two innings. In the bottom of the first Kelly hit a two-run triple to center field to score Merrill and Head to take a 2-0 lead. Niles was up next and she belted the ball over the center field fence for a two-run homer to make it 4-0. In the bottom of the second, Head hit a sacrifice fly out to right field to score Tighe.
Buffalo picked up two runs in the top of the third on a sacrifice fly by Mitchell. An error on the throw back into the infield allowed Gorman and Terwilliger to score, cutting the lead to 5-2. The Broncos countered in the bottom of the third, with Niles hitting a RBI single to right field to score Wolfe. Booth then singled to score Kelly to make it 7-2.
The Bulls used a big fifth inning to get back into the game, scoring four runs to cut the lead to 7-6. But Booth hit her second RBI single of the game to push the lead to 8-6, before
Jordan Smith homered to right field to give the Broncos a three-run lead. Buffalo added a run in the top of the seventh on a sacrifice fly, but
Casey Fazzini retired the final two batters to earn the save.
Western Michigan heads back on the road to Bowling Green for a game at 3 p.m. on Friday and then a doubleheader on Saturday, beginning at 1 p.m.
