ATHENS, Ohio – The Western Michigan baseball team got 6.0 strong innings from Sam Carlisle and had its pitching staff retire 15 consecutive batters at one point on the way to a 6-3 win at Ohio on Saturday. The win secured WMU's third consecutive road series victory.
 
FINAL SCORE: Western Michigan 6, Ohio 3
LOCATION: Bob Wren Stadium (Athens, Ohio)
RECORDS: Western Michigan (8-9, 4-1 MAC) | Ohio (3-17, 1-4)
W: Sam Carlisle (1-2) | L: Hunter Winston (0-1) | Save: Turner Doran (3)
 
Western Michigan opened the scoring in the top of the first. Back-to-back base hits with one out got Drew Howard to third for the Brown and Gold, and Connor Ostrander brought him in with a ground ball to break the ice.
 
The Bobcats tallied a pair in the second to grab a 2-1 edge.
 
Ohio's advantage was short-lived, as the Brown and Gold answered in the next half inning. Tanner Mally led off with a single, stole second, advanced to third on a fly ball and then scored on a Michael Maloney sac fly, which evened the scored at 2-2.
 
Mark Mennecke put Western Michigan back on top with a solo blast in the fourth, his first home run for the Broncos.
 
After giving up a pair in the second, Carlisle got into a groove for WMU. The righty yielded a one-out single in the third, and then proceeded to set down the final 11 Bobcats he faced. Carlisle went a career-high tying 6.0 innings for the second straight start and limited OU to two runs on four hits while piling up a career-high seven strikeouts to collect his first win for the Brown and Gold.
 
Western Michigan tacked on a pair in the fifth. Mally once again got it started with a base hit, and he then came around to score on a Howard RBI double. Later in the frame, the Broncos had the bases loaded for Avery Thielman, who worked a walk to extend the margin to 5-2.
 
Getting the leadoff runner aboard led to another tally for WMU in the eighth, when Mennecke started the frame with a base hit and then came around on a Mason Pilarski double.  
 
Behind Carlisle, the duo of Adam Lehmann and Turner Doran recorded the final nine outs for the Brown and Gold. Lehmann set down the first four he faced, extending the staff's run of consecutive batters retired to 15 in a row, before Ohio picked up an eighth-inning run.
 
Doran came on and retired the Bobcats in order in the ninth to record his third save of the campaign and secure the series victory for Western Michigan.
 
The Broncos go for the weekend sweep of the Bobcats on Sunday afternoon. First pitch is scheduled for 1 pm on ESPN+.