ATHENS, Ohio – The Western Michigan baseball team got another huge performance from its offense to complete a three-game sweep at Ohio with a 16-7 victory on Sunday afternoon.
 
FINAL SCORE: Western Michigan 16, Ohio 7
LOCATION: Bob Wren Stadium (Athens, Ohio)
RECORDS: Western Michigan (9-9, 5-1 MAC) | Ohio (3-18, 1-5)
W: Ricky Kidd (2-1) | L: AJ Dallmayer (0-2)
 
Western Michigan got contributions from up and down the lineup, with six different players recording multi-hit games, led by Mark Mennecke, who had a career-high five knocks. Connor Ostrander, Josh Polubinski and Avery Thielman drove in four runs apiece, while Michael Maloney scored four times and the trio of Tanner Mally, Ostrander and Thielman each touched home three times.
 
As they did in the first two games of the series, the Broncos opened the scoring in the top of the first. Mally got WMU going with an infield single, raced over to third on an error, and then came in to score on an Ostrander ground ball.
 
Ohio tied it with one of its own in the home half, then tallied two in the second to move ahead, 3-1.
 
WMU came right back in the third, opening the frame with three consecutive hits, the last of which was a run-scoring single by Ostrander. Mennecke then drilled a two-run triple to center field, and came around to score moments later on a passed ball.
 
The Bobcats pulled one back in the bottom of the inning to trim the margin to 5-4.
 
Western Michigan pushed across five in the fourth to grab some breathing room. Ostrander brought in two with a two-bagger, Thielman notched an RBI single and Polubinski collected a two-run double to make it 10-4.
 
In the fifth, Thielman worked a bases-loaded walk to bring in a run and Polubinski plated two more with a single to extend the cushion to nine, 13-4.
 
Ricky Kidd was the primary benefactor of WMU's offensive explosion. The graduate student yielded three earned runs across 5.0 innings and struck out four to pick up the win.
 
Ohio tallied three runs in the sixth to trim the margin to 13-7, but the Broncos again had an answer. Mennecke drove in his third run of the day in the seventh with a double, and Thielman capped WMU's big day at the plate with a two-run homer in the ninth.
 
The trio of Evan Shapiro, DJ Thompson and Matt Maloney kept the Bobcats off of the scoreboard over the final three frames to close it out for the Brown and Gold.
 
Western Michigan returns to Kalamazoo to open up its home schedule on Tuesday against Bethel University. First pitch from Robert J. Bobb Stadium at Hyames Field is scheduled for 3:05 pm. For tickets to any WMU baseball home game, visit wmubroncos.com/tickets.