KALAMAZOO, Mich. -- The Western Michigan softball team hosts its first non-conference opponent at Ebert Field on Tuesday afternoon in a doubleheader with the Oakland Golden Grizzlies.

LAST TIME OUT
Western Michigan took two out of three games from the Bowling Green Falcons to open up the home portion of its schedule over the weekend. The Broncos earned back-to-back 1-0 wins over Bowling Green on Friday and Saturday afternoon to move their Mid-American Conference record to .500. WMU wasn't able to stop a big offensive third game from the Falcons as Bowling Green took the series finale 7-1 in Saturday's doubleheader.

The Brown and Gold saw stellar pitching from their two freshmen, right-handers Ava Geyer and Hannah Potts. Both newcomers pitched a full seven innings in the two straight shutouts while Potts set a new career high in strikeouts, taking down eight batters in the second game of the series. At the plate, junior shortstop Caitlin Tighe led Western Michigan for the second straight week, going 5-of-9 for a .556 average with a double and an RBI.

STAYING HOME
After spending 22 games away from Kalamazoo, the Broncos have their longest homestand of the season at Fran Ebert Field to open the home portion of their schedule. WMU is playing eight straight games at home over a two week span for the team's only true homestand of the season. The Brown and Gold have five more games as part of this home stretch with the Oakland doubleheader and a three game series versus Akron over the weekend. The Grizzlies are the only non-conference team that Western Michigan is hosting at Ebert Field in 2026.

NO RUNS FOR YOU
The Broncos have now earned four shutout wins in 25 games this season. WMU leads the MAC in shutouts along with Bowling Green, who have also had four this season. The two teams are also tied for 44th nationally with over 20 teams, including Oakland. The Brown and Gold are currently on track to record eight shutouts this season, only three games behind its best season with shutouts under Head Coach Marlee Wilson. Western Michigan had 11 shutout victories in the 2024 season behind MAC Pitcher of the Year, senior Rissa Bajusz. 

TAKING THEM DOWN AT THE PLATE
The Bronco pitchers continue to have a big month in the circle with their first home games over the past weekend. WMU's pitching staff currently leads the Mid-American Conference in shutouts (4), strikeout to walk ratio (1.91), and team strikeouts per seven innings (6.40). The Brown and Gold have now jumped up to 25th nationally in strikeouts per seven innings with almost six and a half strikeouts a game. 

Freshman right-hander Ava Geyer leads Western Michigan in two of the three stats individually. Geyer is first in the conference in shutouts with three and total strikeouts with 61 on the season. Geyer holds the strikeouts stat alone while she shares three shutouts with Bowling Green's Mackenzie Krafcik. Nationally, Geyer is ranked 21st in shutouts and 111th in strikeouts. 

While freshman Hannah Potts is now nationally ranked in strikeouts per seven innings to lead the MAC. After throwing a career-high nine strikeouts on Saturday afternoon, Potts is averaging 7.4 Ks through 7 innings, ranking 70th nationally. 

TIGHE ON TOP
Junior infielder Caitlin Tighe is having the best month of her career at the plate for the Broncos heading into the final full week of March. Tighe led WMU in its weekend series with Bowling Green, going 5-of-9 at the plate with a .556 batting average. Tighe recorded one of only three RBIs for the Brown and Gold over the weekend while adding her fifth double of the season to have a .667 slugging percentage.

During her leading weekend at the plate, Tighe recorded a new career high on Friday, March 20. The shortstop was a perfect three-for-three at the plate to have her first three hit game. It was also Tighe's sixth mutli-hit game to rank second on the team, right behind freshman Bella Duncan with eight. 
Through 12 games in March, Tighe leads Western Michigan's lineup in batting average with a .359 average in 39 at-bats. The junior has a team-high 14 hits in March while having 2 doubles and a home run. Tighe is also second on the team in RBIs in March, bringing in 6 runs. She also has reached base twice through walks to have the second best on-base percentage of .390. 

PLAYING SMALL BALL
The Broncos are one of the Top 50 teams in the country when it comes to recording sacrifice bunts. With 18 sacrifice bunts through 25 games, WMU is ranked 48th nationally for sacrifice hits. But the Brown and Gold are only ranked 3rd in the Mid-American Conference in sacrifice bunts as Bowling Green leads the way with 22. Western Michigan did limit the Falcons to only two sacrifice bunts in its weekend series, but the Broncos weren't able to record one of their own. 

Sophomore Hannah Herman leads WMU in sacrifice hits as she has recorded six in 25 games coming into Tuesday's doubleheader. Herman averages 0.24 sacrifices a game to be third in the MAC behind UMass's Olivia Packard and Northern Illinois' Rylie Hartman. However, Herman is tied for most sacrifice bunts in the league with Bowling Green's Taylor Behrendt with six each.

SERIES HISTORY
The Brown and Gold play Oakland for the 24th and 25th times in program history on Tuesday in their doubleheader. Western Michigan leads the series by 11 games at 17-6 dating back to 2001 when the Grizzlies added softball. At Ebert Field, the Broncos have only lost twice in 12 home meetings. While WMU also has more wins in Rochester, having picked up eight road victories to only three losses. Oakland leads in only one category in the series. The Grizzlies have won the only neutral meeting between the teams during the NCAA Ann Arbor Regional in 2003. Oakland beat the Brown and Gold 4-3 in the team's only meeting of the Regional. The Grizzlies went 1-2 at the Ann Arbor Regional while Western Michigan went 0-2.

The two teams last met for a single game at Oakland's home field in Rochester in 2024. The Broncos took the game by a run in the 3-2 win behind a game-high two RBI's from catcher Gabbie Evans. Defensively, senior pitcher Rissa Bajusz posted a game-high nine strikeouts in five innings after facing 18 batters. During the 2024 game, Bajusz moved into fifth all-time in program history with 402 career strikeouts. By the end of her career, Bajusz third all-time in strikeouts with 516 Ks in four seasons. 

SCOUTING THE GOLDEN GRIZZLIES
Oakland comes into Tuesday's doubleheader sitting at just above .500 with a 13-10 record. The Grizzlies have wins this year over Western Illinois, Michigan-Dearborn, Lourdes, Rochester Christian, Wayne State, Cleary, and Northern Kentucky. While Oakland is in positive territory for overall wins this season, the Grizzlies have struggled against Division I opponents. Oakland has only gone 3-10 when facing other Division I teams with two of those three wins coming against Western Illinois to open the season back in February. But the Grizzlies do come to Ebert Field having earned a win over the Northern Kentucky Norse on Saturday afternoon by a 3-1 margin. 

At the plate, Oakland is led by senior outfielder Kamryn Troyer as the only batter hitting above .400. Troyer is currently averaging .424 in the batters box with 25 hits, six doubles, one triple, six RBIs and four walks. Troyer is also quick on the base paths with a team-high seven stolen bases. The Grizzlies have two players that are slugging threats in sophomore infielder Kayla Turmell and freshman infielder Autumn Liebhauser. The two infielders have combined for seven of the team's 12 home runs and eight of the team's 45 multi-base hits. In the circle Oakland relies on sophomore Kenna Bommarito who has pitched 63 of the Grizzlies 143 innings with a 6-3 record, a 1.44 ERA, and 67 strikeouts.