KALAMAZOO, Mich. – The Western Michigan baseball team begins Mid-American Conference play this weekend with a three-game series at Akron.

SERIES INFO: WMU (4-7, 0-0 MAC) at Akron (6-7, 0-0)
Game One: Friday, March 6 | 2 pm | LIVE STATS
Game Two: Saturday, March 7 | 1 pm | LIVE STATS
Game Three: Sunday, March 8 | 12 pm | LIVE STATS

FOLLOW ALONG: @WMUBaseball

LEADING OFF

• Western Michigan opens up MAC play this weekend with a three-game set at Akron
• After having Wednesday's scheduled Home Opener canceled, the Broncos are in the midst of a stretch of 18 in a row away from home to start the 2026 season
• Western Michigan owns a 38-26 lead in the all-time series against Akron
• Last season, the Broncos swept a three-game set from the Zips in Kalamazoo
• In WMU's last trip to Akron in 2024, the Zips took two out of three
• Last weekend, the Broncos wrapped up their West Coast swing by taking two out of three at CSUN
• WMU scored double-digit runs for the first time this season in both victories over the Matadors
• Michael Maloney had a huge series, going 7-for-14 with seven runs scored and 10 RBIs
• Maloney enters the weekend as the MAC leader in RBIs with 17
• Tanner Mally comes into the weekend ranked second in the league and third nationally with a .630 OBP
• Mally is the league leader in hit by pitches (10) and eighth in the MAC in batting average (.500)
• Western Michigan has turned a league-leading 11 double plays
• Friday starter Ty McKinstry yielded one run in 5.0 innings against CSUN to grab his first win of 2026

WELCOME TO #MACTION
Western Michigan opens up Mid-American Conference play this weekend with a three-game series at Akron. With the addition of UMass to the league, the MAC will have 11 weekends of conference play this year, with each team still playing every other in a three-game series. The Broncos are slated for six home and five road MAC series in 2026.

ROAD WARRIORS
WMU's first 11 games this season have been away from home, and after having Wednesday's scheduled Home Opener against Siena Heights canceled, the Brown and Gold will now play their first 18 games outside of Kalamazoo. The Broncos are now scheduled to open up their home slate on March 17 against Bethel (Ind.), before welcoming in Ball State for their first home MAC series March 19-21.

SERIES HISTORY
Western Michigan opens up conference play this weekend with a three-game series at Akron. The Broncos enter the series with a 38-26 all-time record against the Zips, including a three-game sweep last year in Kalamazoo. In the Brown and Gold's last trip to Akron back in 2024, the Zips won the series, taking two out of three.

LAST TIME OUT
The Broncos wrapped up their West Coast swing last weekend by taking two out of three at CSUN. In the victories on Friday and Sunday, Western Michigan plated double-digit runs for the first two times this season. The series finale also included a season-high four home runs for the Brown and Gold, with Michael Maloney, Connor Ostrander, Lucas Rick and Jacob Rowold all going deep for WMU.

MASHING MALONEY
Michael Maloney had a huge series at the plate for Western Michigan at CSUN, going 7-for-14 with seven runs scored, a pair of home runs and 10 RBIs. The graduate student comes into the first weekend of MAC play as the conference leader with 17 RBIs. Maloney also paces the Broncos in runs scored (14), home runs (4) and slugging percentage (.667). The shortstop's hot start to the season earned him a spot on the Brooks Wallace Award watch list, which was announced this week by the College Baseball Foundation. The annual award honors the nation's top shortstop, and included the top-100 on its initial watch list.

SETTING THE TABLE
Leadoff hitter Tanner Mally continues to reach base at a prolific rate for the Brown and Gold, and comes into the weekend with a .630 on-base percentage, the third-highest OBP in NCAA Division I. The junior is hitting .500 so far this season and is fifth nationally with 10 hit by pitches. Going back to the end of last season, Mally has reached base safely in 26 consecutive games.

BRONCO WORKHORSE
Ty McKinstry was a workhorse for the Broncos last season, pitching at least 5.0 innings in nine of his team-leading 14 starts. The righty has gotten back to his old ways in 2026, firing 5.0 innings in each of his last two outings. Last Friday at CSUN, McKinstry turned in his best start so far in 2026, limiting the Matadors to one run on six hits over his 5.0 frames, while striking out five without issuing a walk. 

TURNING TWO
Western Michigan has been solid defensively thus far, ranking fourth in the conference and 54th in NCAA Division I with a .979 fielding percentage. The WMU defense has turned into a twin-killing machine, having turned a league-leading 11 double plays so far during the young season. 

SHUTTING IT DOWN
The WMU bullpen really locked things down in the series at CSUN, not allowing the Matadors to score a single run after the fourth inning in any of the three games last weekend. On Friday, the Broncos got a pair of scoreless frames each from DJ Thompson and Matt Hoover, another four innings from Zach Vriesenga (3.0) and Sam Carlisle (1.0) on Saturday, and then a combined five shutout frames from Thompson (2.1) and Turner Doran (2.2) to close out Sunday's rubber-match victory.

GO DJ, THAT'S MY DJ
Senior DJ Thompson has made a team-leading six appearances out of the Western Michigan bullpen through the season's first three weekends and been a big part of the strong work from the relief corps. In those six outings, the righty has yet to yield an earned run over 7.1 innings and picked up seven strikeouts. He earned the win in relief in Sunday's series-clinching victory at CSUN.