AKRON, Ohio – The Western Michigan baseball team broke a 3-3 tie in the eighth inning and hung on from there to open up MAC play with a 4-3 victory at Akron on Friday.
FINAL SCORE: Western Michigan 4, Akron 3
LOCATION: Skeeles Field (Akron, Ohio)
RECORDS: Western Michigan (5-7, 1-0 MAC) | Akron (6-8, 0-1)
W: DJ Thompson (2-0) |
L: Floyd McKenna (0-1) |
Save: Turner Doran (1)
With the contest even at 3-3 in the eighth,
Tanner Mally led off with a single for the Broncos.
Drew Howard then laid down a sacrifice bunt, and a throwing error on the play got Mally all the way to third. A ground ball was then enough to bring him around and put Western Michigan on top, 4-3. Mally reached in all four of his plate appearances and scored twice on Friday.
DJ Thompson kept the Zips off of the scoreboard in the eighth, and
Turner Doran then retired the side in order in the ninth to seal the victory. Thompson picked up the win in relief, while Doran collected his first save of the season.
Akron pitching hit the first three batters of the afternoon to load the bases for the Broncos. After a double play brought in WMU's first run of the contest,
Connor Ostrander delivered a two-out, RBI single to make it 2-0.
After allowing three of the first six Zips he faced to reach,
Zach Vriesenga settled in for Western Michigan and proceeded to retire the next 11 in a row. The right-hander limited Akron to one run on two hits over his 4.2 innings and struck out a career-high six.
The Zips pushed across a two-out run in the fifth to close the gap to one. Later in the frame with the bases loaded,
Matt Hoover got a strikeout to keep WMU's lead intact.
Akron came right back in the next inning, however, and evened the contest at 2-2.
Western Michigan responded in the seventh, as
Avery Thielman launched a solo home run, his first of the year, to put the visitors back in front.
The Zips then countered in the home half of the seventh with a tally of their own to once again tie it up.
The Broncos and Zips continue their three-game weekend series on Saturday afternoon. First pitch is scheduled for 1 pm.
