KALAMAZOO, Mich. – The Western Michigan baseball team got 7.0 strong innings from Sam Carlisle and Michael Maloney drove in three runs to help WMU knock off Toledo, 8-6, on Saturday, evening the three-game weekend series at one game apiece.  
 
FINAL SCORE: Western Michigan 8, Toledo 6
LOCATION: Robert J. Bobb Stadium at Hyames Field (Kalamazoo, Mich.)
RECORDS: Western Michigan (16-15, 11-6 MAC) | Toledo (16-18, 12-5)
W: Sam Carlisle (3-2) | L: Hayden Frey (3-1) | Save: Turner Doran (8)
 
Toledo opened the scoring for the second straight day, picking up a run in the top of the second.
 
Western Michigan then erupted for five in the third. Tanner Mally led off with the second of his three hits in the contest. After an error moved Mally to third, Drew Howard brought him home with a sacrifice fly. Maloney followed with an RBI single to put the Broncos in front. After Mark Mennecke was hit by a pitch, Josh Polubinski drilled a double down the left field line to plate a run. Avery Thielman followed with a two-bagger of his own which brought two more in for the Brown and Gold and stretched their advantage to 5-1.
 
The Rockets pulled one back in the fourth to trim the gap to three, 5-2.
 
Sam Carlisle found his groove after that fourth-inning tally, retiring seven Rockets in a row at one point and nine of the final 10 he faced. For the afternoon, the righty fired a career-high tying 7.0 innings, limiting one of the MAC's top offenses to two runs on six hits while piling up eight strikeouts to collect his third win of the year.
 
WMU picked up a pair of insurance runs in the sixth, with Maloney notching another RBI single and Cooper Hums scoring on a Toledo error.  
 
The Rockets scored a pair in the eighth to make it a three-run spread once again, 7-4.
 
Maloney's third run-scoring knock of the day gave the Brown and Gold a four-run cushion heading into the ninth.
 
Toledo notched a pair in the final frame, but Turner Doran held off the Rockets to collect his league-leading eighth save of the season.
 
Western Michigan and Toledo wrap up their three-game weekend series with a rubber match on Sunday at 1:05 pm from Robert J. Bobb Stadium at Hyames Field. For tickets to any WMU baseball home game, visit wmubroncos.com/tickets.