MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. – The Western Michigan baseball team had its series-opening contest at rival Central Michigan suspended due to lightning in the area on Thursday evening. The game will be resumed on Friday at 11 am, with the two teams tied at 7-7 in the top of the eighth inning.
Trailing 7-6 entering the eighth inning with rain and darkness bearing down, Western Michigan put together one of several two-out rallies to even the score.
Connor Ostrander got the Broncos going with a two-out walk, and then moved into scoring position on a wild pitch.
Nolan Zajac then came up and ripped a single right back up the middle, bringing Ostrander around to tie it up at 7-7.
Before another pitch was thrown, the skies opened up, and the umpires cleared the field. With darkness quickly approaching, the umpires and two teams got together and decided to suspend the contest, which will be picked up with one on and two outs for the Brown and Gold in the top of the eighth inning.
After the start of the game was delayed a little more than an hour due to weather, the Broncos took advantage of some shaky CMU defense to open the scoring in the top of the first. An error and a pair of wild pitches got
Drew Howard to third base, and he then scored on a ground ball off of the bat of
Michael Maloney.
Central Michigan answered with a pair of unearned tallies in the home half to take a 2-1 edge.
WMU put together a two-out rally to tie it up in the second. Zajac got it started with a base hit, and the next two Broncos reached on a walk and hit by pitch to load the bases for Howard. Howard then also worked a free pass to collect an RBI and even the contest at 2-2.
Western Michigan did its damage with two outs again in the fourth. Back-to-back singles and a walk loaded the bases for
Mark Mennecke, and he went the other away for an RBI single to put the Brown and Gold back in front, 3-2.
The Chippewas came right back in the home half, pushing across five to regain the lead, 7-3.
WMU fought back in the fifth, loading the bases once again.
Tanner Mally drew a walk to pick an RBI, Howard collected a run-scoring single and Maloney drove in his second run of the contest to trim the gap to 7-6.
Despite opportunities on both sides, it remained a one-run game until the eighth inning.
The Broncos and Chippewas are set to continue their three-game series on Friday, starting with the resumption of Thursday's suspended game at 11 am. Following the conclusion of that contest, the two rivals will then aim to complete the series with a doubleheader.
