KALAMAZOO, Mich. – The Western Michigan baseball team tallied three runs in the bottom of the eighth to pick up an 8-6 come-from-behind victory over Northern Illinois on Thursday.
FINAL SCORE: Western Michigan 8, Northern Illinois 6
LOCATION: Robert J. Bobb Stadium at Hyames Field (Kalamazoo, Mich.)
RECORDS: Western Michigan (24-23, 18-13 MAC) | NIU (31-15, 21-10)
W: Adam Lehmann (2-1) |
L: Blake Gaskey (7-2) |
Save: Turner Doran (10)
Trailing by one,
Connor Ostrander led off the bottom of the eighth inning with a base hit. After he was sacrificed to second,
Nolan Zajac brought him around with a single to even the score at 6-6. With two outs in the frame, WMU had two on for
Drew Howard, who plated Zajac with a base hit to put the Broncos in front.
Michael Maloney followed with an RBI single of his own, his third knock of the day, to give Western Michigan a two-run cushion.
Northern Illinois got the leadoff man on in the ninth, but
Turner Doran buckled down and set down the next three to close it out and earn his league-leading 10th save of the season. Doran's 10 saves are tied for the second-most in a single season in Western Michigan program history.
The Huskies notched the first run of the contest, picking up an unearned tally in the second.
The Broncos came right back, plating five in the home half.
Mason Pilarski got Western Michigan going, dropping a two-run double down the right field line to put the Brown and Gold in front. Zajac followed with an RBI single to bring Pilarski around to score. With two outs, Howard and Maloney collected back-to-back, run-scoring knocks to stretch WMU's advantage to 5-1.
Northern Illinois countered with three in the third to close the gap to one, and then notched single tallies in the fifth and sixth frames to claim a 6-5 edge.
Adam Lehmann settled things down for the Broncos, retiring the final seven batters he faced to keep WMU within a run. The redshirt sophomore earned the win after striking our four in his 3.2 innings of work.
Western Michigan and NIU continue their three-game series on Friday, with first pitch set for 2:05 pm from Robert J. Bobb Stadium at Hyames Field. For tickets to any WMU baseball home game, visit
wmubroncos.com/tickets.
