KALAMAZOO, Mich. – Trailing by as many as eight, the Western Michigan baseball team worked its way back to within two before ultimately falling, 11-9, to Miami on Friday in the opener of the two teams' three-game weekend series.
FINAL SCORE: Miami 11, Western Michigan 9
LOCATION: Robert J. Bobb Stadium at Hyames Field (Kalamazoo, Mich.)
RECORDS: Western Michigan (21-19, 15-10 MAC) | Miami (31-14, 18-7)
W: Zac Sohosky (6-1) |
L: Zach Vriesenga (2-4) |
Save: Austin Berggren (6)
Miami opened the scoring with a pair of runs in the first.
Western Michigan answered with one in the home half, when
Michael Maloney sent a base hit to center field which brought
Drew Howard in to score. Maloney paced the WMU offense in the contest with three hits and four RBIs.
The RedHawks tallied three in the fourth and four in the fifth to stretch their advantage to 9-1.
After having three double plays stop early threats, WMU got itself back into it with a six-run sixth. Back-to-back singles and a walk to start the inning loaded the bases for
Mason Pilarski, who poked a two-run double down the first base line. One out later, a hit batter re-loaded the bases for the Broncos. A wild pitch brought
Lucas Rick around, and
Tanner Mally then followed with an RBI single. Maloney capped the outburst with a two-run double to close the gap to 9-7.
After Miami picked up a run in the top of the seventh, Western Michigan got one right back in the home half when
Avery Thielman dashed home on a
Cooper Hums sacrifice fly.
Each team also scored in the eighth, with Maloney answering the RedHawks' tally in the top half with an RBI double in the bottom of the inning. Western Michigan's rally ended there, as the Brown and Gold stranded a pair in that frame and were also turned away in the ninth.
The Broncos and RedHawks continue their weekend series on Saturday afternoon, with first pitch set for 1:05 pm from Robert J. Bobb Stadium at Hyames Field. For tickets to any WMU baseball home game, visit
wmubroncos.com/tickets.
