AVON, Ohio – The Western Michigan baseball team saw its 2026 season come to an end with a 6-1 loss to Kent State in an elimination game at the Mid-American Conference Tournament on Friday. The Broncos finish the campaign with a 27-25 record.
FINAL SCORE: No. 2 Kent State 6, No. 5 Western Michigan 1
LOCATION: ForeFront Field (Avon, Ohio)
RECORDS: Western Michigan (27-25) | Kent State (42-14)
W: Ben Rabatin (8-3) |
L: Sam Carlisle (4-5) |
Save: Caden Leonard (2)
Tanner Mally led off the contest for Western Michigan with a double. The hit was his 87th of the season, breaking a tie with Cade Sullivan (2024) for the single-season program record. Mally finished the year with a .554 on-base percentage, breaking the 61-year old school record which was previously held by Bill Guerrant (.551 in 1965). Mally's .446 season batting average was WMU's fourth-highest, single-season average of all time and the highest mark since 1965.
The Broncos threatened early, putting two runners on base in both the first and third frames, but were turned away both times.
Kent State broke through with the game's first runs in its half of the third, pushing across a pair to grab a 2-0 edge. The Golden Flashes picked up another in the fifth to stretch the margin to three.
WMU got on the board in the sixth, with
Connor Ostrander bringing
Avery Thielman home with a sacrifice fly. A walk re-loaded the bases with two outs, but the Broncos could not pull any closer.
The Golden Flashes then tacked on three in the bottom of the seventh.
