Baseball takes down Oakland, 3-2 in 11 innings

By Scott Sierzenga
Western Herald

(Western Herald file photo) Max Kelmigian drove in the winning run for Western Michigan on Tuesday in the bottom of the 11th inning, as the Broncos’ came from behind to take the 3-2 win from Oakland.

The Broncos got its first win of the season at Hyames Field on a day where they couldn’t seem to buy a hit for the first eight innings of the game.
Oakland University (7‑12) held Western Michigan University (6‑17, 2‑4 Mid American Conference) to one run on two hits until the bottom of the ninth, but the Broncos pulled off the 3-2 win in 11 innings.

With one out in the ninth, junior Kyle Galbraith continued his strong end of games hitting pattern with a single down the left field line, extending his hitting streak to eight games.

Freshman Ryan McMillan followed with a double down the leftfield line to bring Galbraith home and square the game up at two a piece.

Junior Tim Mowry (2‑0) held the Golden Grizzlies scoreless in all three innings of relief as the game carried itself into the bottom of the 11th inning. Senior Nathan Marquardt started the inning with a leadoff walk followed by a well‑executed sacrifice bunt laid down by Galbraith, advancing Marquardt to second. A McMillan fly ball out moved Marquardt to third, bringing up the Broncos’ best hitter, junior Chris Lewis.

Lewis got the crowd excited with a sharp hit ground ball off the bat that the third baseman wasn’t able to handle and was able to reach base safely to put runners at the corners for WMU.
Junior Max Kelmigian stepped up to the plate and came through for the Brown and Gold with a clutch piece of hitting. He drove a frozen rope into left field to bring home the winning run.
“I was looking for a ball up in the zone,” Kelmigian said. “I knew if I got it I would be able to hit it.”

Kelmigian was responsible for another Brown and Gold run in the second inning when he led off with a triple and was later plated by freshman Jamie Simpson on a groundball to the pitcher. Kelmigian was the only Bronco with multiple hits on the day.

The Broncos’ offensive woes date back to last weekend when they were outscored by Ohio University 9‑2 over three games. The offense followed the trend its been setting lately of not picking up the production with the bats until the latter part of the game.

“I don’t understand why we don’t start from the very first inning,” head coach Randy Ford said.

The win will hopefully ignite a spark for the Broncos, who have struggled at the plate and have looked for some runs to support the solid outings from Western Michigan’s pitching staff.
“A win helps everyone,” Ford said. “Our pitching was outstanding. Defense was outstanding.”

Freshman Casey Hall (0‑0) had his best outing of the season in his fourth start going six innings, allowing one earned run on four hits.

“I feel more confident every time I go out there,” Hall said. “I got my curveball over for a strike, established it, then worked off that.”

Western Michigan played an error-free game behind its pitchers and looks to continue that defense into the weekend.

Oakland had eight hits on the afternoon, three of them coming from leadoff hitter Justin Wilson. Senior Andrew Stafford went 2-for-5 with a RBI. Jeff Gorecki went five strong for the Grizzlies,
allowing one earned run on one hit.

Western Michigan returns to action at home this weekend with a series against Miami University of Ohio.  The Broncos will try to bust out of their slump at the plate with a little bit of hard work this upcoming weekend.

“We need to keep coming out and putting the time in,” Kelmigian said.

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Posted by HeraldAdmin on Mar 31 2009. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

Cody Kimball
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