Broncos lose a heartbreaker

By Scott Sierzenga
Western Herald

The Bronco baseball team is suffering the game two blues, losing on a walk-off homerun in the bottom of the ninth inning on Saturday afternoon.

Surely a nine run cushion against the ever struggling Bronco offense means game over right?

Down 15-6 heading into the top of the ninth, the struggling Brown and Gold offense went to work.

Pinch hitter Troy Forton led the inning off with a walk, which brought the offense to the top of the order. Kyle Galbraith walked and then Grant Simotes walked to load the bases.

A sac fly then brought home a run and gave the Broncos their first out of the inning. Kent State University loaded up the bases again, dishing out another walk and then a throwing error advanced all the runners, bringing Galbraith home.

After a Western Michigan University (5-20, 1-4 Mid-American Conference) strikeout, the Broncos still trailed by seven runs while playing with two outs.

KSU issued their fifth walk of the inning to reload the bases and then a wild pitch brought home Simotes and advanced the runners yet again.

All the while, the Broncos made contact once, on a sacrifice fly by Chris Lewis.

Jimmy Martinez and Brad Wehrmeyer each walked to load the bases and bring home a run, cutting the lead to 15-10. Finally, WMU made contact with a Dave Brelinski single up the middle, scoring two runs, cutting the Golden Flashes lead to three. Another wild pitch brought home Wehrmeyer, putting the Broncos within two runs.

Galbraith dug into the batter’s box with two outs and a runner on. He sent a bomb deep to centerfield to tie the game at 15-15 and secure the miraculous comeback for WMU. Seven of the nine runs that the Broncos trailed by, they scored with two outs.

Plagued by walks and wild pitches, KSU gave the Broncos a chance to crawl back into the game. And like a baby, they crawled and inched their way until they squared the game up.

As quickly as it came, as quickly it went because the bottom of the ninth came around and the Broncos threw in their most reliable reliever all season long: Derek Mosher.

Approaching the plate was Corery Hindel for KSU, who was a pinch hitter earlier in the game but it didn’t matter. Hindel drove the first pitch he could handle into unplayable territory, winning the game for the Golden Flashes on a walk-off homerun.

Eric Heckaman only lasted two innings while giving up ten runs (six earned) for WMU. Six different pitchers threw against KSU, but their varied success was not enough. The four Bronco errors ended up being an epidemic throughout the game and allotted for five runs not earned.

WMU looks to rebound from this heartbreaker on Sunday at 1 p.m.

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Posted by heraldstaff on Apr 3 2010. 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

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