Broncos unable to find win early in spring trip

By Scott Sierzenga
Western Herald

Despite starting four out of their five games this season with the early lead, the Western Michigan University baseball team  remains winless to start their season.

The Broncos (0-5) began their trip playing a series against a tough Dallas Baptist University team but failed to rise up to the challenge early in the set. After losing the first two games, the Brown and Gold took a 3-1 lead into the bottom of the ninth hoping to squeeze out their first win of the season, but fell one out short, losing on a two-run walk off a homerun by the Patriots.

The loss left a sour taste in WMU’s mouth for a couple days as they traveled from Dallas to Florida, where began the start of seven games in six days.

The time to think about their gut-wrenching loss affected the Broncos as they came out sluggish beginning their Florida trip, falling behind 4-0 early in the game. It took them until the fifth inning to get something going, when they scored two runs closing the deficit and making the win reachable.

The rally started when the first two Western Michigan batters of the inning, Tim Cross and Troy Forton, reached base via a walk and hit by pitch. A sac bunt advanced the runners and a wild pitch scored Cross. Kyle Galbraith would later single home Forton and give the Brown and Gold a glimmer of hope.

Illinois State University took no time responding by scoring a run of their own in the bottom of the fifth and added two more runs in the seventh to make the score 7-2 late in the game. Forton later scored a meaningless run in the bottom of the ninth to bring the final score to 7-3, causing the Broncos to drop game one of their double-header Monday.

Sophomore Casey Hall gave up five runs in five innings he pitched in his first start of the season for WMU. The Broncos finished with seven hits total, one by each of the first seven batters in their lineup.

The Broncos faced Northeastern University (3-1) in game two of their double-header in Auburndale, Fla., at Lake Myrtle Park.

Grant Simotes led off the third inning with a base hit up the middle and senior Chris Lewis followed with a double down the line to put runners on second and third. Two sacrifice flies by Cross and Jamie Simpson brought both runs home and triggered an early 2-0 lead for the Brown and Gold.

Northeastern responded with three runs of their own in the bottom of the third inning to grab the momentum back to the home team, led by Tony DiCesare, who finished the game with three hits, two runs and an RBI for the Huskies.

Western Michigan recaptured the lead in the sixth inning after scoring two runs to make it a 4-3 game. Like before, the Huskies rallied three runs of their own in the bottom of the inning to take the lead and eventually went on to win the game, 8-5.

Sophomore Jack Scanlon went 3-for-5, two of his hits being triples. Simotes, Scanlon, Simpson, and Andrew Butkis each finished with multiple hits. Both of Butkis’ hits were extra-base.

Freshman Chris Bossenbery took the loss throwing 3.1 innings of relief, giving up three earned runs.

A positive note for the Broncos is they just completed their fourth straight errorless game defensively, something important that WMU will rely on the rest of the week.

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Posted by heraldstaff on Mar 1 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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