Sunday's MAC Baseball Results
Bowling Green 8, Eastern Michigan 6
Kent State 13, Akron 8
Western Michigan 8, Northern Illinois 0
Central Michigan 17, Ball State 9
Ohio 12, Miami 11
 

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Stories courtesy of MAC Sports Information Departments

Bowling Green 8, Eastern Michigan 6
Boxscore
YPSILANTI, Mich. – The Bowling Green State University baseball team topped the Eastern Michigan Eagles, 8-6, on Sunday (May 12), securing the outright MAC Championship. The Falcons are now 29-18 on the season while being 21-6 in MAC play. The title is the first regular season championship for the Falcons since the 2009 season. The pair of wins in Ypsilanti mark the first series win there for BGSU since 1999.

After falling behind 5-1, the Falcons chipped away at the Eastern Michigan lead, scoring one in the third inning and three in the fourth, including a Nathan Archer home run, to tie the game at 5-5. EMU reclaimed the lead in the bottom of the fourth, but a two-run home run from Garrett Wright in the sixth pushed the Falcons back in front, 7-6. David Silva added a solo shot in the seventh to increase the lead to the eventual 8-6 final. 

Kent State 13, Akron 8
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AKRON- Josh Johnson smacked two homers and drove in seven, leading the Flashes to a 13-8 Mother's Day win and a sweep of the rival Zips. 

The senior started his banner day with a lead-off walk in the first and scoring the first of his four runs on a Kyle Jackson single. The Zips took its only lead of the game with a two-run bottom of the first. Johnson hit the first of his two homers in the second, a three-run blast to left to put Kent State up 4-2. It became 5-2 three batters later as Brody Williams doubled home Tim Orr. Akron rallied in the third, scoring a trio of runs, taking advantage of a Flashes' error to tie the game at 5. Johnson put the Flashes up for good with his second homer, a solo shot in the sixth to make it 6-5 Flashes. 

Kent State broke it open with a five-run ninth. Lance MacDonald was hit by a pitch and Ripken Reese was walked, both with the bases loaded to bring home a pair of runs. Johnson then emptied the bases with a three-run triple to make it 13-6 Flashes. The Zips would plate two in the ninth before Peyton Cariaco came in to get the final out and his third save of the weekend. 

The sweep moves Kent State to 26-23 on the season and 16-11 in conference play. They wrap up the regular season with a big three-game series with Ball State starting on Thursday night. First pitch from Schoonover Stadium is set for 3 p.m. 

Western Michigan 8, Northern Illinois 0
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KALAMAZOO, Mich. – The Western Michigan baseball team celebrated its Senior Day with its fourth shutout of the season, blanking Northern Illinois 8-0. With the victory, the Broncos climbed back into second-place in the Mid-American Conference standings with one weekend left in the regular season. WMU has won eight of its last nine MAC home series.   
 
Prior to the game, Western Michigan honored its 11 seniors, Hayden Berg, Greg Budig, Ben Campos, Nick Crandell, Jayden Dentler, Jackson Kitchen, Brady Miller, Cade Sullivan, Josh Swinehart, Nolan Vlcek and Ryan Watt.
 
The win was the 300th at the helm of the Broncos for head coach Billy Gernon, making him the third head coach in program history to reach the 300-win mark. The skipper joins WMU Athletics Hall of Famers Fred Decker (791) and Charlie Maher (437) in the 300-win club.
 
The quartet of DJ Thompson (3.2 IP), Joe Shapiro (2.1), Luke Thelen (2.0) and Watt (1.0) combined to toss Western Michigan's fourth shutout of the season, which is tied for the most in the league. All four of WMU's shutouts have come in conference play, with no other team in the MAC having recorded more than one shutout in league action.
 
For the second straight day, Dylan Nevar got the Western Michigan offense started with a solo home run in the bottom of the first. It was the redshirt junior's team-leading 13th long ball of the season.
 
The Broncos tacked on three more in the second, with Michael Maloney scoring on a wild pitch and Kitchen bringing home a pair with a single.
 
Threats were kept to a minimum against the Western Michigan pitching staff. The Huskies had two runners aboard in the second, but Thompson got out of it with a strikeout. With runners on the corners and two outs in the fourth, Shapiro, who earned the win in relief, snuffed out the threat with a strikeout. Thelen breezed through the seventh and eighth innings with four strikeouts.
 
The WMU offense tacked four more runs onto its advantage in the bottom of the eighth. In his final home at-bat as a Bronco, Swinehart launched a two-run homer to straightaway center field. Kitchen drew a walk with the bases loaded to pick up his third RBI of the day, and Sullivan plated the final run of the afternoon with a sacrifice fly.
 
The Broncos then turned to Watt to close the door, and he responded with a pair of strikeouts, ending the game with a punchout to seal the shutout in his final home appearance on the mound for the Brown and Gold.
 
Western Michigan did not allow a hit after the fourth inning, and the four pitchers combined to rack up 10 strikeouts, moving this year's squad up to 381 for the season, the third-highest total in program history. The 2001 edition of the Broncos set the all-time record with 395 strikeouts.
 
The Broncos head up to Mount Pleasant to wrap up the regular season with a three-game set at Central Michigan. The series is slated to begin on Thursday at 3 pm.            

Central Michigan 17, Ball State 9
Boxscore
MUNCIE, Ind. –Marquis Jackson hit two home runs and Jake Brill hit a grand slam as the Central Michigan baseball team rolled past Ball State, 17-9, on Sunday in the finale of a three-game Mid-American Conference series at the Cardinals' First Merchants Ballpark.

CMU exploded for eight runs – highlighted by Brill's grand slam – in the third inning and built a 12-2 lead through 4 ½ frames.

The Chippewas finished with a season-high 19 hits, seven of them for extra bases.

"We talked the last couple of days about worrying about ourselves," said CMU coach Jake Sabol, whose team scored four runs on 10 hits in the first two games of the series. "You spend so much time practicing and game planning and talking about your opponent and sometimes you forget what you need to do really well, regardless of who you're going to face.

"(Saturday) night was minimal on scouting report stuff and we just wanted the guys to go play today and trust the things that we ask them to do. It was fun to put it all together and it shows the guys that if we can do that a few more times we can be pretty good, we can win some games. We just have to do it a little more often."

It was Brill's second home run of the season and the first grand slam by a Chippewa in 2024.

Jackson hit a solo shot in the fifth and then ripped a three-run blast in the ninth. He is the fourth Chippewa this season to homer twice in a game after Jacob Donahue and Drew Loikits both accomplished the feat on April 14 at Bowling Green and Robby Morgan IV had two round-trippers in February at Stephen F. Austin.

Jackson has five homers on the season, and he extended his reach-base streak to 17 games, CMU's longest of the season.

Brill and Jackson, who batted first and second, respectively, in Sabol's Sunday lineup, accounted for three home runs among six hits and drove in a combined nine runs.

"We used a bunch of guys this weekend," Sabol said. "We used a few different lineups just trying to find something that stuck and gave us a little bit of juice and some energy and today was nice to see.

"I think we just played a little bit more loose today. I said (Saturday) that if you're going to come to the field and put on the uniform, let's go compete and try to win. No sense in being there just to be there; let's go play hard against a rival and I think we did that today.

"We haven't had a lot of games like that this year and it was fun to see it happen for us."

Brill, Jackson, Drew Loikits, Danny Wuestenfeld, Ely Stuart, Drew Stengren and Bryson Webb each had a multi-hit day for CMU.

CMU starter Keegan Batka (3-5) allowed five runs over 6 1/3 innings in earning the victory. He struck out eight and walked four.

"I thought he competed well," Sabol said of Batka, a senior right-hander who threw a season-high 127 pitches. "He was able to throw four pitches for strikes and he mixed pretty well.

"We got him a big lead and it's obviously easier to pitch when you've got a big lead and it was nice to do that for the first time in a long time."

Jared Hanson, Bryce Hellgeth, Evan Waters and Jack Bach pitched in relief for the Chippewas.

The 17 runs tied for CMU's second-highest scoring total of the season. The Chippewas scored 19 in a win over Grace Christian on April 1 and also scored 17 in a loss at Bowling Green on April 14.

The Chippewas' 19 hits eclipsed their previous season high (16) which they posted in the games with Grace Christian and Bowling Green.

CMU plays a nonconference game at Oakland on Tuesday (3:30 p.m.) and then opens its final series of the season on Thursday, May 14 (3 p.m.) on Keilitz Field at Theunissen Stadium on Thursday, May 16.

Ohio 12, Miami 11
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