Falling behind early doomed the Broncos in both games of the Lexington Regional.
On Monday, May 27th, the Broncos learned they were headed to Lexington, Kentucky as the MAC representative in the 2024 NCAA College Baseball Tournament. They had just completed a nearly perfect 3-0 run in the MAC Tournament and allowed only three runs in three games.
The Lexington Regional was headlined by the second-overall seed and host Kentucky Wildcats. Indiana State was projected to host a regional tournament D1baseball.com but was the second seed in Lexington. The third team was Illinois, the Big Ten regular season champions. Western Michigan was the only conference champion in the field, but slow starts did them in.
The road to Omaha is difficult for a four-seed, but it has been done. Last year. Oral Roberts made it to the College World Series, while Stony Brook made it as a four seed (Kent State also made it that year but was a three seed) in 2012.
Fresno State has the distinction of being a National Championship after starting as a four-seed, winning it all in 2008.
Western Michigan started their pursuit of the improbable on Friday but struggled in the early innings to get off the field. The bats came alive as they usually did throughout the season but it was too little too late and left runners on base in key situations.
Western Michigan 8 vs Kentucky 10
Kentucky showed how dangerous they are early. The Broncos started Brady Miller and he walked the first batter he faced in the bottom of the first. During the next at-bat, he stole second and he advanced to third when a pickoff throw to second ended up in right-center during the next. A sacrifice fly scored the manufactured run and it would’ve been okay if Kentucky was held to one at a time.
Unfortunately for WMU, a two-run dinger in the bottom of the second and an error added two unearned runs to the two earned runs in the bottom of the third. Before the Broncos could blink it was 7-0 Kentucky.
In the top of the fifth, the WMU bats woke up. Staring at an 8-0 deficit, Michael Maloney, Greg Budig and Brendan Harrity loaded the bases with no outs. A pair of infield singles and a walk pushed three runs across and knocked the Wildcat starting pitcher out of the game. Another infield single moved everyone up one station and a run scored on a ground out to first. Suddenly, it was an 8-5 game.
Western made their game against the second national seed harder than it already was. Without the unearned runs the game would’ve been 5-5, but baseball is the ultimate game for putting what is already done in the past. Unfortunately, WMU let Kentucky answer in the bottom of the fifth inning with two batters hit by pitches to start the inning and both came around to score.
The Broncos weren’t done. Jayden Dentler finished the bottom of the fifth inning on the mound for WMU and they got the two runs back on a Cade Sullivan single and a CJ Richmond double to make the score 10-8.
A two-run double from @CJRichmond9 pulls the Broncos within two in Lexington!
SEC Network@WMUBaseball | @NCAABaseball | #MACtion pic.twitter.com/3cZyryxdTM
— #MACtion (@MACSports) May 31, 2024
Hayden Burg took the ball in the bottom of the sixth and pitched two scoreless innings. Turner Doran did the same in the bottom of the eighth inning, but the WMU offense wasn’t able to take advantage.
In the top of the ninth, Josh Swinehart singled, Greg Budig was hit by a pitch with two outs and Brendan Harrity drew a walk to load the bases. Grady Mee was up to the plate looking for the big hit, but a lazy fly ball to left sealed the game for Kentucky.
It’s hard to say exactly how the unforced errors changed the game because both teams rely so heavily on small ball. The errors weren’t good but Kentucky traded an out for runners in scoring position which they might not have done if not for the errors and unearned runs earlier in the game. There’s also no guarantee that the bunting batter would’ve gotten out. No matter how you look at it, the game was right there for the Broncos to win.
Western Michigan 4 vs Indiana State 6
Western Michigan fell behind early against the Indiana State Sycamores and battled back to create a chance to win. Nolan Vlcek started for the Broncos and gave up four runs in the first inning on three singles, a double, a walk and a hit by pitch. The WMU pitchers were great after that, including Vlcek.
Vlcek gave up two more runs on solo home runs and four bullpen pitchers combined to allow four hits and no runs. DJ Thompson and Luke Thelen pitched five scoreless innings and Hayden Berg and Turner Doran made their second appearances in the tournament in the ninth inning.
The first inning hole was too much for the Broncos to overcome, especially when they hit 2-11 with runners in scoring position. Dylan Nevar got to second base to lead off the second inning and couldn’t find a single to score him. The big blow came in the fourth inning when the Broncos got the bases loaded with no outs and could only manage one run. The game was 6-1 entering that inning and a crooked number changes the game drastically.
One run just isn’t enough.
The opportunities dried up for WMU after the fifth inning when Indiana State put Cam Edmonson on the mound. He gave up a solo home run to Nevar and that was all WMU could push across.
The Broncos lost a pair of two run games in the Lexington Regional and headed home. There were opportunities to win both games, but early deficits and a lack of one more big hit limited the Broncos run.