KALAMAZOO, Mich. - The Western Michigan Broncos scored in five of the first six innings Friday afternoon on its way to a 15-5 win over the Northern Illinois University baseball team at Robert J. Bobb Stadium at Hyames Field.

Western Michigan (26-19, 16-9 MAC) scored first in the bottom of the first when Dylan Nevar drove in Jackson Kitchen from second base with a single to left field. CJ Richmond followed with a double down the right field line, scoring Nevar all the way from first to give the Broncos a 2-0 lead. After a Josh Swinehart base hit gave Western Michigan runners at the corners with one out, Michael Maloney hit a sacrifice fly to left field to bring home Richmond and make the score 3-0.

NIU (17-32, 10-15 MAC) got base hits from Andre Demetral (Rochester, Mich./Florence Darling Tech) and Cooper Cohn (McHenry, Ill./McHenry) off Western Michigan starting pitcher Brady Miller in the first two innings, but each runner was left on base. Western Michigan's Grady Mee extended the Broncos lead to 4-0 in the bottom of the second with a home run over the right field fence. Kitchen made the score 7-0 in the third with a two-out, three-run home run. The Broncos tacked on a run in the fifth and three more in the sixth to take an 11-0 lead. Miller did his part on the mound to keep Western Michigan ahead, retiring 12 straight Huskies before back-to-back singles from Demetral and Colin Summerhill (Chicago, Ill./Troy) in the sixth.

"Miller was just pounding the strike zone," said head coach Ryan Copeland. "He got ahead with three different pitches. We were trying to be patient and get a good look but he did a really good job in the zone. We just wanted to find a way to be little more aggressive early and get a fastball before he had a chance to use his breaking pitches."

The Huskies got on the board in the top of the seventh. Charlie Parcell (Des Plaines, Ill./Maine West) led off with a ground-rule double down the right field line Jake Nelson (Altoona, Wis./Madison College) drove him in with a single to left center to make the score 11-1. Western Michigan then went to the bullpen for Luke Thelen, who struck out Cohn for the first out of the inning. After a walk to Parker Shupe (Johnston, Iowa/Kirkwood CC), a passed ball allowed the runners to move into scoring position. A sacrifice fly by Mason Kelley (Mt. Washington, Ky./Schoolcraft College) drove in Nelson for NIU's second run of the inning. Eric Erato (Sussex, Wis./Sussex Hamilton) followed with a double to right center to bring Shupe home and make the score 11-3.

The Broncos answered NIU's three runs in the seventh with four in the eighth to take a 15-3 lead. NIU scored twice in the top of the ninth on a wild pitch and an Erato RBI groundout to make the final score 15-5.

"Today was really tough," Copeland said. "It felt like before we could even look up it was 3-0. We have to get out to a better start and settle into the game. Adam [Brouwer] has to pick us up and pitch as well as he has in conference play."

Demetral was 2-for-5 in the game, extending his current hitting streak to six games. Summerhill was 1-for-3 and is also now on a six-game hitting streak. Miller allowed one run on six hits to earn the win for Western Michigan, striking out eight batters.

The two teams play the middle game of this weekend's series tomorrow, Saturday, May 11, at 12 pm CT.

—NIU—