Baseball Downs Western Michigan, 8-4

Box Score

KALAMAZOO, Mich. – The Eastern Michigan University baseball team defeated in-state rival Western Michigan, 8-4, in Mid-American conference action here Friday afternoon at Haymes Field. EMU (28-22, 20-4 MAC) still sits atop the MAC West Division based on a .833 winning percentage compared to Central Michigan’s (35-18, 21-5 MAC) .808 percentage. Eastern controls its own destiny heading into the series finale against the Broncos needing a victory to win its first Division title since 2002.

EMU’s 20 MAC wins is tied for the most conference victories since the 1990 team went 20-12. The Eagles are now only one win away from setting the all-time school record for MAC victories in a season.

Senior ace pitcher George Biddle (7-4) led the way for EMU on the mound allowing only one unearned run on eight hits in eight innings of work.

EMU tallied 12 hits for the game and was led by junior Jeff Davis who had a solid effort at the plate going 3-for-5 with three runs scored, a RBI and his team-leading seventh triple. Junior Mike Boyd and Jeff Hehr both hit 2-for-5 with a combined two runs scored and two RBI. Junior Brian Blackburn went 1-for-4 with four RBI hitting the Eagles’ third grand slam home run of the season.

Western was led by Joe Sheets, Chris Lewis and Max Kelmigian who each hit 2-for-4 at the plate with a combined three runs scored and two RBI. Billy Morrison picked up the loss on the mound allowing six runs on 10 hits with two strikeouts.

EMU got on the board in the first with a Derek Lehrman RBI single which scored Davis from second base. Western followed in the bottom half of the inning with a Nathan Marquardt sacrifice fly to tie the score at 1-1.

Eastern took a 3-1 lead in the fifth on Davis’ triple to plate Boyd and a Hehr RBI single to score Davis.

The Eagles broke the game open in the top of the eighth inning as Blackburn launched a grand slam home run over the left field fence to score Patrick Dean, Lehrman and Hehr for a 8-1 lead.

Western made things interesting in the bottom of the ninth getting three runs on a Lewis two-run home run and a Miller RBI double but it was not enough as EMU held on for the 8-4 victory.

The series finale between EMU and WMU is Saturday, May 19 at 1 p.m.

Eastern Michigan Athletics

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