Baseball Falls in Game One at Western Michigan Despite Strong Pitching Performance

Friday, March 20

Allendale, Mich.

3 PM

Ball State University

10-10, 5-2

Western Michigan

10-9, 6-1

Ball State

Western Michigan

Photo by: Caden Vincent

Baseball Falls in Game One at Western Michigan Despite Strong Pitching Performance

March 20, 2026 | Baseball

Box Score

ALLENDALE, Mich. – The Ball State baseball team got a strong performance from its pitching staff but fell 2-1 to Western Michigan in the series opener on Friday afternoon at the Grand Valley State baseball field.

The Cardinals (10-10, 5-2 Mid-American Conference) trailed 2-0 after the first inning after Western (10-9, 6-1 MAC) plated runs on a sacrifice fly and RBI single. A pinch hit RBI single by Brady Davidson in the fourth that scored Kenskey Thomas was the only tally of the day for Ball State.

Brendan Garza (2-2) worked 7.0 innings of two-run ball with six strikeouts but suffered the loss. Zander Bretza tossed a scoreless frame in the eighth with a punchout.

Gavin Balius, Jacob Gillis and Ryan Muizelaar joined Davidson as Cardinals with singles on the day, while Thomas and Brayden Huebner hit one double each.

Zach Vriesenga (1-1) struck out five in 6.0 innings of one-run ball to earn the win for the Broncos. Turner Doran was credited with his fourth save of the year thanks to a perfect ninth inning including a pair of strikeouts.

Junior Tanner Mally, the NCAA Division I leader in batting average entering the weekend, went 3-for-4 at the plate to lead a WMU offense whose nine hits were all singles.

"Well-pitched game by both teams," Ball State head coach Rich Maloney said. "WMU got one more timely hit than we did."

Ball State and Western are scheduled to play game two back in Kalamazoo at 1 p.m. on Saturday.