Kent State Headed to MAC Tournament Championship After 12-2 Win

Saturday, May 24

Avon, Ohio

1:00 PM

Kent State University

35-21

Western Michigan University

24-31

Kent State

Western Michigan

Kent State Headed to MAC Tournament Championship After 12-2 Win

5/24/2014 6:59:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

AVON, Ohio – Kent State will take on rival Akron at noon on Sunday in the Mid-American Conference Tournament championship game after a commanding 12-2 victory over Western Michigan on Saturday.

Eric Lauer continued great pitching performances from the Golden Flashes with 7.2 innings of work in front of his hometown crowd. He gave up six hits and one earned run with four walks and five strikeouts.

Western Michigan took a 1-0 lead in the 4^th but that was quickly diminished by a three-run effort by Kent State in the 5^th. The inning began when Justin Wagler reached on an error and made his way to second base. Curtis Olvey then walked before both Wagler and Olvey came home on a triple against the right field wall by Zach Beckner. Beckner then scored on a RBI single by Cody Koch.

The Golden Flashes did the most damage on the Broncos' relief pitchers with a three-run 7^th, two-run 8^th and four-run 9^th. In the 7^th, the first run came home on a base hit before T.J. Sutton smacked a two-out double to plate the other two.

In the 8^th, base hits and walks accounted for the damage. The final four Kent State runs in the 9^th came much the same way, on a two-RBI single by Jon Wilson, a RBI single by Koch and a Conner Simonetti pinch-hit single for the 12^th run of the game.

Eric Dorsch threw the final 1.1 innings with two hits and one strikeout to end Western Michigan's season and send Kent State to the title game.

Wilson and Koch both had three-hit days while Zarley Zalewski and Olvey both had two.

The championship game will be aired on Time Warner Cable Sports and ESPN3. Links to all live coverage will be available at kentstatesports.com.