Patrick Duncan led four Broncos with multi-hit games, going 3-for-5 with two runs scored. Jack Scanlon, Troy Forton and Dan Shutes had two hits apiece. Forton led WMU with three RBIs, while Ryan McMillin and Andrew Sohn drove in two runs each. The Broncos totaled 13 hits overall.

Freshman RHP Will Nimke (3-3) hurled 7.1 innings to earn the win. He was touched for eight hits and gave up four runs, walking one and striking out two. Patrick Borlik, Nick Bradley and Matt Nestor all appeared out of the bullpen, with Nestor recording the final out for his first career save.

Western Michigan made it a short day for Ball State starter Jacob Brewer (0-5), chasing the right-hander after just two-thirds an inning in the first. Brewer walked three and allowed all five runs in the inning. The Broncos batted through the order in the first. McMillin drove in a run with a sacrifice fly, Sohn picked up an RBI with a bases-loaded walk, Forton hit a two-run single and Shutes drove a run with a base hit to third.

WMU scored two more runs in the fourth, building a 7-1 lead. Vinnie Booker reached on a fielder's choice, followed by consecutive singles by Zach Thoma, Scanlon and McMillin.

Sohn led off the seventh with a double to left center and scored on a single in the gap by Forton. Duncan and Jared Kujawa had back-to-back base hits to start off the ninth and Sohn drove in a run with a sac fly to left.

Six of Ball State's seven runs were generated off the long ball. Billy Wellman hit a solo home run for the Cardinals in the second and then cracked a two-run shot in the bottom of the fourth. T.J. Weir unloaded a three-run blast in the eighth. BSU scored its final run in the ninth off a hit batsman, two singles and a fielder's choice.

Western Michigan (20-24) returns to Kalamazoo to host in-state Big Ten rival Michigan State Tuesday, May 8, at 3 p.m. and then travels to Chicago State Wednesday for a 4 p.m. ET contest. The Broncos take on Northern Illinois in the final home MAC series over the weekend, May 11-13.