Baseball broke the brooms out at Ralph McKinzie Field this weekend as it swept MAC West opponent Western Michigan in a three-game series.

This is the second time this season the Huskies (14-19, 9-3 MAC) have swept a MAC opponent, as they swept Akron in a three-game series two weekends ago.

“You know what? It’s awesome,” said coach Ed Mathey. “You go in thinking about series wins, and when you win those first two on Friday and Saturday then you start thinking ‘OK, let’s take all three,’ and it took a big effort today because they came out fired up. They came out swinging the bats well.”

The Huskies took game one on Friday, 5-3, behind a strong pitching performance by freshman Jordan Ruckman. Ruckman pitched seven innings, giving up three earned runs on six hits and four walks, while striking out four batters in his first collegiate win.

In game two on Saturday, it was the same old story as junior Eli Anderson threw his fourth complete game in a Huskies 3-2 victory. Anderson struck out a career-high 12 batters while giving up two unearned runs on five hits and no walks.

“[He was] throwing strikes and throwing downhill,” Mathey said. “He didn’t really have the normal breaking ball that he has but he was very good with the fastball and he was commanding the zone…. He did a great job.”

The game was held scoreless for the first three innings, but in the fourth inning with junior Alex Klonowski on second base, junior Landon Tenhagen hit a two-run blast that bounced off the scoreboard to take the lead, 2-0.

The Huskies closed out the series in game three with an exciting walkoff victory, as they defeated the Broncos, 9-8. The Broncos jumped out early all over the Huskies, leading 5-0 after three innings.

“I’ll tell you what, they did come out with a great approach against Alex Klonowski,” Mathey said. “They got a lot of barrels on him. The thing was he just needed to make some adjustments, and I think he did enough, but they were on him today.”

The Huskies showed no signs of quitting, as they rallied back and took the lead in the fifth inning, when junior Nate Ruzich doubled down the left field line, driving in freshman Brian Sisler and junior Jeff Zimmerman. The Huskies scored four runs in the inning and led 7-6.

“It was after the four spot that they put up; we came back with two the next inning,” Ruzich said. “That was huge. The momentum turned even though we were still down, it still didn’t matter, everybody became more alive, and that was the biggest part of the game.”

The Broncos didn’t lay down as they came back and tied the game in the ninth inning, 8-8. In the bottom of the ninth, with runners on first and second, Ruzich delivered the final blow as he drove in Tenhagen from second on fielding errors from both the third baseman and left fielder.

A representative from Western Michigan was not available to comment after the game.