KALAMAZOO — When junior Mike Dufek stepped to the plate for the first time at Hyames Field on Tuesday, the Wolverines had already taken an early 1-0 lead over the Broncos. But a 1-0 lead wasn’t enough for Dufek, who proceeded to hit a home run and register three RBI in his first at-bat.

And for the Wolverines, their 4-0 lead wasn’t enough either — before the night was over they scored 16 more runs against Western Michigan en route to their eventual 20-1 victory.

Michigan flourished at bat with 12 different players getting on base safely off of 23 hits.

All season, Michigan coach Rich Maloney has stressed how contagious hitting is, but it had been a while since he’d seen an offensive outpouring like he did on Tuesday.

“For us, we’ve been so contagious the other way,” Maloney said. “We’ve been in a funk.”

But Dufek did his best to make sure his hitting was as contagious as possible as he led Michigan by batting a perfect 6-for-6 with five RBI off of two home runs. Wolverine junior catcher Chris Berset followed suit and added four RBI off of three hits.

“We had a lot of chances to work on our hitting, a lot of hitting drills and stations, so I was seeing the ball well coming in and I felt pretty confident in my swing,” Dufek said. “I just got a couple good pitches today.”

Tuesday’s victory along with Sunday’s 9-2 win over Ohio State marks the first back-to-back games the Wolverines have won since they swept IPFW in late March.

But Maloney isn’t getting too comfortable in his team’s new winning streak as he prepares to take on the same Broncos team in Ann Arbor on Wednesday.

He remembers quite vividly February 28, when Michigan played a double header against Jacksonville in Jacksonville, Fla. The Wolverines clobbered the dolphins during the opening game, 21-3 before falling to them later that day, 2-10. So despite his relaxed attitude during Tuesday’s game, he knows that Wednesday is still going to be a fight.

“Tomorrow is a new day,” Maloney said. “That’s all I can tell these guys.”

Maloney was encouraged by the performance on the mound by sophomore starter Travis Smith, who allowed just four hits in the first six innings of the game. But it was Dufek once again who came up big for the Wolverines, striking out three batters in the final inning to end the game for Michigan.

And as the Wolverines look forward to Wednesday’s game and a chance to play on their home field again before welcoming Minnesota to Ann Arbor in what could prove to be their most important Big Ten series yet, they know they need to carry over their successes from every game.

“No one is really expecting anything of us right now,” Maloney said. “Maybe that will be a good thing.”