Baseball, softball teams struggle to start regular season

Coming off an Opening Day victory, the MSU baseball team dropped its final two games of the weekend to fall to 1-2 on the season.

The Spartans defeated Connecticut 4-2 in their first game of the season but fell to Seton Hall 8-4 on Saturday and Minnesota 7-2 on Sunday.

Friday’s win was the first for first-year head coach Jake Boss Jr., as he saw a 3-for-4 performance at the plate from sophomore outfielder Brandon Eckerle.

Senior Nolan Moody had a solid performance on the hill in his first start of the season, going seven innings and surrendering both earned runs.

Junior outfielder Eli Boike and freshman infielder Andrew Carpenter each hit home runs Saturday in the team’s loss to Seton Hall. Sophomore Kurt Wunderlich took the loss for the Spartans, while senior A.J. Dunn received the loss in Sunday’s game.

The Spartans will head to Wilmington, N.C., next weekend for a four-game set against UNC-Wilmington.

While the baseball team opened its season this weekend, the MSU softball team already has played 10 games, resulting in a 4-6 start to the year.

The team dropped its two first games of the campaign in the Blue and Gold Felsberg Memorial Tournament in Miami to Florida Gulf Coast and Florida International before bouncing back with three straight victories against St. John’s, Georgetown and Temple.

This weekend, the Spartans won their first game of three days, 10-2, against Bethune Cookman, before dropping two to DePaul, one to Fairfield and an extra-inning defeat at the hands of Florida Gulf Coast.