Entering Sunday’s game against Michigan, the MSU baseball team had already captured a weekend series against the Wolverines for the first time since 2002. But the Spartans weren’t satisfied taking only two of three games — they wanted to repay the Wolverines for sweeping them the past two seasons. Maybe it was because the Spartans had played five games in five days or due to the solid pitching performance by U-M’s Eric Katzman, but the Spartans were unable to sweep the Wolverines — losing 9-2 Sunday at McLane Baseball Stadium to snap a three-game winning streak.
“Our main goal after we won the first two games was win one more against Michigan,” senior catcher Eric Roof said. “We didn’t get the job done and it was very disappointing.”
MSU head coach Jake Boss Jr. thought his team’s defeat was a direct result of fatigue from a busy week of baseball.
“I thought we played tired today,” Boss said. “That’s my fault for putting those kids in this situation as far as a scheduling standpoint. We played very well four of the five days and I’m proud of our kids for that. But we were a different ball club today than we saw on Friday and Saturday.”
Sunday’s loss was the first time MSU was defeated at home in 10 games.
The Spartans recorded seven hits and left 13 men on base in the game, compared to the Wolverines’ 12 hits while leaving 10 men stranded.
Junior right fielder Eli Boike said the Spartans’ inability to come up with clutch hits led to the blowout loss.
“It was pretty bad,” Boike said of the Spartans offense. “But you have to hand it to the Michigan pitchers because they were hitting their spots.”
The game started poorly for MSU, as U-M loaded the bases in the first inning and looked to jump to an early lead.
The Spartans were able to get out of the jam and load the bases themselves in the bottom of the first, but they also came up empty-handed.
“We came out lackadaisical in the first inning and luckily we got away with it,” Roof said. “Defensively we got out of a jam but we had a chance to score a run in the first inning and we didn’t. We really didn’t capitalize from then on.”
The Wolverines put up two runs in the third inning and four more in the fifth to take a commanding 6-0 lead.
“It’s always a big blow when a team has a big rally like that,” Boike said. “But you have to get back in the batter’s box and try to chip away at the lead.”
The Spartans did just that in the bottom of the sixth inning by putting up two runs of their own.
But that’s where the offense ended for the Green and White.
U-M tacked on one run in the eighth and two more in the ninth to close out the game and prevent the weekend sweep.
The Spartans (14-22 overall, 5-7 Big Ten) will take the field against Central Michigan on Wednesday in Midland before heading to Iowa on Friday.
Roof said the Spartans still have work to do if they are going to climb out of the middle of the pack in the Big Ten standings.
“Our defense and pitching have been there all year and our hitting has been a little streaky,” Roof said. “But we will take care of that and get ready to go this weekend against Iowa.”
Support student media!
Please consider donating to The State News and help fund the future of journalism.
Discussion
Share and discuss “Spartans can't finish sweep of U-M” on social media.
