Baseball Overcomes Penn State and Weather
6/21/1999 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 11, 1999
EAST LANSING, Mich. - The Michigan State baseball team defeated Penn State 16-9 on a rainy Sunday afternoon at Kobs Field in East Lansing. Joe Albaugh (Mt. Pleasant, Mich.) was the star for the Spartans, hitting two home runs, including a grand slam, and driving in six. With the win the Spartans improve to 15-14, 4-7 in the Big Ten, while Penn State drops to 18-11, 4-3 in the conference. The two squads were scheduled to play a doubleheader, but after rain pushed the start of the first game back to 3:15, the teams only played one contest, most of it under a steady rain.
Penn State led 2-0 before the Spartans went to bat in the bottom of the second. After a Tom Hartley (White Lake, Mich.) double and two walks loaded the bases, Albaugh smashed a grand slam to right center. Before the inning was over, Michigan State would add two more runs to take a 6-2 lead. In the Spartan third, Albaugh stepped up to the plate, this time with one man on base. Just like the previous inning, he would deliver with a home run, giving MSU an 8-2 lead.
In the top of the fourth, Penn State would attempt a comeback. Shawn Fagan hit a ground-rule double scoring one. Joe Puliafico drove in two Lions with a single and Chris Wright added a sacrifice fly to narrow the Spartan lead to 8-6. But MSU would answer with five runs in the bottom half of the inning. Joe Kalczynski (Farmington, Mich.) had a bases loaded single to drive in two Spartans. Ted Demetral (Sterling Heights, Mich.) followed with an RBI double. After a wild pitch scored Kalczynski, Troy Bergman (Grosse Pointe, Mich.) scored Demetral on a squeeze play, making the score 13-6.
In the Spartan fifth, Hartley added a little insurance with an opposite field two-run home run to right field. With the score at 16-7 entering the seventh. Penn State's Michael Campo hit a two-run home run, but the Lions would fail to score again.
Gary Zsigo (Lennon, Mich.) picked up the win in relief to improve to 1-2. Penn State's Peter Yodis took the loss to drop to 3-2.
The Spartans will next play on Tuesday, April 13 when they play host to Oakland at Kobs Field at 3 p.m.
