Michigan State University
Ball St
Cardinals Hold Off Spartans, 9-7
3/9/2000 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
March 4, 2000
BOCA RATON, Fla. - MSU baseball falls to 1-5 on the year following its 9-7 loss to Ball State Saturday afternoon on the campus of Florida Atlantic University. The win was Ball State's first on the season, bringing its record to 1-4.
In the beginning things went as well for the Spartans as they could have. Sophomore first baseman Kyle Geswein (Dayton, Ohio) continued his assault on opposition pitching by hitting a first inning grand slam - his fourth of season - which gave MSU an early 4-0 lead. Geswein's slam knocked in MSU's Brett Wattles (Fr., Rochester, Mich.), Ted Demetral (Sr., Sterling Heights, Mich.) and Mike Pisani (Sr., Rochester, Mich.).
MSU's lead, however, would be short-lived. The Cardinals came back in the bottom of the first and scored two runs off of Spartan starter Kimya Massey (Sr., Okemos, Mich.), bringing the score to 4-2 after one inning of play.
In the second MSU's bats went cold and would remain cold until the seventh inning. The Cardinals, on the other hand, tacked on two more runs in the second and took a 5-4 lead in the third after they scored an additional run. MSU would keep Ball State hitters in check until the sixth inning when the Cardinals increased their lead to 9-4 after scoring four runs in the bottom half of the sixth.
After being held scoreless for five innings, the Spartans bats came alive in the seventh and eighth innings. MSU scored once in the seventh and plated two in the eighth to cut the lead to 9-7. But 9-7 would be as close as it would get for the Spartans as squandered opportunities in the eighth and ninth innings would prove to be the difference of victory and defeat. MSU stranded five runners in the final two innings and 12 for the whole game.
The Spartans will next take the field Sunday, March 3, at 2:00 p.m. in Boca Raton against Florida Atlantic University.
Score by innings: R H EMSU 4 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 0 7 11 3BSU 2 2 1 0 0 4 0 0 0 9 12 2
Win - BullingtonLoss - Massey (0-1)Save - Wells
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