Michigan State University
Illinois
Baseball Splits Doubleheader With Illinois
4/15/2000 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 15, 2000
East Lansing, Mich. - Senior pitcher/designated hitter Gary Zsigo (Lennon, Mich.) played the role of hero in game two of MSU's doubleheader against Illinois. Trailing Illinois 3-2 in the bottom of the seventh inning Zsigo hit a three run homer, his first of the season to propel the Spartans to a 5-3 win. In the day's first game Illinois used a complete game pitching performance from Ryan Kvasnicka to defeat MSU 8-2. Following the day's doubleheader MSU now owns a 11-22 (3-7 Big Ten) record, while Illinois is now 26-11 (12-3).
In the MSU victory, not only did Zsigo do it at the plate, he did it on the mound. The senior pitcher threw six and two-thirds innings, allowing just three runs on eight hits.
Early on in the second game the Illini got on the board first, as Rob Fischer and D.J. Svihilik hit back to back solo homeruns in the second inning to put Illinois a head 2-0. Illinois would cling to a two run lead until the fourth inning when MSU got a pair of runs of its own. Sophomore third baseman Troy Bergman (Grosse Pointe, Mich.) followed a single by Zsigo with a double off the leftfield wall which knocked in Zsigo and cut the Illinois lead to 2-1. Senior second baseman Ted Demetral (Sterling Heights, Mich.) concluded MSU's scoring in the fourth with an RBI single to rightfield that scored Bergman.
The game would stand at two a piece until the seventh and final inning. Illinois took a 3-2 lead following shortstop Chris Basak's double. The Spartans, however, countered with Zsigo in their half of the seventh to pull out the win.
In the day's opening game Illinois pounded out 14 hits and eight runs en-route to a 8-2 win. On the bright side for MSU, sophomore first baseman Kyle Geswein (Dayton, Ohio) hit his eighth homerun of the season.
Game One Summary R H EUI 011 320 1 8 14 1MSU 000 110 0 2 4 1
Game Two Summary R H EUI 020 000 1 3 8 2MSU 000 200 3 5 7 0
