Michigan State University
Oakland
Baseball Rallies To Defeat Oakland, 6-5
5/10/2000 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 10, 2000
East Lansing, Mich. - Mike Pisani (Sr., Rochester, Mich.) made his last game at Kobs Field a memorable one as he hit a game-winning single in the bottom of the ninth to lead the Michigan State baseball team to a 6-5 victory over Oakland Wednesday afternoon on the MSU campus. The Spartans improve to 18-33 on the season, while the Grizzlies fall to 23-30.
Although the Spartans came out on top, the game featured several lead changes. OU jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in the top of the second, but MSU responded with two runs of its own in the bottom half of the inning on a Joe Albaugh (Sr., Mt. Pleasant, Mich.) triple to right-center field that brought home Rick Court (Jr., Grosse Pointe, Mich.) and Kyle Geswein (So., Dayton, Ohio).
The Grizzlies followed with two runs in the third off MSU starter Nick Bates (So., Blissfield, Mich.) to take a 3-2 lead.
OU increased its lead to two runs in the fifth, but once again the Spartan bats came alive in the bottom of the inning, scoring two runs to tie the game at four after five innings of play. Charlie Braun (Fr., Grosse Pointe, Mich.) and Ted Demetral (Sr., Sterling Heights, Mich.) each had RBI singles in the inning.
Both teams were then silenced until the bottom of the eighth, as MSU appeared to score the winning-run on a single off the bat of Court, who knocked in Demetral. However, the Grizzlies would not die, scoring a run of their own on a two-out single by Chuck Van Roys in the ninth off of Spartan closer Domanick Squires (So., Rochester, Mich.), knotting the game at five.
In the bottom of the inning, Troy Bergman (So., Grosse Pointe, Mich.) led off with a bunt single, and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Braun. With the winning run on second, Pisani stepped up to the plate, and delivered. Pisani hit a game-winning single into right-center, scoring Bergman to propel the Spartans to a 6-5 victory.
Squires picked up the victory for the Spartans, improving his record to 5-1 on the year. Trevor Sekya, who came on in the bottom of the ninth, got the loss for the Grizzlies (0-1).
Pisani, who went 1-for-4 on the day, needs only six more hits to become the all-time hits leader at Michigan State. His 70 hits this season is good for sixth best in a MSU single season.
Michigan State returns to action tomorrow when it takes on Western Michigan at Hyames Field on the WMU campus at 3:00 p.m. The game is make-up from a rainout on Tuesday night. Michigan State closes out the regular season with a four-game series this weekend at Ohio State.
Game Summary R H EOU 012 010 001- 5 12 0MSU 020 020 011- 6 9 0
WP: Squires-MSU (5-1)LP: Seyka-OU (0-1)
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