Spartan Baseball Falls To Northwestern, 8-4
4/20/2001 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 20, 2001
EAST LANSING, Mich. - The Michigan State baseball team (18-19, 4-11) fell to Northwestern, 8-4, on Friday afternoon at Kobs Field in East Lansing. Northwestern improves to 16-22, 5-8 in the Big Ten.
The Wildcats jumped out to a quick 1-0 lead on a solo homer by Steve Haake in the first inning. For the Spartans in the bottom of the first, three of the first four batters reached on singles to load the bases. James Moreno (Fr., Holt) then drove in Chris McCuiston (Jr., Birmingham) and Bob Malek (So., Canton) on a single to centerfield to put the Spartans ahead, 2-1.
Back-to-back second-inning doubles by McCuiston and Brett Wattles (So., Rochester) put the Spartans ahead 3-1. After scoring one run in the third, the Wildcats took the lead with a five-run fifth inning. In all, NU sent ten batters to the plate in the frame as the Wildcats used four hits and two Spartan errors to take a 7-3 lead.
MSU threatened in the fifth, loading the bases but was unable to drive any runs home. In the seventh, Kyle Geswein (Jr., Dayton, Ohio) drove in Malek to cut the NU lead to 7-4. The Wildcats added a single run in the eighth to reclaim a four-run lead, 8-4.
Spartan starting pitcher Kyle Geswein threw four innings, allowing 12 hits, five earned runs and striking out four. He pitched to five batters in the fifth inning but could not retire one. Dylan Putnam (Jr., Ann Arbor) replaced Geswein and pitched 4.2 innings, allowing only one hit, one run and striking out five. Northwestern's Zach Schara pitched 6.2 innings for Northwestern to earn the win. He allowed four earned runs on seven hits with six strike outs. Dan Konecny pitched 2.1 perfect innings to pick up his second save.
The two teams will meet again tomorrow in a doubleheader at Kobs Field beginning at 1 p.m. The series will conclude with a single game at 1 p.m.
Northwestern 8, Michigan State 4WP- Zach Schara (5-4)LP- Kyle Geswein (2-4)Save - Dan Konecny (2)
Score By Innings R H ENorthwestern 101 050 010 8 13 0Michigan State 210 000 100 4 7 3
