Michigan State University
Iowa
MSU Baseball Stumbles At Iowa
4/26/2002 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 26, 2002
IOWA CITY, Iowa - Michigan State's pitching staff had a rough night and the Spartan bats were uncharacteristically cool as the MSU baseball team fell to Iowa, 14-3, in the opening game of a four-game series Friday in Iowa City.
Four Michigan State (27-10, 9-7 Big Ten) pitchers combined to allow 10 hits, 12 walks, two hit batters and two wild pitches, while MSU, which entered the game with a Big Ten-best .351 batting average, was limited to seven hits. Iowa (17-19, 7-10 BT) also ran at will, stealing six bases in six attempts.
MSU starting pitcher Bryan Gale (So., Decatur) allowed 10 Iowa runs, of which six were earned, in 5.2 innings to fall to 5-3. Gale allowed six hits but walked seven batters and hit another.
MSU took advantage of a pair of Iowa throwing errors to jump to a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning. Charlie Braun (Jr., Grosse Pointe) reached on an error, stole second, and scored when the Hawkeye third-baseman made an errant throw on what could have been the third out. But Iowa scored three runs on two home runs in the bottom half of the frame to take a 3-1 lead.
Trailing 5-1 in the fourth, MSU scored on a Braun sacrifice fly which scored Randy Ortiz (So., Rochester Hills), who had walked. Kyle Geswein (Sr., Dayton, Ohio) added a solo blast over the right field wall one inning later to trim the margin to 5-3.
Iowa put the game out of reach in the bottom of the sixth, scoring five runs on just two hits. Two Spartan pitchers combined to allow four walks and a hit batter to aide the Iowa cause, and a costly Spartan error lead to three unearned runs in the inning.
Iowa added four more runs in the seventh, batting around for the second straight inning, to close the scoring.
Chris McCuiston (Sr., Birmingham) had two of MSU's seven hits, raising his batting average to .397.
MSU and Iowa are scheduled to continue the series with a doubleheader Saturday beginning at 4 p.m. Central time.
Iowa 14, Michigan State 3WP- Pawelk (3-4)LP- Gale (5-3)Score By Innings R H EMichigan State 100 110 000 3 7 2Iowa 302 005 40x 14 10 2
