Michigan State University
Michigan
Michigan Gets Past Spartan Baseball, 5-2
4/20/2003 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 20, 2003
EAST LANSING, Mich. - The Michigan State baseball team lost its first season series to Michigan in four years as the Wolverines topped the Spartans, 5-2, Sunday afternoon (April 20) at Kobs Field. Michigan took three of the four games in the series and improved to 19-16 (7-7 Big Ten), while MSU fell to 11-24 (4-10 BT).
Wolverine starter Phil Tognetti went the distance, scattering seven hits and only allowing two runs, one earned, to earn his fourth win of the season. MSU starter Jeff Gerbe (Shelby Twp.) had his second-consecutive strong outing, hurling a career best 7 2/3 while surrendering four runs on eight hits.
Gerbe was solid in the middle innings, but Michigan tagged him early, building a 3-0 lead after three innings. UM's Brock Koman notched doubles his first two times at bat and Mike Sokol drove in a run with a single.
Gerbe, a freshman walk-on, then settled down and allowed only two base runners the next three innings. Tognetti remained strong for Michigan, however, as the Spartans only had three hits after six.
The Spartans finally got to Tognetti in the seventh, but only scored one run in the inning with runners on second and third and no outs. After a Scott Koerber (Jr., Harper Woods) sacrifice fly that plated one run, a groundout and a strikeout closed the inning for MSU.
Michigan struck back in the eighth as Koman stroked an opposite-field homer to the short fence in right field. Koman finished the game with three hits, two RBI and two runs scored. The Wolverines added another insurance run in the ninth on an A.J. Scheidt run-scoring single.
Koerber nailed a two-out double that scored Travis Gulick (So., East Lansing) in the ninth, but it was the only rally the Spartans could muster against Tognetti.
Both teams played stellar defense in rainy conditions for the first half of the game. MSU lined out four times to Wolverine fielders and Michigan made several diving catches in providing excellent support for Tognetti. The Spartan defense, which didn't commit an error for the first time in 22 games, was led by freshman shortstop Alan Cattrysse (Fr., Chatham, Ontario). Cattrysse cleaned everything up in the field with nine assists and tied a career high with three hits and two doubles at the plate.
MSU returns to action with a single game against Siena Heights at Kobs Field on Tuesday, April 22 beginning at 3 p.m.
GAME SUMMARY R H EMICH 201 000 011- 5 10 1MSU 000 000 101- 2 7 0
WP: Tognetti-MICH (4-2)LP: Gerbe-MSU (1-2)
