Michigan State University
15-14, 0-2
Nebraska
14-12, 2-0
Miscues Plague Spartans in Loss to Huskers
3/21/2015 12:00:00 AM | Softball
East Lansing, Michigan -- Nebraska jumped out early and took advantage of three Spartan errors and nine walks on the day to post a 14-6 win over Michigan State in game two of the series between the teams in Lincoln on Saturday.
MSU's offense came in large part from the long ball, as Kassidy Kujawa slugged a grand slam and McKenzie Long went 2-for-2 and hit her second homer of the series for the Spartans, who fall to 15-14 overall and 0-2 in the Big Ten. Nebraska got a grand slam from Kiki Stokes and a solo shot from catcher Steph Pasquale, her second homer of the series. Third baseman MJ Knighten went 4-for-4 on the day, helping the home team improve to 2-0 B1G, 14-12 overall.
"You won't win many games by committing three errors and walking nine batters," said head coach Jacquie Joseph. "As we've seen over these two games, every mistake that you make, Nebraska will jump on and capitalize. We kept battling, but we're first battling back after we put ourselves in a hole, and then battling the opponent as we try to get back into it. We just need to clean up some things and put ourselves in a position to be successful."
The Huskers jumped out big early, as the home team scored eight times in the bottom of the first on just four hits and a pair of walks, aided by a Spartan error. Kiki Stokes smashed a grand slam to aid the Nebraska cause, as the home team sent 12 batters to the plate in the frame against pitcher Bridgette Rainey, who was making her first career start in a Big Ten game.
The Spartans got one back in the top of the second inning. McKenzie Long singled to left to lead off, and Gutknecht followed with a single up the middle. After Destinee Luna fouled out to the third baseman, Ellie Stoffer's single to center scored Long from second, and a four-pitch walk to McBride loaded the bases with just one out. Freimuth popped out to the shortstop, who quickly fired over to first to double off McBride and end the Spartan threat.
After a rough opening frame for the freshman Rainey, she retired the side in order in the second. Lea Foerster led off the top of the third with a walk, and Jablonski got the next two batters - Thomas on a popup and Sanders on a groundout. With two outs, Long walked on four straight pitches, and Gutknecht reached on a fielder's choice and error by third baseman Knighten, keeping the inning alive and loading the bases for MSU. Joseph sent Kassidy Kujawa to the plate as a pinch hitter, and she sent a 2-2 pitch over the wall in center field for her second homer of the season, cutting the Husker lead to 8-5. After Jablonski walked Stoffer, the Huskers made a pitching change - bringing in Emily Lockman. Lockman walked McBride to put a pair on with two out for the senior McKinzie Freimuth, but Lockman got her to ground out back to the circle to get out of the inning.
The Huskers worked a bases-loaded walk to Stokes four batters into the bottom of the third, plating a run on a trio of walks and an error. With the bases still full, Rainey worked through a 13-pitch battle with MJ Knighten, who finally won the war with a single to left, bringing home another run to make it 10-5. Still without an out, an infield error brought home a third run for the Huskers in the frame, as Armstrong reached on an infield pop-up that was dropped. Kaff got McClure to pop out, and the catcher Pasquale reached on a fielder's choice as Long made a nice grab and fired home to get Stokes out on the force and save a run from scoring. Kaff got out of the inning on a strikeout of Kylee Muir - but not before the home team pushed it's lead back out to six runs.
While Kaff was greeted with back-to-back singles in the bottom of the fourth, but a double play turned by Gutknecht erased a pair of batters. Stokes came to the plate and worked a four-ball walk, and MJ Knighten followed with a single up the middle to score Mattie Fowler and push the Husker lead to 12-5. Kaff got Armstrong on a groundout to end the frame.
MSU couldn't get anything going in the top of the fifth, and the Huskers closed it out with a pair of runs in the bottom of the frame to get the run-rule win. Pasquale smacked her second homer of the series - a solo shot to right center on a full count - to make it 13-6 in favor of the Huskers. Kaff walked both Muir and Woolman on four pitches each, and Mattie Fowler ended the game with a single to center, plating pinch runner Taylor Otte.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Lockman (7-7)
L: Rainey, Bridgette (1-4)
Batting:
HR: Long, McKenzie 1 ; Kujawa, Kassidy 1
RBI: Long, McKenzie 1 ; Kujawa, Kassidy 4 ; Stoffer, Ellie 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Foerster, Lea 1 ; Long, McKenzie 3 ; Gutknecht, Sarah 1 ; Kujawa, Kassidy 1
Batting:
HR: Stokes 1 ; Pasquale 1
RBI: Stokes 5 ; Knighten 2 ; McClure 1 ; Pasquale 1 ; Muir 1 ; Woolman 1 ; Fowler 1 ; Barrow 1
SF: McClure 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Stokes 2 ; Knighten 1 ; Armstrong 1 ; Pasquale 1 ; Muir 1 ; Otte 1 ; Woolman 2 ; Fowler 2 ; Metzler 1 ; Barrow 2
HBP: Armstrong 1 ; Pasquale 1
