Vieaux, Spartans Top No. 17 Illinois, 5-2

Sunday, March 29

East Lansing, Mich.

1:05 PM

Michigan State University

12-12, 0

Illinois

19-6-1, 0

Illinois

Michigan State

3/29/2015 12:00:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

March 29, 2015

Box Score

EAST LANSING, Mich. - The Michigan State baseball team defeated No. 17 Illinois on Sunday afternoon, 5-2, to improve to 12-12 on the year and 2-3 in the Big Ten. Blaise Salter hit an RBI double in the eighth inning, the 48th of his career, moving him into sole possession atop the MSU career-leaderboard for doubles, passing Scott Ayotte (1992-95).

The pitching staff kept Illinois quiet all day, holding the Illini to two runs on seven hits. Starter Cam Vieaux earned his first win of the season, going seven strong innings and giving up just one run on five hits. Vieaux made some timely pitches to get out of innings and stranded seven runners from the third to the seventh inning.

Joe Mockbee, Andrew Gonzalez, and Jeff Kinley all made relief appearances to close out the game, with the only damage coming on a solo shot from David Kerian that closed the gap to 5-2.

"Good day out of Cam Vieaux," said head coach Jake Boss. "I thought he threw well for us. Eleven more hits today for us too, so I thought offensively we were pretty good. Finally broke through and had a couple of big hits. Again, the pitching was really good today, so it was nice to even the series up and we have a big day tomorrow."

MSU struck first and jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second. Anthony Cheky picked up right where he left off from yesterday's 3-for-4 effort at the plate, smacking an RBI double to right that scored Ryan Richardson, who singled to start the inning.

The Illini responded in their next at bat with a two-out double down the left field line from Will Krug followed by an RBI single up the middle by Adam Walton that tied the game at one.

The Spartans separated for good in the fifth when they put a three-spot on the board to open up a 4-1 lead. After Brandon Hughes and Cheky started the big inning with back-to-back singles, Hughes was called out on a bang-bang play at the plate on a suicide squeeze attempt. MSU recovered though, as Cam Gibson, Ryan Krill and Mark Weist all picked up an RBI on consecutive at bats.

MSU had contributions from up and down the lineup, with five different players scoring runs while eight of the starters recording a hit. Cam Gibson, Richardson, and Cheky led the way for the Spartans with two hits apiece.

"Guys are getting more comfortable at the plate and we are having better at bats," said Boss. "We had a pretty good week of practice which was good to see. The more we play, the more we can hopefully get into a rhythm and keep some consistency offensively."

Michigan State concludes the series with Illinois tomorrow at 1 p.m. at McLane Baseball Stadium.