Comeback Falls Short vs. No. 15 Illinois

Monday, March 30

East Lansing, Mich.

1:05 PM

Michigan State University

12-13, 0

Illinois

20-6-1, 0

Illinois

Michigan State

Ryan Krill had two hits in Wednesday's loss.

3/30/2015 12:00:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

March 30, 2015

Box Score

EAST LANSING, Mich. - Michigan State (12-13, 2-4) dropped the final game of its series with No.15 Illinois (20-6-1, 2-1) on Monday afternoon by a score of 13-9. The Spartans fell behind 7-0 early, but managed get back into the game and pull within a run in bottom of the eighth inning.

Anthony Misiewicz took the loss for the Spartans and John Kravetz improved to 2-0 for the Illini.

"I give our guys a lot of credit for competing for nine innings," said head coach Jake Boss. "We need to play better. We need to understand that mistakes early in a ball game can be the difference in a game and makes the ninth inning a lot different today if we do some things different early in the game."

Trailing 7-0 and after being held quiet through the first five innings, the Spartan offense came alive in the sixth. Cam Gibson started the rally with a leadoff single. Ryan Krill followed with a double that put runners in scoring position with no outs. Both runners eventually came around to score on a ground out and sacrifice fly, respectively.

The Illini responded with three runs in the top of the seventh to go up 10-2, but the Spartans kept fighting in the bottom half of the inning, adding three runs of their own. MSU loaded the bases on two walks and a hit, setting up Krill who hit a single through the right side that scored two. Blaise Salter capped off the seventh with a single up the middle and sent home Gibson to make it 10-5.

Gibson scored three runs on the afternoon.

It was Krill again in the eighth that came up with the big hit, smacking a three-run homer over the right field fence that closed the gap to one. MSU loaded the bases for a second straight inning before the Krill at-bat and got a run on a fielder's choice from Gibson.

Krill finished the day 3-for-5 at the plate with five RBIs and two runs scored. Ryan Richardson and Chad Roskelly each added two-hit games.

The comeback was thwarted in the top half of the ninth, as the Illini scored three unearned runs to open up a 13-9 lead that the Spartans would be unable to overcome in the last inning.

Illinois jumped out to its big lead in the second inning, scoring five runs off five hits. Casey Fletcher drove a high drive to left field that hung in the air and was pushed back by the wind and eventually fell just beyond the outstretched glove of Gibson.

The hit was a sign of things to come in the inning as it started a string of four consecutive singles, followed by a walk and wild pitch that gave Illinois a 3-0 lead. A two-RBI single by Adam Walton then boosted the lead to 5-0.

Illinois loaded the bases with nobody out in the fourth, but Misiewicz held the Illini to just one run in the inning. The redshirt junior got Ryan Nagel to ground into a double play before getting Reid Roper to pop out to short to get out of the jam.

After Illinois added another run fifth, Brandon Hughes laid out for a diving catch for the final out of the inning, stranding a runner at second and saving a run.

Andrew Gonzalez, Walter Borkovich, Keegan Baar, and Jeff Kinley all pitched at least an inning in relief, combining to allow just three hits and no earned runs.

Michigan State has a midweek matchup at Eastern Michigan on Wednesday at 6 p.m. before heading to Oregon for a three-game series starting on Friday at 9 p.m. ET.