Michigan State University Athletics
Michigan State University
21-16, 6-5
Rutgers
12-25-1, 5-9
Spartans Hit Five Homers in 15-7 Win Over Rutgers
4/18/2015 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
PISCATAWAY, New Jersey - The Michigan State baseball team took game two of its weekend series with Rutgers by scoring a season-high 15 runs in a 15-7 win over the Scarlet Knights on Saturday afternoon in Piscataway, New Jersey. A day after homering three times, the Spartans hit five on Saturday - their most in a game since May 2007. The five home runs are also the most by a Big Ten team this season.
Cam Gibson, Ryan Krill, Mark Weist and Johnny Nate all went deep in the game, while Brandon Hughes had a three-run homer in the sixth.
"We had some big hits in some big situations. The offense has been on a roll lately and we were able to keep going," MSU head coach Jake Boss Jr. said. "We've been swinging it pretty well lately and it's nice to see it continue."
Much like Friday's game, the Spartans started quickly on Saturday - and again with the long ball. Gibson led off with a home run on the third pitch of the game and two batters later, Weist took a pitch from starter Howie Brey over the wall in left center field to make it a 2-0.
MSU starter Mick VanVossen cruised through the first three innings, facing just two over the minimum with four strikeouts before allowing a leadoff triple and sacrifice fly to make it 2-1 in the bottom of the fourth.
Nate reestablished the Spartans' two run lead when his safety squeeze scored Chad Roskelly in the top of the fifth.
The 3-1 advantage evaporated quickly as Rutgers (12-25-1, 5-9) batted around in the bottom of the fifth and scored four runs to go up 5-3. VanVossen was pulled after two walks and an error packed the bases to start the bottom half of the inning. Joe Mockbee replaced VanVossen and couldn't get out of the jam, allowing three RBI singles and a fielder's choice as Rutgers scored four runs. Anthony Misiewicz took over for Mockbee and got the Spartans out of the inning without any further damage.
The Spartans responded to the Scarlet Knights' offensive push immediately, starting with Hughes' two-out, three-run homer in the top of the sixth that gave MSU back the lead for good. Michigan State went on to tack on nine more over the next two innings.
"I thought our guys showed a lot of character in coming back strong after they went up on us," Boss said. "That was a huge homer by Brandon in the sixth inning."
Nate and Krill both homered to left field in the seventh, upping the MSU lead to 8-5. The home run was the first of Nate's career.
Five straight hitters - Hughes, Roskelly, Alex Troop, Nate and Gibson - all drove in runs with hits in the eighth. Weist, who went 3-for-5, added an RBI double and Richardson an RBI single to stretch the lead to 15-5.
Misiewicz retired 11 straight since coming into the game in the fifth. He allowed two runs of two hits in the ninth and earned the win to improve to 4-3.
"Anthony threw well today," Boss said. "He came in and controlled the damage there in the fifth and kept us in the ball game."
The two teams will close the weekend series on Sunday at 1 p.m.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Misiewicz, Anthony (4-3)
L: Brey (1-6)
Batting:
2B: Gibson, Cam 1 ; Weist, Mark 2 ; Troop, Alex 1
HR: Gibson, Cam 1 ; Krill, Ryan 1 ; Weist, Mark 1 ; Hughes, Brandon 1 ; Nate, Johnny 1
RBI: Gibson, Cam 2 ; Krill, Ryan 1 ; Weist, Mark 3 ; Richardson, Ryan 1 ; Hughes, Brandon 4 ; Roskelly, Chad 1 ; Nate, Johnny 3
SH: Nate, Johnny 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Gibson, Cam 2 ; Krill, Ryan 1 ; Weist, Mark 3 ; Salter, Blaise 1 ; Richardson, Ryan 2 ; Hughes, Brandon 1 ; Roskelly, Chad 2 ; Troop, Alex 1 ; Nate, Johnny 2
HBP: Salter, Blaise 2
Batting:
2B: Suseck 1
3B: Marcinczyk 1
RBI: Zarrillo 1 ; Suseck 3 ; Marcinczyk 1 ; Walker 2
SH: Campbell 1
SF: Walker 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Zarrillo 1 ; Suseck 1 ; Marcinczyk 1 ; Carter 1 ; Campbell 1 ; deMarrais 1 ; Anderson 1
