Michigan State University Athletics
Michigan State University
32-19
Central Michigan
32-20
Spartans Top Central Michigan on the Road, 13-7
5/12/2015 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
MT. PLEASANT, Mich. - The Michigan State baseball team closed its non-conference schedule with a 13-7 victory over Central Michigan on Tuesday afternoon in Mt. Pleasant. The Spartans pounded out 16 hits in the win as they improved to 32-19 on the year.
Catcher Chad Roskelly went 3-for-5 with a career-high five RBIs, while Blaise Salter and Ryan Krill finished with three hits apiece.
"We hit a lot of balls hard all day long," MSU head coach Jake Boss Jr. said. "I think you go up and down the lineup today and every guy really swung the bat well. Even the guys that maybe didn't have as much success really were able to get some good swings."
The Spartans busted loose in the top of the second inning as they batted around and scored six runs all with two outs. MSU recorded seven hits in the inning - five of which came after a two-out CMU error.
Roskelly's two-out base hit through the left side scored Ryan Richardson for the first run, and after Dan Durkin reached on an error by right fielder Logan Regnier, Alex Troop sent a two-RBI double to left field. Troop's double started a string of three straight as Cam Gibson and Ryan Krill followed with consecutive RBI doubles. Mark Weist's single to center field plated Krill for the final run of the inning.
Krill's double pushed his hitting streak to a season-high 16 games.
CMU (32-20) got on the board with a solo home run off the bat of Daniel Jipping in the bottom of the second. But MSU responded with two more runs in the fifth courtesy of an RBI single by Roskelly and an RBI fielder's choice by Durkin, making it 8-1.
The Spartans kept the pressure on in the following inning as Salter belted a two-run homer to make the lead 10-1. After Mark Weist drew a two-out walk, Salter deposited his fifth home run of the season over the wall in left center field.
Salter finished the game 3-for-4.
Spartan pitchers Keegan Baar, Andrew Gonzalez and Dakota Mekkes all tossed two innings, respectively, and combined to hold the Chippewas to four hits through six innings.
Baar, who was scheduled to pitch just two innings, was credited with the win.
CMU pushed across a run in the sixth inning and then made it 10-5 with three runs in the bottom of the eighth.
With MSU's lead down to five, Roskelly responded for MSU in the top of the ninth - and again with two outs. Roskelly followed free passes to Chase Toth (walk) and Richardson (hit by pitch) by hitting his fifth home run of the season to give MSU a 13-5 advantage.
"Chad had a great day," Boss said. "That was obviously a huge home run in the ninth. He has done a really outstanding job for us all year long and it was good to see him have success again today."
The Chippewas were able to get two more runs in the bottom of the ninth before Joe Mockbee struck out Cody Leichman to end the game.
Michigan State will close its regular season schedule with a three-game series at Minnesota beginning at 7:35 p.m. ET on Thursday.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Baar, Keegan (2-0)
L: GROSJEAN, Jordan (0-4)
Batting:
2B: Gibson, Cam 1 ; Krill, Ryan 1 ; Richardson, Ryan 1 ; Troop, Alex 1
HR: Salter, Blaise 1 ; Roskelly, Chad 1
RBI: Gibson, Cam 1 ; Krill, Ryan 1 ; Weist, Mark 1 ; Salter, Blaise 2 ; Roskelly, Chad 5 ; Durkin, Dan 1 ; Troop, Alex 2
SH: Hughes, Brandon 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Gibson, Cam 1 ; Krill, Ryan 1 ; Weist, Mark 1 ; Salter, Blaise 2 ; Toth, Chase 1 ; Richardson, Ryan 3 ; Roskelly, Chad 2 ; Durkin, Dan 1 ; Troop, Alex 1
CS: Krill, Ryan 1
HBP: Richardson, Ryan 1
Batting:
HR: JIPPING, Daniel 1 ; GREENMAN, Robert 1
RBI: HUNTEY, Tyler 1 ; REGNIER, Nick 2 ; JIPPING, Daniel 1 ; McKINSTRY, Zach 1 ; GREENMAN, Robert 1
Base Running:
RUNS: BORGLIN, Alex 1 ; MacKENZIE, Pat 1 ; HUNTEY, Tyler 1 ; JIPPING, Daniel 1 ; GREENMAN, Robert 3
HBP: REGNIER, Logan 1
PO: MacKENZIE, Pat 1
