Michigan State University
Texas State University
MSU Downs Texas State, 3-2
2/26/2016 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas - The Michigan State baseball team improved to 4-0 on the season with a 3-2 win over Texas State on Friday in the Kleberg Bank College Classic. Dakota Mekkes pitched 2.2 innings in relief to close out the game, getting out of a two-on, one-out situation in both the seventh and eighth innings to keep the Bobcats at bay and earn his first win of the season.
"I thought it was a really good win today against an outstanding ball club," said head Coach Jake Boss Jr. "I think that team is going to win a lot of games this year. Their guy on the mound was really, really, good. We strung a few together and were pretty efficient with what we did offensively. Good day for us, it was a really quality win."
With the game tied 2-2 in the bottom of the seventh, freshman Royce Ando smacked a triple into the right field corner to put to go-ahead run in scoring positon with one out. After a flyout, Boss went to his bench to bring in Chad Roskelly for his first at bat of the season. Roskelly responded with a double to center field that proved to be the game-winner.
"That was a huge at bat late in the game," said Boss. "That's what your leaders have to do. He's an experienced guy even though he's just a redshirt sophomore."
Junior Matt Byars broke up the pitcher's duel in the third inning with a double down the left field line to bring home Ando, who singled to start the inning, to give MSU a 1-0 lead.
The 7-9 spots in the MSU lineup totaled five hits, two runs and two RBIs, while Jordan Zimmerman and Brandon Hughes each had multi-hit games atop the lineup.
"It creates balance up and down the lineup," said Ando. "Baseball is a game of failure and we have players all around to pick each other up. All-in-all we did a great job today. We found a way today and good teams find a way. "
MSU starter Cam Vieaux was on cruise control early on, working through the first four innings without giving up a hit. An error allowed Texas State's Theodore Hoffman to reach base in the fifth before coming around to score following back-to-back singles.
Vieaux worked around a pair of leadoff singles in the sixth to keep the game tied 1-1. With two on and no outs, he struck out the next two hitters and forced a ground out to first to escape the jam.
The Spartans regained the lead in the bottom half of the sixth. Zimmerman started off the inning with a base hit up the middle and stole second to move into scoring position. Alex Troop came up with some timely two-out hitting to drive Zimmerman in for his fourth RBI of the season and give the Spartans a 2-1 lead.
Texas State answered immediately with a leadoff homer in the seventh to chase Vieaux. With two on and one out, Dakota Mekkes induced an inning-ending double play to preserve the tie.
Vieaux pitched 6.1 innings, allowing five hits and one earned run while striking out five.
"Both of those guys were really good today," said Boss. "Defensively, we were a little shaky again. Cam made one bad pitch on the home run, but other than that I thought he was really good. He got himself into trouble a few times, but was able to get out of it with a couple of strikeouts and Dakota was the same way."
Mekkes had to work out of another jam in the eighth, but a flyout and strikeout shut down the Bobcat comeback. In the ninth, he allowed a runner to reach, byt Byars gunned down the would-be base stealer. Mekkes sandwiched that with a pair of strikeouts to finish the game with 2.2 innings of work while allowing just one hit.
It is Michigan State's first 4-0 start since the 2011 season.
The Spartans return to action tomorrow at 7 pm ET when they play Texas A&M Corpus Christi. The game will be streamed live at portal.stretchinternet.com/tamucc.
