Michigan State Falls To Minnesota Sunday, 9-4

April 2, 2017

EAST LANSING, Mich. -- Michigan State baseball was dealt a 9-4 loss by Minnesota Sunday afternoon at McLane Stadium at Kobs Field.

MINN 9, MSU 4 Box Score

With the loss, MSU is now 15-9 overall and 3-3 in Big Ten Conference action, while Minnesota improved to 18-8 overall and 6-0 in B1G play. The Gophers have won their last nine games, including sweeping MSU after Saturday's pair of one-run games, 3-2 and 4-3.

"They're a good ball club," MSU head coach Jake Boss Jr., said about Minnesota, the defending Big Ten regular-season champions. "That was what was so disappointing and so frustrating about yesterday, is that we felt like we were right there and we had our chances, similar to when we were in South Carolina. We just didn't get it done. Today, they just beat us, what more can you say, I don't think our guys played poorly, but we didn't play well enough to win. It's a good lesson for us, we just need to stay together and hopefully the ship on Tuesday at Eastern Michigan. We'll keep working."

Michigan State will travel to Ypsilanti on Tuesday, April 4 to take on Eastern Michigan at 6 p.m. in MSU's third-straight midweek game against an in-state foe. The Spartans will then host Fresno State next weekend, Friday-Sunday, April 7-9 in a three-game, non-conference series, the second of three-straight home weekends at McLane Stadium at Kobs Field.

"They're all important for sure. We place a high priority on hopefully winning the mythical state title, so we have a chance to beat Eastern Michigan on Tuesday night, so we need to go down there and play well to do that," Boss said. "Then for the second year in a row we have a marquee non-conference series with Fresno State coming in. They were the national champions in 2008 and they're a very good program from the west coast coming out to East Lansing for the first time. It will be a great opportunity there to open up some eyes maybe on the national level. Certainly a lot to play for, these aren't practice games or spring training games or anything like that, we've got to get better and we've got to get better in a hurry."

Senior second baseman Dan Durkin was 1-for-2 with two runs scored, while sophomore designated hitter Alex Troop and junior first baseman Zack McGuire were 2-for-4, with all three Spartans rapping doubles. Sophomore right fielder Dan Chmielewski was 1-for-4 with three RBI and freshman left fielder Bryce Kelley was also 1-for-4 with one RBI.

"We knew going into this season that offensive consistency was a question mark for us, and this last week has been a microcosm of that. We need to get back to a better approach at the plate that allows us to be more consistent. I think we can learn a lot from what we watched out of the Minnesota dugout today. They didn't strike out a whole lot, and I think they really competed at the plate and our guys compete as well, but we need to give ourselves a better chance offensively," Boss said.

With Sunday's loss, MSU is now 11-9 against Minnesota under Boss, as the Spartans had won nine of the previous 13 meetings entering this weekend.

"I've got a lot of respect for Coach Anderson and the way that his teams play," Boss said about Minnesota head coach John Anderson, who is in his 36th season and now has 1,226 career wins. "We've always had a very good relationship. He's always been very complimentary of our ball club and he said we've got a good club and we'll be fine. Again, there's just a lot of mutual respect there. When a guy that has over 1,200 wins speaks, I'm going to listen."

Just like they had done in both games on Saturday, the Gophers got on the board first on Sunday, plating one run in the top of the second, sandwiching a pair of singles around a hit batter, and Minnesota had an early 1-0 lead.

The Spartans leveled the score at 1-1 in the bottom of the third, as Kelley drove in junior catcher Will Salter from second with a single up the middle. Minnesota shortstop Terrin Vavra made a diving attempt at the ball bounding for center, but it kicked off his glove, allowing Salter to scamper home and even the game at a run apiece.

Michigan State took a 3-1 lead with a pair of runs in the home half of the fourth, with Durkin leading off by getting hit by a pitch. Two batters later, Troop doubled off the base of the wall in right and Chmielewski drove in both Durkin and Troop with a two-run single through the left side.

The Gophers matched those two runs by the Spartans and added one more in the top of the fifth for a 4-3 lead and tacked on a pair in the top of the sixth to open a 6-3 advantage. MSU got a run back in the bottom of the sixth after Durkin led off by raking a double down the right field line, moving to third on a Troop single and scoring on a Chmielewski groundout to pull the Spartans within, 6-4, with the game two-thirds complete.

Minnesota added two more runs in the top of the eighth and another run in the ninth to open a 9-4 advantage and hung on for the win.

Junior starter Andrew Gonzalez went 4.0 innings, facing two batters in the fifth, before giving way to senior reliever Joe Mockbee, who was dealt the loss, sliding to 3-2 on the season.

Minnesota's Toby Anderson got the win, improving his season record to 4-2.

Live links to follow Tuesday's game at Eastern Michigan will be available at www.MSUSpartans.com.

Fans should stay tuned to www.MSUSpartans.com or follow MSU Baseball on twitter at statebaseball for any schedule updates.

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Team Stats

Alex Troop

Zack McGuire

Bryce Kelley

Dan Durkin

Players Mentioned

Dan Chmielewski

Dan Durkin

Andrew Gonzalez

Bryce Kelley

Zack McGuire

Joe Mockbee

Will Salter

Alex Troop