Michigan State University
26-20, 8-11
Rutgers
13-32, 4-13
Walkoff Heartbreak for Spartans at Rutgers
4/29/2017 12:00:00 AM | Softball
SPARTAN SYNOPSIS
Michigan State fell to Rutgers on Saturday, 6-5, as the Scarlet Knights held off a late Spartan rally and scored on a walkoff RBI fielder's choice in the bottom of the seventh inning.
The Spartans, (26-20, 8-11 B1G) suffered their second walkoff loss of the week and seventh of the season, despite rallying from a 5-1 deficit after three innings. MSU committed a pair of errors in that third frame, but staged a rally that tied the game in the final three Spartan at-bats. MSU got solo homers from Lea Foerster in the fifth and Sarah Gutknecht in the sixth inning before staging a seventh-inning rally capped by a Kelcey Carrasco RBI single that tied the game. Rutgers came up with a pair of singles in the seventh, and brought the winning run across the plate with one out when Taylor Atlee beat the throw home on a Sierra Maddox single.
With two home runs today and four in the series, this 2017 Spartan team has broken the school record for homers in a season, now totaling 54 - besting the old record of 53 hit in 2011. In addition, both Foerster and Gutknecht moved up the single-season and career home run charts: Foerster's 13th of the season is tied for second all-time in a season and the 22nd of her career sits in sixth place in Spartan history, while Gutknecht's 10 this season is tied for seventh and her 29th career round-tripper is third all-time.
Jordan Watson worked a 1-2-3 inning before being victimized for the winning run in the seventh, as she allowed just the one run on two hits in taking the loss (8-6). Bridgette Rainey went five innings in her start, scattering three hits and walking four in addition to striking out four, while giving up just one earned run among the five she surrendered on the day.
The teams will meet on Sunday in the rubber match of the three-game series. First pitch is scheduled for 12 noon.
TOP PERFORMERS
- Kelcey Carrasco had two hits, including an RBI single in the seventh.
- Lea Foerster and Sarah Gutknecht each had solo home runs.
- Bridgette Rainey started the game and went five innings, scattering three hits and allowing five runs (one earned) and striking out four.
QUOTABLE
" Theres three phases to the game - pitching, hitting and defense; when you play as poorly as we did on defense, you have to make up for it with strong hitting or lights-out pitching. We did a lot of good things today to try to overcome the errors. I am happy that we battled to the very end - there was zero quit in our team, but we just didn't come up with enough to overcome the defensive errors we made."
-- Head Coach Jacquie Joseph
STATS AND STORYLINES
- Back-to-back two-out doubles for Sarah Gutknecht and Kelly Zackrison manufactured the Spartans' first run of the game in the top of the second inning.
- In the bottom of the third, the home team exploded for four runs, batting around in the inning. The Scarlet Knights needed just three hits, aided by a pair of MSU errors and two walks issued by Rainey.
- Lea Foerster led off the top of the fifth with a homer to right, her 13th of the season, and Sarah Gutknecht followed suit in the sixth, her 10th of the year, to make it a two-run ballgame.
- Jordan Watson came on in relief in the sixth; Bridgette Rainey allowed just three hits, striking out four and surrendered just one earned run, but also walked four. Watson retired the side in order in the sixth, but surrendered two singles in the bottom of the seventh.
- MSU looked to rally in the seventh, and put the first two runners on via a base hit by Lexi White and a walk to Foerster. The Scarlet Knights made a pitching change, going to Friday starter Whitney Jones; McKenzie Long laid down a sac bunt to move the runners in to scoring position. Jones retired Echols on a ground ball to short, but an error at third that would have ended the game allowed Eveland to reach base and bring home a fourth run for MSU, leaving runners at the corners. Kelcey Carrasco stepped in and singled home Foerster to tie the game at 5-5, but MSU could not push across a go-ahead run.
- In addition to moving up the all-time home run chart, Lea Foerster took sole possession of the school record for extra-base hits in a season (33), and with 77 in her career, she sits in fourth place behind all-time leader Lindsey Hansen (88), Stacey Phillips and Keri Lemasters (81). She became MSU's all-time leader in career runs scored earlier this week (145).
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Jones,W (4-8)
L: Watson, Jordan (8-6)
Batting:
2B: Gutknecht, Sarah 1 ; Zackrison, Kelly 1
HR: Foerster, Lea 1 ; Gutknecht, Sarah 1
RBI: Foerster, Lea 1 ; Carrasco, Kelcey 1 ; Gutknecht, Sarah 1 ; Zackrison, Kelly 1
SH: Long, McKenzie 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Foerster, Lea 2 ; Gutknecht, Sarah 2 ; Callahan, Summer 1
HBP: Besson, Lindsey 2
Batting:
3B: Todd,C 1
RBI: Maddox,S 2 ; Bowman,N 1 ; Todd,C 1 ; Hoklotubbe,H 1
SH: Hall,R 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Anico,N 1 ; Atlee,T 2 ; Maddox,S 1 ; Todd,C 1 ; Iliopoulos,A 1
SB: Atlee,T 1 ; Iliopoulos,A 2 ; Hoklotubbe,H 1
HBP: Carr,B 1
