Sunday, March 24
Lincoln, NE
2:05 PM ET / 1:05 PM CT
Michigan State University
3-18, 0-3
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Nebraska
11-7, 3-0
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Michigan State
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Nebraska
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Photo by: Bob McCool - Coastal Carolina Athletics
Michigan State Knocked Off At Nebraska Sunday In Series Finale
3/24/2019 7:12:00 PM | Baseball
Mayes mashes first home run of Spartan career in loss.
LINCOLN, Neb. -- Michigan State baseball was knocked off at Nebraska Sunday afternoon by a final score of 6-2 in the series finale of the opening Big Ten Conference weekend at Nebraska's Hawks Field at Haymarket Park in Lincoln, Neb.Â
After playing a doubleheader on Friday to ensure getting two games in, Saturday's intended game was postponed due to inclement weather and the Spartans and Huskers finished the series Sunday afternoon. The game was scoreless through the first three frames, before Nebraska plated three runs in the fourth and fifth innings, but Michigan State battled back late before the rally came up short.
"I'm proud that we competed our tails off, we always have and we always will, it just hasn't gone our way and didn't go our way this weekend," MSU head coach Jake Boss Jr. said. "We need to play better, but one thing that we always talk about that we can control is our effort, and the effort I believe is very good, and will continue to be very good, and if it's not, then those guys that have bad effort will not play."Â
Freshman Casey Mayes mashed his first home run as a Spartan with a two-run pinch hit blast in the eighth inning, as the Green & White fought back and had two on with two outs in the ninth before the rally ended.
"Casey is a big, strong kid who has a lot of power, and that's what he's going to have to do for us. I think he's capable of that, he just needs an opportunity," Boss said. "With the way it's been going, we're going to have more guys get opportunities and they need to take advantage of them when they get them. We had five hits today and freshmen accounted for four of them. We just need to be better all the way around, with our execution both offensively and defensively."
Mayes was one of four Spartan freshmen to collect hits Sunday afternoon, joined by outfielder Zaid Walker, infielder/designated hitter Reese Trahey and catcher Scott Combs. Junior outfielder Bryce Kelley had the Spartans other hit on the day with a double in the third.
On the mound, junior lefty Jarret Olson made his second start of the season, going 4.0 IP with four hits, three runs, three walks and three strikeouts in taking the loss. Senior reliever Evan Flohr pitched 2.0 IP of no-run baseball, while junior reliever Indigo Diaz registered three Ks in 1.2 IP, not yielding a hit or a run.
"Jarret pitched well, he made some good pitches to get a couple of big strikeouts early; but we just couldn't seem to stop the bleeding in the fourth, and that seems to be what's happened to us recently. We gave up a two big innings and all of sudden it's 6-0, and we're fighting an uphill battle. We need to figure out ways to get out of innings, we gave up a lot of free base runners today, between walks, hit batters and errors. We only got five hits and just didn't play well enough."
Olson worked out of a pair of leadoff walks in the third, before getting a strikeout, flyout and another strikeout to end frame, stranding the two Huskers on the basepaths. The junior southpaw had three Ks through the first three innings.
After a scoreless first three frames, the Huskers broke through with three runs on three hits in the fourth inning, with the big blow coming on a two-out, two-run triple to left center by Joe Acker. Â
The Spartans tried to rally in the top of the fifth, as Trahey walked and moved up to second on a groundout, but sophomore third baseman Zach Iverson was robbed of a possible extra-bases hit by Husker right fielder Aaron Palensky for the second out and a groundout thwarted the threat.
MSU made a pitching change to open the fifth, and Nebraska tacked on three more runs, stringing together three hits and taking advantage of a Spartan error, and Michigan State made another pitching change. A groundout to Iverson ended the inning leaving two runners stranded and Nebraska leading 6-0.Â
Combs led off the Spartan eighth with a double off the wall in left center. He was in jeopardy of getting stranded after a pair of strikeouts, but Mayes followed with his pinch-hit blast to right field to pull the Spartans within, 5-2.
Diaz got the first two Huskers out in the ninth on a strikeout and groundout, before a walk and error put two on, but the Spartan hurler slammed the door on a rally with a strikeout.
In the MSU ninth, Walker led off a single to right. Two batters later, Trahey fell behind 0-2, but battled back to fill the count and fought off numerous pitches in the battle with Nebraska reliever Paul Tillotson, before winning the duel by singling to center. The Huskers made another pitching change, bringing in Shay Schanaman, and the Spartans brought in senior Marty Bechina to pinch hit, but after a lengthy batter-pitcher battle, a check-swing strikeout ended the game.
Michigan State will now host Western Michigan the Spartans' home-opener on Wednesday at McLane Stadium at Kobs Field, after MSU's originally scheduled home-opener last Wednesday was postponed due to inclement weather. First pitch is slated for 4:05 p.m. After Wednesday's game vs. WMU, the Spartans will then take on another in-state foe in Michigan, hosting the Wolverines on Friday and Sunday around Saturday's game at Ann Arbor. Friday's game will have a 3 p.m. first pitch, while Saturday's game at Ann Arbor will start at 2 p.m. before Sunday's series finale at 4 p.m. Friday and Sunday's games will also be nationally televised on the Big Ten Network.
Fans can also follow next week's Spartan baseball action through "Live Stats," "Listen Live" and "Watch Live" links found at MSUSpartans.com. The games will be video streamed on BTN2Go, and will also be carried on the Spartan Sports Network live audio stream. The broadcast will be available exclusively at SpartanSportsNetwork.com and on the network's 24/7 app for mobile devices (available on iTunes and Google Play). Broadcast veteran Scott Moore calls the action alongside former MSU manager/bullpen catcher David Greenberg in select games.
Any schedule updates will be announced on www.MSUSpartans.com and on twitter @statebaseball.
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After playing a doubleheader on Friday to ensure getting two games in, Saturday's intended game was postponed due to inclement weather and the Spartans and Huskers finished the series Sunday afternoon. The game was scoreless through the first three frames, before Nebraska plated three runs in the fourth and fifth innings, but Michigan State battled back late before the rally came up short.
"I'm proud that we competed our tails off, we always have and we always will, it just hasn't gone our way and didn't go our way this weekend," MSU head coach Jake Boss Jr. said. "We need to play better, but one thing that we always talk about that we can control is our effort, and the effort I believe is very good, and will continue to be very good, and if it's not, then those guys that have bad effort will not play."Â
Freshman Casey Mayes mashed his first home run as a Spartan with a two-run pinch hit blast in the eighth inning, as the Green & White fought back and had two on with two outs in the ninth before the rally ended.
"Casey is a big, strong kid who has a lot of power, and that's what he's going to have to do for us. I think he's capable of that, he just needs an opportunity," Boss said. "With the way it's been going, we're going to have more guys get opportunities and they need to take advantage of them when they get them. We had five hits today and freshmen accounted for four of them. We just need to be better all the way around, with our execution both offensively and defensively."
Mayes was one of four Spartan freshmen to collect hits Sunday afternoon, joined by outfielder Zaid Walker, infielder/designated hitter Reese Trahey and catcher Scott Combs. Junior outfielder Bryce Kelley had the Spartans other hit on the day with a double in the third.
On the mound, junior lefty Jarret Olson made his second start of the season, going 4.0 IP with four hits, three runs, three walks and three strikeouts in taking the loss. Senior reliever Evan Flohr pitched 2.0 IP of no-run baseball, while junior reliever Indigo Diaz registered three Ks in 1.2 IP, not yielding a hit or a run.
"Jarret pitched well, he made some good pitches to get a couple of big strikeouts early; but we just couldn't seem to stop the bleeding in the fourth, and that seems to be what's happened to us recently. We gave up a two big innings and all of sudden it's 6-0, and we're fighting an uphill battle. We need to figure out ways to get out of innings, we gave up a lot of free base runners today, between walks, hit batters and errors. We only got five hits and just didn't play well enough."
Olson worked out of a pair of leadoff walks in the third, before getting a strikeout, flyout and another strikeout to end frame, stranding the two Huskers on the basepaths. The junior southpaw had three Ks through the first three innings.
After a scoreless first three frames, the Huskers broke through with three runs on three hits in the fourth inning, with the big blow coming on a two-out, two-run triple to left center by Joe Acker. Â
The Spartans tried to rally in the top of the fifth, as Trahey walked and moved up to second on a groundout, but sophomore third baseman Zach Iverson was robbed of a possible extra-bases hit by Husker right fielder Aaron Palensky for the second out and a groundout thwarted the threat.
MSU made a pitching change to open the fifth, and Nebraska tacked on three more runs, stringing together three hits and taking advantage of a Spartan error, and Michigan State made another pitching change. A groundout to Iverson ended the inning leaving two runners stranded and Nebraska leading 6-0.Â
Combs led off the Spartan eighth with a double off the wall in left center. He was in jeopardy of getting stranded after a pair of strikeouts, but Mayes followed with his pinch-hit blast to right field to pull the Spartans within, 5-2.
Diaz got the first two Huskers out in the ninth on a strikeout and groundout, before a walk and error put two on, but the Spartan hurler slammed the door on a rally with a strikeout.
In the MSU ninth, Walker led off a single to right. Two batters later, Trahey fell behind 0-2, but battled back to fill the count and fought off numerous pitches in the battle with Nebraska reliever Paul Tillotson, before winning the duel by singling to center. The Huskers made another pitching change, bringing in Shay Schanaman, and the Spartans brought in senior Marty Bechina to pinch hit, but after a lengthy batter-pitcher battle, a check-swing strikeout ended the game.
Michigan State will now host Western Michigan the Spartans' home-opener on Wednesday at McLane Stadium at Kobs Field, after MSU's originally scheduled home-opener last Wednesday was postponed due to inclement weather. First pitch is slated for 4:05 p.m. After Wednesday's game vs. WMU, the Spartans will then take on another in-state foe in Michigan, hosting the Wolverines on Friday and Sunday around Saturday's game at Ann Arbor. Friday's game will have a 3 p.m. first pitch, while Saturday's game at Ann Arbor will start at 2 p.m. before Sunday's series finale at 4 p.m. Friday and Sunday's games will also be nationally televised on the Big Ten Network.
Fans can also follow next week's Spartan baseball action through "Live Stats," "Listen Live" and "Watch Live" links found at MSUSpartans.com. The games will be video streamed on BTN2Go, and will also be carried on the Spartan Sports Network live audio stream. The broadcast will be available exclusively at SpartanSportsNetwork.com and on the network's 24/7 app for mobile devices (available on iTunes and Google Play). Broadcast veteran Scott Moore calls the action alongside former MSU manager/bullpen catcher David Greenberg in select games.
Any schedule updates will be announced on www.MSUSpartans.com and on twitter @statebaseball.
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Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Eddins, Reece (1-2)
L: Olson, Jarret (0-3)
S: Schanaman, Shay (1)
Batting:
2B: Kelley, Bryce 1 ; Combs, Scott 1
HR: Mayes, Casey 1
RBI: Mayes, Casey 2
Base Running:
RUNS: Mayes, Casey 1 ; Combs, Scott 1
Batting:
2B: Gomes, Colby 1
3B: Acker, Joe 1
RBI: Chick, Cam 1 ; Hallmark, Jaxon 1 ; Acker, Joe 3
Base Running:
RUNS: Gomes, Colby 2 ; Chick, Cam 2 ; Hallmark, Jaxon 2
SB: Chick, Cam 1 ; Acker, Joe 1
HBP: Cross, Carter 1 ; Hallmark, Jaxon 1
Game Leaders
AB
4
R
0
H
1
RBI
0
ph/rf
AB
1
R
1
H
1
RBI
2
rf/cf
AB
4
R
0
H
1
RBI
0
AB
3
R
0
H
1
RBI
0
Players Mentioned
INF
/ Baseball
C
/ Baseball
RHP
/ Baseball
LHP
/ Baseball
INF/OF/RHP
/ BaseballOF/LHP
/ BaseballOF
/ Baseball
LHP
/ BaseballOF
/ BaseballOF
/ BaseballPursuit to Greatness | Spartans All-Access
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