Sunday, April 2
Bainton Field | Piscataway, N.J.
1 p.m.
Michigan State University
16-9, 4-2
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10
Rutgers
14-13, 1-2
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9
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Michigan State
0
0
1
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0
0
3
0
5
9
2
Rutgers
0
1
1
0
0
2
4
2
X
10
13
0
Photo by: Zac BonDurant
MSU Baseball Defeated By Rutgers Sunday, Halting Spartans' Win Streak
4/2/2023 7:33:00 PM | Baseball
Spartans denied series sweep, have win streak halted at five in a row.
PISCATAWAY, N.J. -- Michigan State baseball was denied the weekend series sweep with a 10-5 loss at Rutgers Sunday afternoon at RU's Bainton Field in the Big Ten Conference series finale.
The Spartans won the series with a 3-2 triumph on Friday and a 10-4 Victory for MSU on Saturday, as Michigan State won its second-straight series in as many weekends to open B1G play, after only winning one conference series in 2022.
"It's good to win the series on the road, for sure. I think for as good as we played the last two days, I just didn't think we played well enough to win today, which is disappointing," MSU head coach Jake Boss Jr. said. "All the way around, I thought we left too many opportunities out there, we had 12 guys left on base today, we didn't pitch well enough, we made two errors that both led to runs and so it's disappointing. But we came on the road and you expect to do some good things, so if you can win a road series, that's a good weekend. While this one hurts a little bit today, at the end of the day, we did win two-out-of-three and we'll take that moving forward."
MSU's five-game win streak came to an end with Sunday's loss, but the Spartans have won 11 of the last 13 games and have a 16-9 overall record and a 4-2 B1G mark, compared to only eight league wins in all of 2022. Sunday's loss also halted the Spartans' win streak in the series with the Scarlet Knights at three in a row, as MSU has won four of the last six match-ups with RU, and Michigan State now holds a 7-5 all-time series advantage.Â
"The goal for each weekend is to win the weekend and fortunately for us, we were able to do that against what I think is a pretty good opponent in Rutgers," Boss said. "They won a lot of games a year ago and they've got a lot of their offense back and some new guys on the mound, but they're certainly very capable of winning a lot of games again this year. At the end of the day, the goal was accomplished to win the series."
Rutgers moved to 14-13 overall and 1-2 in conference competition with Sunday's result.
Michigan State scored its five runs on nine hits, led by junior infielder Trent Farquhar going 3-for-5 with one RBI and a run scored.Â
Sophomore designated hitter Sam Busch and junior infielder Brock Vradenburg both blasted home runs for the Spartans, with Busch belting a solo round-tripper in the third for MSU's first run of the day. Vradenburg blasted a three-run opposite field homer in the eighth.
It was Vradenburg's team-leading seventh home run of the season, while Busch belted his fourth round-tripper of the year and is third on the team.
Busch finished 2-for-4 with the RBI and run scored, while Vradenburg was 1-for-4 with the three RBI and run scored. Junior infielder Mitch Jebb was 1-for-4 with a walk, while senior outfielder Casey Mayes was 1-for-4 with a run scored and adding a sac bunt. Junior outfielder Jack Frank was 1-for-3 swiping two bases, while sophomore infielder Jacob Anderson going hitless, but drawing a walk and scoring a run, adding a sacrifice.
Junior Nick Powers started on the bump, pitching 5.0 IP with three hits, two runs, two walks and two strikeouts. Senior Andrew Carson went 1.1 IP, yielding four hits and three runs with one K, and was dealt the loss, giving way to redshirt-sophomore Noah Matheny who went 0.1 with two hits and two runs. Senior Wyatt Rush threw the final 1.1 IP, spraying four hits with three runs and one strikeout.
Rutgers got on the board in the home half of the second stanza on an RBI double for an early 1-0 lead.
Michigan State tied it up in the top of the third on Busch's two-out solo HR to right.
The game didn't stay tied for long, as Scarlet Knight Jordan Sweeney led off the third with a solo home run to left center for a 2-1 Rutgers advantage.
RU's lead only lasted a half inning as Anderson led off the top of the fourth frame with a walk, moved to second on a sac bunt by Mayes and to third on a wild pitch. Two batters later, Farquhar laced a single to right to plate Anderson and knot the game up at 2-all.
The scoreboard stayed 2-2 until the sixth, when Rutgers' Josh Kuroda-Graue and Evan Sleight hit back-to-back solo home runs off new Spartan reliever Carson to open the inning, before Carson rang up a strikeout, then a one-out single, but then induced a double play to end the inning, keeping it 4-2.
The Scarlet Knights opened up an 8-2 lead in the sixth with four runs, three coming on a three-run HR by Sleight.
Michigan State got three runs back on a three-run round-tripper of their own on Vradenburg's opposite-field three-run homer to left center. Busch followed with a single to keep the rally going, but it came to an end with a foulout. Rutgers plated a pair of runs in the bottom of the eighth on a two-run single by Ryan Lasko for the 10-5 lead.Â
MSU went down in order in the top of the ninth to end the game.
Michigan State has a five-game week upcoming, opening with the 2023 Crosstown Showdown, meeting the Lansing Lugnuts, the local low-A affiliate of the Oakland A's, in an exhibition game on Tuesday, April 4 at 7 p.m.
The Spartans then host Bowling Green on Wednesday, April 5 in a 6:05 p.m. start time in a non-conference contest, before returning to B1G action by hosting Ohio State in a three-game weekend series, Friday-Sunday, April 7-9. The MSU-OSU series opens on Friday with a 6:05 p.m. first pitch, before the middle game of the series on Saturday at 3:35 p.m. The Spartans and Buckeyes wrap up the weekend series on Sunday in a 1:05 p.m. contest.
Fans can follow Spartan baseball action with links at MSUSpartans.com.
MSU's schedule is subject to change, stay tuned to MSUSpartans.com and @MSUBaseball on Twitter for schedule updates.Â
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The Spartans won the series with a 3-2 triumph on Friday and a 10-4 Victory for MSU on Saturday, as Michigan State won its second-straight series in as many weekends to open B1G play, after only winning one conference series in 2022.
"It's good to win the series on the road, for sure. I think for as good as we played the last two days, I just didn't think we played well enough to win today, which is disappointing," MSU head coach Jake Boss Jr. said. "All the way around, I thought we left too many opportunities out there, we had 12 guys left on base today, we didn't pitch well enough, we made two errors that both led to runs and so it's disappointing. But we came on the road and you expect to do some good things, so if you can win a road series, that's a good weekend. While this one hurts a little bit today, at the end of the day, we did win two-out-of-three and we'll take that moving forward."
MSU's five-game win streak came to an end with Sunday's loss, but the Spartans have won 11 of the last 13 games and have a 16-9 overall record and a 4-2 B1G mark, compared to only eight league wins in all of 2022. Sunday's loss also halted the Spartans' win streak in the series with the Scarlet Knights at three in a row, as MSU has won four of the last six match-ups with RU, and Michigan State now holds a 7-5 all-time series advantage.Â
"The goal for each weekend is to win the weekend and fortunately for us, we were able to do that against what I think is a pretty good opponent in Rutgers," Boss said. "They won a lot of games a year ago and they've got a lot of their offense back and some new guys on the mound, but they're certainly very capable of winning a lot of games again this year. At the end of the day, the goal was accomplished to win the series."
Rutgers moved to 14-13 overall and 1-2 in conference competition with Sunday's result.
Michigan State scored its five runs on nine hits, led by junior infielder Trent Farquhar going 3-for-5 with one RBI and a run scored.Â
Sophomore designated hitter Sam Busch and junior infielder Brock Vradenburg both blasted home runs for the Spartans, with Busch belting a solo round-tripper in the third for MSU's first run of the day. Vradenburg blasted a three-run opposite field homer in the eighth.
It was Vradenburg's team-leading seventh home run of the season, while Busch belted his fourth round-tripper of the year and is third on the team.
Busch finished 2-for-4 with the RBI and run scored, while Vradenburg was 1-for-4 with the three RBI and run scored. Junior infielder Mitch Jebb was 1-for-4 with a walk, while senior outfielder Casey Mayes was 1-for-4 with a run scored and adding a sac bunt. Junior outfielder Jack Frank was 1-for-3 swiping two bases, while sophomore infielder Jacob Anderson going hitless, but drawing a walk and scoring a run, adding a sacrifice.
Junior Nick Powers started on the bump, pitching 5.0 IP with three hits, two runs, two walks and two strikeouts. Senior Andrew Carson went 1.1 IP, yielding four hits and three runs with one K, and was dealt the loss, giving way to redshirt-sophomore Noah Matheny who went 0.1 with two hits and two runs. Senior Wyatt Rush threw the final 1.1 IP, spraying four hits with three runs and one strikeout.
Rutgers got on the board in the home half of the second stanza on an RBI double for an early 1-0 lead.
Michigan State tied it up in the top of the third on Busch's two-out solo HR to right.
The game didn't stay tied for long, as Scarlet Knight Jordan Sweeney led off the third with a solo home run to left center for a 2-1 Rutgers advantage.
RU's lead only lasted a half inning as Anderson led off the top of the fourth frame with a walk, moved to second on a sac bunt by Mayes and to third on a wild pitch. Two batters later, Farquhar laced a single to right to plate Anderson and knot the game up at 2-all.
The scoreboard stayed 2-2 until the sixth, when Rutgers' Josh Kuroda-Graue and Evan Sleight hit back-to-back solo home runs off new Spartan reliever Carson to open the inning, before Carson rang up a strikeout, then a one-out single, but then induced a double play to end the inning, keeping it 4-2.
The Scarlet Knights opened up an 8-2 lead in the sixth with four runs, three coming on a three-run HR by Sleight.
Michigan State got three runs back on a three-run round-tripper of their own on Vradenburg's opposite-field three-run homer to left center. Busch followed with a single to keep the rally going, but it came to an end with a foulout. Rutgers plated a pair of runs in the bottom of the eighth on a two-run single by Ryan Lasko for the 10-5 lead.Â
MSU went down in order in the top of the ninth to end the game.
Michigan State has a five-game week upcoming, opening with the 2023 Crosstown Showdown, meeting the Lansing Lugnuts, the local low-A affiliate of the Oakland A's, in an exhibition game on Tuesday, April 4 at 7 p.m.
The Spartans then host Bowling Green on Wednesday, April 5 in a 6:05 p.m. start time in a non-conference contest, before returning to B1G action by hosting Ohio State in a three-game weekend series, Friday-Sunday, April 7-9. The MSU-OSU series opens on Friday with a 6:05 p.m. first pitch, before the middle game of the series on Saturday at 3:35 p.m. The Spartans and Buckeyes wrap up the weekend series on Sunday in a 1:05 p.m. contest.
Fans can follow Spartan baseball action with links at MSUSpartans.com.
MSU's schedule is subject to change, stay tuned to MSUSpartans.com and @MSUBaseball on Twitter for schedule updates.Â
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Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Gorski, Ben (1-0)
L: Carson, Andrew (2-3)
Batting:
HR: Vradenburg, Brock 1 ; Busch, Sam 1
RBI: Farquhar, Trent 1 ; Vradenburg, Brock 3 ; Busch, Sam 1
SH: Anderson, Jacob 1 ; Mayes, Casey 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Farquhar, Trent 1 ; Vradenburg, Brock 1 ; Busch, Sam 1 ; Anderson, Jacob 1 ; Mayes, Casey 1
SB: Frank, Jack 2
HBP: Frank, Jack 1 ; Broecker, Bryan 1
Batting:
2B: Pinkney, Hugh 1 ; Sweeney, Jordan 1
HR: Kuroda-Grauer, Josh 1 ; Sleight, Evan 2 ; Sweeney, Jordan 1
RBI: Lasko, Ryan 2 ; Cohen, Trevor 1 ; Kuroda-Grauer, Josh 1 ; Sleight, Evan 4 ; Pinkney, Hugh 1 ; Sweeney, Jordan 1
SH: Axelson, Andy 2
Base Running:
RUNS: Cohen, Trevor 1 ; Kuroda-Grauer, Josh 2 ; Sleight, Evan 2 ; Love, Cameron 1 ; Pinkney, Hugh 1 ; Brito, Chris 1 ; Sweeney, Jordan 2
CS: Lasko, Ryan 1
Game Leaders
AB
5
R
1
H
3
RBI
1
AB
4
R
0
H
1
RBI
0
AB
4
R
1
H
1
RBI
3
Players Mentioned
INF
/ Baseball
RHP
/ Baseball
INF
/ Baseball
OF
/ Baseball
INF
/ Baseball
RHP
/ Baseball
OF
/ Baseball
LHP
/ Baseball
RHP
/ Baseball
INF
/ BaseballPursuit to Greatness | Spartans All-Access
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