The San Francisco Giants and the Anaheim Angels aren’t the only teams playing baseball this deep into October.
The MSU baseball team took the field Wednesday afternoon for the last time this year in the final game of the three game Green/Gray World Series.
In the contest, the Gray team came out victorious with some last inning heroics. With the score tied at three in the bottom of seventh, junior outfielder David Miller laced a double off junior right-hander Ryan Golem scoring the game winning run, giving the Gray team a 4-3 win. The team’s only played seven innings.
It was the Gray team’s only victory in the three-game series. The Green team won the first two games 13-9 and 9-8, respectively.
The weather might have been in the 40s with wind gusts, but MSU head coach Ted Mahan said the team battled through Mother Nature and played solid baseball.
“We had a really good fall and the most important thing is we got our work in,” Mahan said. “We got to practice a lot of fundamentals and created some good habits.”
Senior infielder Charlie Braun did something Mahan would like to see become a habit - starting t scoring in the top of the first inning with an RBI double down the left field line.
The Gray squad would counter in the bottom of the second when senior outfielder Brett Wattles ripped a triple to dead center field, knocking in a run and tying up the score.
In the top of the fourth, the Green squad would jump ahead thanks to the bat of junior infielder Scott Koerber. Koerber used the breeze and drove a fastball over the right field wall to give his team a 2-1 lead.
Freshman infielder Brandon Volas knocked in the tying run with a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the fifth, but the tie was short lived. Redshirt sophomore catcher Erik Morris snuck a single inside the third base line to put the Green team ahead in the top of the sixth.
The Gray squad knotted the score at three after a wild pitch.
The Spartans will have some short practices for the rest of the week, and then will hit the weight room in the offseason. The next time they hit the field in game conditions is Feb. 21 when they travel to Louisiana to take on Centenary for a three game series.
“Overall, it was a great fall,” Mahan said. “Our veterans got better, and our young guys got better. We’re looking forward to the season and we’re all optimistic.”
