How cold was it on Sunday at Kobs Field?

So cold that junior second baseman Steve Gerstenberger wore four layers of Under Armour under his jersey to fight the game-time wind chill of 23 degrees.

"I can hardly move," he said, "but at least I'm warm."

So cold that despite the grounds crew's attempts to clear the field before the game with leaf blowers, snow was still piled along the fences — something home-plate umpire Bruce Doane said he has never seen in 35 years.

So cold that Purdue rented a microwave from the hotel it was staying at and used it to heat chicken soup in its dugout.

But not cold enough to cool down senior pitcher Craig Brookes, who threw seven innings and allowed two runs — one earned — to lead the MSU baseball team to a 3-2 win against the Boilermakers.

"Good old Brookesy," MSU head coach David Grewe said of his ace, who kept his conference-leading ERA at 1.29 on an afternoon that felt more like Christmas Eve than Easter Sunday.

What was supposed to be the finale of a four-game weekend set ended up being the series opener because of the weather. While many games around the conference and country were canceled because of wintry conditions, the Spartans (12-9 overall, 4-1 Big Ten) and Boilermakers (12-11, 2-3) got Sunday's game in and will try to play a doubleheader starting at noon Monday to close a three-game series.

"We said, if we've just got to battle the cold, let's try to do it," Grewe said.

Conditions like that often benefit the pitcher, but Brookes didn't need much help. He allowed eight hits and a walk while striking out five. The Spartans scored runs in the second, third and fourth innings to give Brookes a 3-1 lead to work with, which he protected with some timely outs. Freshman Kyle Corcoran, sophomore Anthony Dunn and junior Mike Monterey combined for two scoreless innings of relief to preserve the win.

"With a cold day like this, you're only going to get two or three runs," Brookes said. "The key to these kinds of games is to get a good start before guys warm up."

Freshman designated hitter Eli Boike had an RBI double for the Spartans, whose other two runs came on a wild pitch and a botched double play attempt. Gerstenberger went two-for-four to improve his team-leading batting average to .429, and junior first baseman Evan Friedland and junior center fielder Dennis Jones also added two hits apiece.

"I'm proud of our toughness today," Grewe said.