Led by the hot bat of junior second baseman Ryan Jones, the MSU baseball team traveled to Cincinnati this weekend and came away with a three-game sweep at Marge Schott Stadium.
The Spartans (10-7) now have won six of their last seven games and return home to McLane Baseball Stadium at Kobs Field in a tie with Ohio State and Illinois for the third-best record in the Big Ten.
“I’m very pleased with how we played this weekend,” head coach Jake Boss Jr. said in an athletics department release.
“Going into the series, we really wanted to focus on playing a complete game, in terms of pitching, hitting and fielding, and today I think we did that. I think we played our best game of the year.”
Senior pitcher Tony Bucciferro had a career-high 10 strikeouts to lead the Spartans over Cincinnati 4-3 on Friday. With a one-run lead late, junior pitcher Tony Wieber struck out the side in the ninth inning to close out the game and pick up his fourth save of the season.
Just a weekend after beating Seton Hall in 15 innings, the Spartans catered to late-game heroics again on Saturday.
After junior third baseman and outfielder Torsten Boss reached second base on a sacrifice bunt by junior outfielder Jordan Keur, junior catcher John Martinez delivered the game-winning RBI single to score Boss and give the Spartans a 5-4 win in 14 innings.
Looking to close out the series on a high note, the Spartans clubbed a season-high 16 hits, including a four RBI effort by Jones to win 9-4 and complete the sweep.
“Our guys are very confident and keep competing and playing hard until the final out,” Boss said. “I think that speaks to the leadership on this team.”
MSU returns home this weekend to open up a three-game series with Oakland starting Friday at 3:05 p.m. at McLane Baseball Stadium at Kobs Field.
Support student media! Please consider donating to The State News and help fund the future of journalism.
