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Baseball loses lead late, falls to Hawkeyes

May 12, 2012
Junior pitcher Andrew Waszak throws the ball Saturday afternoon at McLane Baseball Stadium at Old College Field when Michigan State faced Iowa. The Spartans lost to the Hawkeyes 2-1. Samantha Radecki/The State News
Junior pitcher Andrew Waszak throws the ball Saturday afternoon at McLane Baseball Stadium at Old College Field when Michigan State faced Iowa. The Spartans lost to the Hawkeyes 2-1. Samantha Radecki/The State News —
Photo by Samantha Radecki | and Samantha Radecki The State News

After senior pitcher Tony Bucciferro tossed a complete game shutout Friday against Iowa, head coach Jake Boss Jr. praised his team’s effort and ability to make plays en route to the victory.

Following Saturday’s matchup against the Hawkeyes, Boss’ tone was much different.

Despite another strong pitching performance — this time by junior pitcher Andrew Waszak — the Spartans (32-17 overall, 11-9 Big Ten) let a lead evaporate late in the game and fell 2-1 to the Hawkeyes (20-25, 8-12) Saturday at McLane Baseball Stadium at Old College Field.

But for Boss, the game came down to executing timely plays, which was not a strong suit for his team in the losing effort in the second of a three-game series with Iowa.

“If we want to win, we’re gonna have to make plays and we didn’t make any plays today,” Boss said. “It’s extremely disappointing. Our best guys are in positions to succeed or win the ballgame and our best guys didn’t come through for us, both offensively and defensively and on the mound, and it’s extremely disappointing.”

After a two hour and 26 minute rain delay that pushed the 1:05 p.m. start time back, the Spartans returned to action with Waszak on the hill, looking to ride the momentum of Bucciferro’s impressive start on Friday.

Unfortunately for Waszak — who earned a no decision after surrendering three hits and one earned run in 7.1 innings of work — MSU couldn’t get a timely hit and saw the game slip away by surrendering runs late to fall to the Hawkeyes.

Following a postgame team meeting with Boss to discuss the day’s shortcomings, Waszak said the Spartans need to prepare better mentally to rebound in the rubber match with Iowa at 1:05 p.m. on Sunday.

“We got a chance to do something special here, you know — make a postseason run and everything, make a run in the Big Ten Tournament even,” Waszak said. “(Boss) was trying to keep our heads up and keep us motivated to see that and play like we can today.”

With the game scoreless through five, the Spartans got on the board in the sixth inning following a one-out double by junior second baseman Ryan Jones. The next batter, senior shortstop Justin Scanlon, laced a single to right centerfield to score Jones, giving MSU the 1-0 lead.

After hitting right fielder Nick Day and allowing a sacrifice bunt to left fielder Kris Goodman, Waszak saw his day end after tossing 101 pitches and he was replaced by sophomore Jeff Kinley. Following a single by center fielder Eric Toole, second baseman Jake Mangler drilled a sacrifice fly to deep centerfield to score Day and knot the game at one apiece.

In the ninth with one out and a runner on second, Kinley was replaced by Wieber in an attempt to shut down the Hawkeyes and keep the game tied. Unusual of MSU’s all-time saves leader, Wieber walked a pair of batters and immediately was pulled in favor of senior Bryce Jenney.

“It’s not the weather, it’s just the fact that he couldn’t throw strikes,” Boss said of Wieber’s showing on Saturday. “The bottom line is he couldn’t throw strikes. We were in a situation where we need him to throw strikes and let our defense make a few plays and it didn’t happen. It’s disappointing.”

Jenney walked pinch hitter Anthony Torres, scoring first baseman Mike McQuillan — who singled to start the inning — to give the Hawkeyes a 2-1 lead, which was enough to down the Spartans.

“We had a couple situations where we could push (runs) across and we didn’t execute,” Jones said. “Coach was preaching that today — just execute and we’ll win the ballgame — but at the end of the day, we didn’t execute. They executed more times than us and they beat us, 2-1.”

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