The MSU baseball team continued to honor a season-long commitment made to itself of approaching midweek contests with the same intensity and focus of critical weekend games with Wednesday’s 7-2 victory against Toledo at McLane Baseball Stadium at Old College Field.
 
The win came on the heels of another midweek matchup with a Mid-American Conference foe the day before when the Spartans (31-16 overall, 10-8 Big Ten) defeated Western Michigan on the road, 15-7.
 
“We put a priority on that in the beginning of the year,“ head coach Jake Boss Jr. said. “The midweeks kind of hurt us last year, so I think our guys have come with a little bit of a better focus this year. I guess there’s more of a business-like approach to them, and we’ve played well to our guys credit.”
 
The Spartans held a 2-1 advantage in the bottom of the fifth inning when junior designated hitter Jared Hook advanced to third base on a single from junior third baseman Torsten Boss. The next batter, junior left fielder Jordan Keur, flied out into a double play, scoring Hook.
 
Freshman first baseman Ryan Krill then knocked a double to center field and scored two batters later by way of a single from freshman right fielder Jimmy Pickens to put MSU up 5-2.
 
After notching another run in the sixth inning, sophomore catcher Joel Fisher drove in two runs on a double down the left field line for the final margin, 7-2.
 
Toledo (24-24) managed 10 hits against MSU resulting in only two runs while stranding 13 base runners in the game.
 
“We took advantage of some opportunities, we probably left a few out there, but overall we got a couple big hits when we needed them out of Fisher and Pickens kind of got things going there,” Boss said.
 
Freshman pitcher Mick VanVossen got his third win of the season in 7.2 innings of work. VanVossen fought off fatigue near the end of the game in a performance in which he threw a career-high number of pitches at 109. The freshman struck out four and allowed nine hits in the contest.
 
“Going out for the eight inning — that was the goal,” VanVossen said. “I just wanted to finish the eighth and have (sophomore pitcher Jeff) Kinley come in and close it. iIwas pleased with the way I pitched today.”
 
After this weekend’s home series against Iowa (19-24, 7-11), the Spartans have one final midweek game against Central Michigan on May 15 at Comerica Park in Detroit.
 
“It’s tough during the week if you’ve been on the road for a weekend series to bring the same kind of energy you had,” said Fisher, who went 3-4 with 3 RBIs against the Rockets.
 
“We try to keep the dugout into the game (and) make sure everyone is cheering everybody on in the game, and we’ve done a good job of that this year.”