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Baseball's hitting leads path to victory against Western Michigan

April 19, 2018
Freshman infielder and outfielder Zach Iverson (32) moves for home base at McLane Baseball Stadium on April 13, 2018. The Spartans fell to the Crusaders, 7-6. (Annie Barker | State News)
Freshman infielder and outfielder Zach Iverson (32) moves for home base at McLane Baseball Stadium on April 13, 2018. The Spartans fell to the Crusaders, 7-6. (Annie Barker | State News) —
Photo by Annie Barker | The State News

In what seemed like a game that took forever to end, baseball battled it out to defeat Western Michigan University, 10-7. The Spartans improve to 11-21 on the regular season.

The Wednesday night matchup finished just under four hours with a total of 26 base hits, 14 Spartans left on base and 13 total pitching changes.

It was another back-and-fourth type of game for the Spartans after tying with the Broncos at one a piece before heading to the the third to take a 5-1 lead.

Nine different Spartans took the plate in the third inning alone which lead to Western Michigan's pitcher Andrew Reisinger being pulled after 1 and 2/3 innings pitched. 

The Broncos threw a total of 216 pitches opposed to the Spartans 153 pitches.

It would be the same for the Spartans as the Broncos came back to tie the game at five a piece. This would lead to freshman starting pitcher Jesse Heikkinen being pulled after two innings. Heikkinen let up five runs on four hits.

The Spartans quickly pulled away midway through the game after a disastrous third inning. 

Sophomore infielder Justin Antoncic singled to right field that would bring home sophomore outfielder's Bryce Kelley and Danny Gleaves to take the a 7-5 lead at the top of the fifth.

In the sixth, junior infielder Marty Bechina would double to left to bring home freshman catcher Adam Proctor and freshman infielder Ryan King to take a 9-5 lead.

However, the Broncos would not go away easily as infielder Jimmy Roche doubled to left to cut the deficit to two. 

Roskelly would seal the deal in the top of the ninth with a single to left that would bring home Kelley to take a 10-7 lead. 

Roskelly led the way for the Spartans hitting twice and scoring two runs. Bechina had three hits to go along with a run and two RBIs. Kelley finished with three hits as well to go along with two runs.

Redshirt sophomore Caleb Sleeman took home his first win, while redshirt senior Jake Lowery took home his second save on the season.

The Spartans will now travel to Northwestern for a three-game weekend trip starting Friday with first pitch set at 4:30 p.m.

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