Lansing - The Spartans had plenty of opportunities to score runs Wednesday night, but squandered a majority of their opportunities.
The end result was a disheartening 4-3 loss to Central Michigan at Oldsmobile Park.
MSU (12-25 overall, 4-10 Big Ten) left eight runners on base, a considerably high amount considering they only recorded eight hits and were walked just one time. Two other batters reached on hit-by-pitches.
"You can take this game as a case for our entire season," senior catcher Brady Burrill said. "We just didn't get the key hits when we needed to.
"We hit the ball hard and had some great at-bats with two outs, but we couldn't get over the hump."
The biggest argument for Burrill's case came in the bottom of the ninth inning. With MSU trailing 4-3, freshman shortstop Alan Cattrysse led off by ripping a single up the middle. Junior third baseman James Moreno's sacrifice bunt advanced him Cattrysse to second.
With senior second baseman Charlie Braun up, Cattrysse advanced to third on a wild pitch. But, Braun's fly out to left field ended the game and stranded Cattrysse.
"It's been the case all year long," MSU manager Ted Mahan said of his team's inability to get a clutch hit. "We had a guy on second with two seniors up, and we couldn't score.
"The two seniors haven't gotten it done all year. You're not going to win if your seniors don't do anything."
Braun had a tremendous fight at the plate before the lazy fly out to left. With the count sitting at two balls and two strikes, Braun fouled off three consecutive pitches, with one falling just foul down the right-field line.
"I kept fouling off pitches until I got the one I wanted," Braun said. "It was a great pitch to hit but I just got under it."
Central (16-17) opened the game's scoring with two runs in the second inning. Burrill tried to catch a runner wandering off of third base, but his errant throw ended up in left field. The next batter hit a slow chopper to third, but it skipped between Moreno's legs.
The Chippewas added another run in the top of the fifth to take a 3-0 advantage. Despite the third run being the only one credited to MSU starting pitcher Chris Toepper (0-3), Mahan pulled the right-hander.
Toepper tossed 4 2/3 innings, allowing only three hits. His key problem was control - five walks, two of which eventually scored.
The Spartans finally answered back in the sixth when Burrill laced a single, scoring sophomore right fielder Travis Gulick who tripled earlier in the inning.
Central added their fourth run in the seventh on a long double off left-handed reliever Ryan Kurtz.
The Spartans threatened to counter, but their offensive fell short.
Cattrysse led off the inning with a single just inside the third-base line. With two outs, Braun was skimmed by a pitch to put runners at first and second.
Gulick hit a chopper that was booted by the third baseman in the next at-bat, scoring Cattrysse and a wild pitch scored Braun. Burrill, who hadn't found his stroke in the previous inning, grounding out to short.
Right-hander Ryan Cremeans (2-3) picked up the win for Central, going 6 2/3 inning and allowing one earned run. Chippewa left-hander David LeMieux pitched a solid ninth for his seventh save of the season.
The Spartans return to action Friday, when Iowa comes to Kobs Field for a 3 p.m. contest.
