The Spartans lost the first of a three game series 6-4 against Indiana on Thursday in Bloomington, Ind., in what is a potential first round Big Ten Tournament matchup.
Indiana’s first baseman Jerrud Sabourin hit a two out, two-run walkoff home run in the bottom of the ninth inning for the win.
MSU is slated as the No. 5-seed and the Hoosiers as the No. 4-seed for tournament, which begins Wednesday in Columbus, Ohio. The tournament’s top two seeds receive first round byes.
The Spartans are now on a four-game losing streak and haven’t won since they beat Purdue 6-5 on May 9 to clinch the tournament bid.
It appeared the game was headed for extra innings, as senior right-handed reliever A.J. Dunn needed just three pitches to dispose of the first two batters in the ninth inning. Dunn followed those outs by issuing a walk, and then Sabourin smacked the first pitch he saw over the right field wall.
Senior right-handed pitcher Nolan Moody cruised through the first six innings of play, allowing one run while striking out three and walking four, but ran into trouble during the seventh inning.
The Hoosiers got two baserunners in scoring position with one out on Moody, which was followed by a sacrifice fly from first baseman Jerrud Sabourin to make it 4-2. Dunn then came in for Moody, who let up a two-run home run to catcher Josh Phegley — the first batter he faced — tying the game 4-4.
Senior third baseman A.J. Shindler got the scoring started in the third inning with a two-run home run to left field. The Spartans tacked on two more runs in the inning to jump out to an early 4-0 lead.
Indiana retaliated in the bottom half of the inning when third baseman Vince Gonzalez hit a solo home run to right field to make it 4-1 MSU.
_
Players and coaches were unavailable for comment at this time._