The win was the second consecutive comeback victory for MSU, which fell behind by multiple runs three times Friday and once again in Saturday’s game.

“We were down (Friday), obviously, and had a great comeback win, and then (Saturday), same thing,” MSU head coach Jake Boss Jr. said. “We were able to grind it out, take the lead and then put up a big number in the end to kind of seal it so it’s a good day.”

Indiana outfielder Alex Dickerson opened the scoring for the Hoosiers (24-24 overall, 9-11 Big Ten) when he hit a solo home run to left-center field in the third at-bat of the game.

The Spartans (32-16, 10-10) were aggressive early, with the first four batters swinging at the first pitch they saw, but they failed to get anything going until Jones hit his first-career home run in the bottom of the third.

In the next half-inning, Indiana sent two runners across the plate to take back the lead, 3-1.

However, with two outs in the fifth inning, Jones got his second RBI of the day on a single to center field that scored sophomore catcher Andy Johnson to cut Indiana’s lead to one.

On the first pitch of the bottom of the sixth inning, junior first baseman Jeff Holm hit a double to deep left-center field. Senior designated hitter Chris Roberts, who won Friday’s game for MSU with a walk-off single, hit a ground-rule double to right, scoring Holm and tying the game at three. Two consecutive bunts by Spartan batters advanced Roberts to third and eventually across the plate to give the home team a 4-3 lead.

Jones continued his strong performance with a lead-off triple in the seventh. Two batters later, junior shortstop Jonathon Roof hit a double down the third base line, scoring Jones and extending MSU’s lead to two.

After Indiana scored one run in the top of the eighth on an error by Holm, Jones hit the double that gave him the cycle in the bottom half of the inning.

“I knew I needed a double, obviously,” Jones said smiling. “I just got the right pitch and drove it down the line.”

Jones, who went five-for-five with two RBIs and what he said was the first cycle of his life, is the first Spartan with a cycle this season.

“I was surprised,” Jones said. “I didn’t ever think any day in my college career I’d get the cycle — I don’t think anybody does — but it happened today.”

MSU went on to score five insurance runs in the eighth to put the game out of reach.

While Jones and the Spartan hitters were shredding the Hoosiers’ pitching, the MSU bullpen proved dominant, giving up just one unearned run in four and one-third innings of work.

“You just got to come in and you got to throw strikes, there’s no time to waste,” said sophomore reliever Trey Popp, who recorded the win for MSU. “You have a little bit more room to play with if you’re a starter, but if you’re out of the bullpen you don’t have much room to play.”

Popp followed his own advice, retiring seven of the 12 batters he faced while fighting through three errors by the defense behind him.

The win moves the Spartans ahead of Indiana in the Big Ten standings and guarantees a series win, giving them the tiebreaker in the event the two teams have the same conference record at the end of the season.

“That’s extremely important,” Boss said of winning the series. “We’re just trying to win as many as we can, honestly. It’s still anybody’s conference right now.”

MSU welcomes the Hoosiers again at 1:05 p.m. on Sunday for the third and final game of the series.