“We’re pretty disappointed,” sophomore second baseman Ryan Jones said.

“We would have liked to win the series, but we had opportunities to close out each game, but we didn’t take advantage.”

The Spartans (22-10 overall, 6-3 Big Ten) came into the weekend as the top pitching team in the Big Ten, but Ohio State — the No. 4 hitting team — had 42 hits over the weekend.

The Spartans had 17 hits in the first two games. They nearly matched that Sunday with 16 hits but left 12 runners on base and only scored five runs in a 10-5 loss.

“We had some baserunning mistakes, couldn’t come up with the big hit and left a lot of baserunners out there,” senior first baseman Jeff Holm said.

After the Spartans took a 5-4 lead in the top of the sixth, Ohio State (15-15, 5-4) chased freshman pitcher David Garner with a three-run seventh and closed out the series with a three-run eighth.

“They’re a good ball club and when you give them opportunities and don’t take advantage of your own opportunities, bad things are going to happen,” head coach Jake Boss Jr. said.

The series opener Friday was a low-scoring affair until sophomore outfielder Jordan Keur took control.

With the bases loaded and the scored tied at two in the top of the seventh, Keur hit a two-run single to give MSU a 4-2 lead. But the Buckeyes tied the game in the bottom of the eighth with a two-run home run.

The game went into extra innings, where Keur led off the top of the 10th with a solo home run. In the bottom of the inning, the Buckeyes put runners on the corners with no outs. Ohio State loaded the bases with one out before sophomore pitcher Tony Wieber struck out consecutive batters to win the game for the Spartans, 5-4.

The Spartans opened the second game with a bang as sophomore infielder Torsten Boss hit a first-inning grand slam to give MSU an early 4-0 lead. After scoring in the bottom of the first, Ohio State tied the game with a three-run second inning. After the Spartans scored three runs in the top of the fourth, the Buckeyes knocked out MSU junior pitcher Tony Bucciferro, who gave up four hits and a walk in the fourth inning as Ohio State scored four runs to take the lead.

Bucciferro had given up just one earned run in 17 2/3 innings of Big Ten play going into Saturday but gave up eight runs and 10 hits in 3 2/3 innings against the Buckeyes. Tied at eight, Ohio State scored in the bottom of the eighth and held on to win, 9-8.

Big innings were the story for Ohio State in the series. The Buckeyes had seven multiple-run innings, compared to four one-run innings.

The Spartans still are in first place in the Big Ten, but the weekend proved to be a missed opportunity.

“It’s a game of momentum and it shifted back and forth the last two days. … I was more disappointed in the things we control and we didn’t capitalize on,” Boss said.