Coming into the weekend, the MSU baseball team held a commanding three-game lead in the Big Ten standings and was edging ever closer to their first Big Ten championship since 1979.
After being swept in three games by Indiana (30-21 overall, 11-10 Big Ten), the Spartans’ (31-18, 13-8) lead has been slimmed to one after two weekend losses by Minnesota to Penn State. The Spartans and the Golden Gophers (20-20, 12-9) each have three conference games left to play to determine the top spot in the Big Ten.
“We didn’t play well at all,” MSU head coach Jake Boss Jr. said. “They played better in every facet of the game than we did. … We had some opportunities, and we gave some opportunities away offensively and defensively — it’s very disappointing.”
On Friday, the Spartans fell 8-6 after Indiana scored six runs in the bottom of the third. MSU gave senior pitcher Kurt Wunderlich a 2-0 lead in the top of the second, but the Hoosiers’ bats stormed back and dropped his record on the season to 8-2.
The game marked the first loss for MSU in the opening game in conference play.
After the game was suspended in the 12th inning on Saturday due to darkness, it took an additional three innings to sink the Spartans on Sunday.
MSU held an 8-2 lead after five-and-a-half innings, but the Hoosiers again chipped at the lead and took control of the game 11-8 in the ninth inning. Sophomore third baseman Torsten Boss rallied the Spartans by delivering a clutch single, scoring senior outfielder Brandon Eckerle to tie the game and force extra innings.
When action resumed on Sunday, the score was knotted at 12 until Indiana second baseman Micah Johnson drove in a run in the bottom of the 15th inning to down the Spartans.
“It was one of the craziest games I have been a part of,” Eckerle said. “We scored a run, and they come back and matched us. It just kept going on and on, and it was getting hard to see. … Anytime you lose, it’s pretty bad. But if you lose two in one day, it’s more frustrating.”
The Spartans failed to avoid the sweep after a 7-4 loss during their regularly scheduled Sunday game.
MSU jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the second inning after sophomore designated hitter Jared Hook led the inning off with a walk. After freshman catcher Joel Fisher doubled to left field, Hook came around to score on a wild pitch. Fisher also scored on a single from junior shortstop Justin Scanlon to give MSU the early lead.
The Hoosiers battled back and tacked on four runs in the bottom half of the second inning and never looked back.
Play was suspended for 92 minutes in the fifth inning due to heavy rain.
Sophomore pitcher Andrew Waszak took the loss for the Spartans after allowing nine hits, five earned runs and walking three batters in four innings.
“It was definitely tough because we had opportunities in each game to take the lead and hold on to it, and we didn’t finish,” senior first baseman Jeff Holm said.
One bright spot of the weekend was Eckerle, who added seven hits on the weekend to increase his season total to 87. With his single in the top of the third inning during the game on Sunday, Eckerle passed Bob Malek’s career hits record — 245 hits from 2000-02 — and now holds the record with 249.
“The number one goal is to win a championship,” Eckerle said. “Individual awards are great, but it would have been good to get a win this weekend. The team has a lot of work to go and finish off the season strong.”
The Spartans travel to South Bend, Ind., to take on Notre Dame (21-24-1) at 5:35 p.m. on Tuesday at Frank Eck Baseball Stadium.
The team returns to East Lansing for its last home stand of the season on Thursday to open a weekend series with Northwestern.
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