“We’re not going to walk out of here in a bad mood,” MSU head coach Jake Boss Jr. said. “Obviously, the game didn’t go our way but at the same time, we’re carrying a trophy out of here and that’s (what) we worked so hard all year for. I’m proud of our guys.”

The Spartans jumped on Northwestern pitching early when senior first baseman Jeff Holm belted a triple to deep center field with two outs in bottom of the first inning. The next batter, sophomore third baseman Torsten Boss also connected on a triple to right field to score Holm and give MSU a 1-0 lead.

Northwestern answered back in the top of the second when shortstop Trevor Stevens tripled past the outstretched glove of sophomore left fielder Jordan Keur to score Trevor Miller, who reached on a walk. Stevens later would score on a throwing error to Spartan shortstop Justin Scanlon. The Wildcats would add another run in the inning to jump ahead 3-1.

The score was 4-1 in the bottom of the sixth when senior center fielder Brandon Eckerle would tally his only hit of the day, leading the inning off with a single. After a walk to sophomore second baseman Ryan Jones, Eckerle would come around to score on a single by Holm. The Spartans weren’t done after a walk to sophomore third baseman Torsten Boss, sophomore designated hitter Jared Hook would hit a single that scored Jones. MSU tallied four runs on the inning to pull ahead 5-4.

In the top of the seventh inning, Miller lead the inning off with a single for the Wildcats. Miller would score on a sacrifice bunt to knot the game at five. Northwestern scored again in the inning on a double to first baseman Jack Havey that brought in Chris Lashmet, who earlier reached on a single. Havey’s RBI double, one of three doubles on the day, proved to be the difference for Northwestern.

MSU would threaten in the eighth when Hook lead the inning off with a single. With two outs in the inning, Scanlon singled and rounded first base aggressively and quickly was thrown out, in a controversial call that roused Boss out of the dugout for a discussion with the umpire. The Spartans couldn’t rally in the ninth to push the tying run across and fell to the Wildcats.

“Obviously we’re upset — we would have liked to sweep,” Jones said. “We’re happy with the Big Ten championship obviously and that was our goal and we got at least a share so we’re happy.”

The game marked the end of the careers for the Spartan seniors. Before the game, Eckerle, Holm, pitcher Stephen Doty, pitcher Andrew Webb, catcher Seth Williams and pitcher Kurt Wunderlich were honored before a rousing home crowd of 2,411.

Although MSU wasn’t able to pull out the win, the players and coaches were jubilant as they celebrated the Big Ten championship after the game by taking pictures with the trophy and the Big Ten championships banner in left field with the freshly added white taped “‘11,” courtesy of Eckerle and Holm.

“Being a senior, last time at Kobs at home in front of all these fans, it would have been nice to win,” Holm said. “After the game, we’re wearing the shirts and we’re wearing the hats and we’ve got the trophy so it’s pretty special.”

Sharing the Title

With a loss by MSU and 7-5 victory for Illinois (25-25, 15-9) over Indiana on Saturday, the two teams will be co-Big Ten champions. Illinois owns the tie-breaker over MSU after defeating the Spartans two out of three games during the season in late April.

Illinois owns the top seed in the Big Ten Tournament, starting on Wednesday in Huntington Park in Columbus, Ohio. Purdue, Minnesota, Ohio State and Penn State also qualified for the tournament. The Spartans’ first game will be at 3:35 p.m. on Thursday against the winner of the Ohio State-Minnesota game.