The game was scoreless until Minnesota jumped on sophomore pitcher Andrew Waszak in the top of the fourth inning. Minnesota left fielder Justin Gominsky and first baseman Nick O’Shea led the inning off with a double and a walk, respectively. Gominsky and O’Shea would come around to score on single to center fielder Troy Larson to give Minnesota the lead. They would tack on another in the inning to go ahead 3-0.

The Spartans answered back in the bottom half of the inning starting off with a single from sophomore Ryan Jones, who had two hits on the day. After Jones moved to second on a wild pitch, he would score on a single to sophomore designated hitter Jared Hook to get MSU on the board, trailing 3-1.

The bottom of the sixth was where the Spartans really did some damage against Minnesota’s pitching staff. Senior first baseman Jeff Holm led the inning off with a walk and would move to third on a single from sophomore third baseman Torsten Boss, one of three hits on the day for Boss.

A sacrifice fly from shortstop Justin Scanlon would score Holm and move Boss to third. The next batter, Tony Wieber reached base on a bunt single, scoring Boss and knotting the game at three. MSU would tack on another two runs in the inning to go ahead of the Golden Gophers 5-3.

Another run in the bottom of the sixth put MSU ahead by three and was enough to carry the team through for the rest of the game.

The Spartans will get a short rest before they take on No. 1 seeded Illinois at Huntington Park in Columbus, Ohio tonight. If MSU beats the Fightin Illini, they will meet them in a winner-takes-all match-up on Sunday at 12:05 p.m. A loss tonight sends the Spartans home and concedes the championship to their co-Big Ten championship foe Illinois.