For freshman first baseman Ryan Krill, the Spartans’ ability to win games hinges on responding to criticism and bouncing back with an impassioned effort this weekend.

“We played a pretty good game on Sunday against Michigan, and we just gotta come out with the same intensity we did in that game,” Krill said. “It’s hard to do that after a loss (against EMU), but we gotta find that within ourselves, and that’s the definition of a tough team.”

Before the series with U-M, the Spartans seized momentum on a stretch where they won 14 of 16 games, including wins against Ohio State, Baylor and Cincinnati. Since then, MSU dropped three of its last five games and struggled to generate runs on offense.

In the past five games, the Spartans have left 45 runners on base — of which 34 came in the Michigan series — and have not taken to an aggressive approach at the plate the way head coach Jake Boss Jr. and staff would like.

Still, Boss gives the benefit of the doubt to his team to respond with the Indiana series coming early in the Big Ten season.

“It is a big series — they’re all big series right now,” Boss said. “It’s still early; we’re two weeks in. If you want a chance to win (the Big Ten championship), you have to get close to 16, 17 (conference) wins. We’re two series in, and we’ve got a long way to go. … Guys know what has to be done. They know what they have to do.”

Many of the experienced players, including junior left fielder Jordan Keur, have an extra incentive this weekend against the Hoosiers.

The last time many of the Spartans faced Indiana, the team took a three-game lead in the Big Ten standings into Bloomington in the heat of the race for the Big Ten championship in 2011. The Spartans dropped all three games in the series, due in part to the Hoosiers playing “better in every facet of the game” than MSU was able to, Boss said at the time.

However, the Spartans rebounded from the sweep to win three of their next four games to capture the program’s first Big Ten championship since 1979 and propel into the Big Ten Tournament.

This time around, the Spartans sit in a tie for fifth in the conference standings after two series and have an opportunity to make a leap forward early in the Big Ten season. And for Keur, getting a little revenge against the Hoosiers would be icing on the cake.

“It’s gonna be a big series,” Keur said. “Older guys, we’ve got some revenge coming to get those guys back. That was a tough series last year, especially playing last year. We gotta go out there, and we gotta play.”