Since March 25 MSU baseball has gone 11-5, and they now sit at 22-16 with a 7-5 record in the Big Ten after starting the season below .500.
A key factor in the team’s recent stretch of success has been the play of senior first baseman Ryan Krill. A little less than a month ago, the team was 11-11 and Krill was batting just .213 with eight RBI and one home run.
Since then Krill has brought up his average up to .312 as of April 18 and he’s hit another 26 RBI and four home runs to bring his totals to 34 and five respectively.
“He’s a big, strong guy who is able to hit for some power,” head coach Jake Boss Jr. said. “That’s what we need, especially at the top of the order. We put him in the two hole, and it gives us a physical presence up there.”
Boss said it has been a combination of pitch selection and hard work that has helped Krill raise his average nearly 100 points from a month ago, putting it above .300.
“He’s always had a really good eye at the plate,” Boss said. “I think he really needed to understand what pitches he could hit hard and what pitches he needed to back away from.”
For MSU, the offense they have been able to generate at the top of lineup has trickled down to the rest of the lineup, and Boss said he isn’t going to do anything soon to mess with the chemistry the current lineup has.
“(I) just leave him alone and stay out of the way and say, ‘Go get them big fella,’” Boss said. “Hitting is a mental thing, it’s contagious. It’s every cliche that you can think of. When guys are (hitting) good you just let them go.
“When you get things rolling a little bit, it can do a lot of things.”
For Boss, seniors like Krill have been helpful in trying to provide leadership for the team.
“He’s one of our leaders,” he said. “We need our seniors to be our guys, and Ryan has been our first baseman for the last four years. We needed him to get going.”
MSU baseball takes on Toledo Tuesday at 3:05 p.m. at home, where MSU will try to continue their hot streak following a sweep of Rutgers this past weekend.
