Michigan State Head Baseball Coach Jake Boss Jr. logged his 400th career win at Michigan State after a 7-1 victory over Ohio State Friday night.

After spring storms led to flooding on Michigan State’s campus, the Spartans had to travel just a few miles down Michigan Ave. to Jackson Field—home of the Lansing Lugnuts.

The Spartans started the night with freshman pitcher Joseph Dzierwa on the mound and it was a solid first inning for the green and white.

After a pitch from Ohio State junior pitcher Isaiah Coupet was lost by graduate student catcher Cole Andrews at the bottom of the first, junior infielders Trent Farquhar and Brock Vradenburg made it around the bases to notch two runs for MSU right off the bat.

The second inning held much of the same for both teams. The Buckeyes saw no hits at the top of the second and sent Coupet back to the mound for the bottom.

After Andrews lost the ball for a second time to allow for another run from the Spartans, the Buckeyes sent the Coupet to the dugout and placed sophomore pitcher George Eisenhardt to the mound.

With Eisenhardt on the mound, three Spartans were walked which led to another run from Farquhar and a pitching change to sophomore Jake Johnson.

Innings three and four were fairly quick and quiet innings from both teams, but the bottom of the fifth saw yet another pitching change for the Buckeyes. Freshman Cole Pauley became the fourth Ohio State pitcher to take to the mound Friday night.

At the bottom of the fifth, redshirt sophomore infielder Sam Busch was walked to allow a run for junior outfielder Jack Frank.

After five full innings, Ohio State logged its first run of the evening after a huge hit from freshman catcher Matthew Graveline sent redshirt junior Caden Kaiser to home plate.

Mid-sixth inning, Ohio State sent graduate student pitcher Will Pfenning to the mound to replace Pauley, and before the seventh, Michigan State made their first pitching change of the evening swapping out Dzierwa for senior Andrew Carson.

In his first inning on the mound Friday night, Carson struck out both sophomore Trey Lispsey and freshman Henry Kaczmar for a quick top of the seventh inning.

Senior outfielder Casey Mayes made it to first base after he was hit by a pitch in the bottom of the eighth, but while he was trying to steal second, a throwing error allowed him to take third and then eventually a run off a balk.

Michigan State logged a second run in the eighth inning after Farquhar tried to steal second base, triggering a back-and-forth chase between first and second base giving Busch just enough time to steal home plate and seal a run while the Buckeyes were distracted.

Boss said that separating one day from the next is a huge part of his job and that’s why he will be looking for win 401 tomorrow.

“We've had a lot of good players here. We've been here for a while and you know, had a lot of good coaches,” Boss said. “This was a dream job for me a long time ago, so, I think they all mean something, 400 is—that's fantastic—and (we’re) looking for 401 tomorrow.” 

The Spartans will be looking for two more wins against the Buckeyes Saturday during their doubleheader at Jackson Field. The first game is set to start at 1:05 and the second is slated for 4:35.