"What I do personally is I spray the ball around the field. I find holes anywhere in the infield, and that's just kind of what I did today, and it worked," McKay said. "I’ll be trying to keep going off that heading into this weekend."

MSU spread the ball across the field throughout the game, but lingering pitching struggles and uncharacteristic defensive errors allowed Oakland to stay within striking distance. The Spartans committed five errors, including two from catcher Caleb Berry, whose errant throws on stolen base attempts sailed into center field.

Head coach Jake Boss, despite the errors, isn’t worried about what his team can do on the field. 

"We just got to execute, we had some strange errors tonight," Boss said. "It's hard to win a game when you make five errors, but we were able to do it and make some big pitches when we needed to."

MSU’s offense started strong, plating three runs in the first inning. JT Sokolove and Ryan McKay opened with singles up the middle, followed by a Sam Busch sacrifice fly to drive in the first run. Later in the inning, designated hitter Will Shannon launched his first home run as a Spartan, a solo shot over the left-field wall.

"He's got all kinds of power. When he gets the ball in the air, good things happen," Boss said.

MSU extended its lead in the third, adding two more runs. With a 3-0 count, Berry drilled a double to left-center, driving in one. Later in the inning, he came around to score on an RBI groundout, pushing the Spartans’ lead to 5-0.

MSU utilized a bullpen-heavy approach, deploying five different pitchers. Sophomore Tate Farquhar got the start, tossing two innings and earning the win. The Highland native is now 2-0 with a 7.24 ERA over 13 2/3 innings this season.

Sophomore left-hander Gannon Grundman took over in the third, providing steady relief while keeping MSU’s lead intact. He worked two innings efficiently, throwing just 17 pitches while striking out one and allowing no earned runs.

Oakland made a late push, scoring twice in both the sixth and eighth innings. Freshman Aidan Donovan took the mound in the fifth and looked sharp early, but the Golden Grizzlies strung together four straight hits — including back-to-back doubles and two singles — in the sixth, ending his outing.

6-foot-3 LHP Garret Brewer tried to clean up the mess with one out and two runners on. Brewer forced a flyout and swinging strikeout to bring the Spartan bats back to the plate. 

Oakland kept battling back in the eighth, this time with Dominic Pianto pitching. Oakland’s Boston Halloran slapped an RBI single to right-center adding one more run to the board for Oakland. Later in the inning, John Lauinger chopped one to the mound. What should have been a routine play resulted in an error with Pianto's throw getting by Sam Busch at first making the score 7-5.

In the bottom half of the inning, McKay reached base again and swiped second. Caleb Berry followed with a single to move him to third. Then, with Busch at the plate, Oakland pitcher Calan Kujawa uncorked a wild pitch, allowing McKay to score and giving the Spartans a crucial insurance run.

"Ryan's a really good player. I'm glad he's on our team," Boss said. "He kind of did it all for us. He played really good defense, he swung the bat well and he ran the bases well."

MSU continues its Big Ten slate this weekend with a three-game series at Penn State, beginning Friday. The Nittany Lions are 14-4 with a 4-2 Big Ten mark. Most recently, Penn State took two of three against Northwestern and picked up a win on Tuesday against St. Bonaventure.