It was a rough start to the game for senior pitcher JD Greeley and the Spartan defense. Despite throwing two strikeouts, a single in the first at-bat led to a wild pitch on the runner's attempted steal, advancing him to third. Greeley followed that up by hitting the next batter with a pitch as Brayden Jeffries was set up for success and hit an RBI single to give the Wolverines the lead in the opening inning.

Despite a successful second inning, going three for three on getting batters out, Greeley’s day was over after just two innings, and he was replaced by junior Logan Pikur. Pikur had some struggles taking over, allowing back-to-back singles. Noah Miller would get an RBI on a ground out, doubling the Michigan lead.

After not getting a runner on base through two innings, the Spartan offense came alive in the bottom of the third, propelled by the bottom of the batting order. Three was the magic number as the Spartans took the lead in a three-run third inning.

Sophomore center fielder Khamaree Thomas was making plays on both sides of the ball, with an incredible diving catch in center field early in the game and a crushed leadoff home run to deep right field over the raised fence for his first homer of the season in his first at-bat of the day. 

Junior right fielder Parker Picot stepped up next, drilling a ball to deep left field, which would get stuck in the wall, giving him a double. Freshman third baseman CJ Decking finished off the batting order with an RBI double that couldn’t be tracked by the Michigan center fielder as Picot advanced home. Sophomore designated hitter Isaac Sturgess capped off the inning with an RBI on a groundout double play with the bases loaded.

The game slowed down for multiple innings, but the Spartans' offense woke up again in the bottom of the sixth as Sturgess got his first base hit of the game with a single to left field. Senior left fielder Nick Williams dropped a hit into center field for a single, advancing Sturgess to third.

The batting success forced Michigan into changing to their third pitcher of the game. On his first pitch, it went wild, and Sturgess ran home from third, adding another run to double the MSU lead. After throwing two more balls and hitting the batter, they pulled the pitcher after one at-bat.

The next pitcher didn’t find much success either, loading the bases for Deckinga, who went down in the count with two strikes early. The third pitch came, and Deckinga got all of it, a line drive deep to left-center field into the trees for his second grand slam of the year, as the freshman continues to impress in his debut season.

“That felt really good. I was struggling early in the series and just got some handle there, didn’t miss it,” Deckinga said. “It definitely felt really good for me to build my confidence back up, and I didn’t miss it, especially against them. It was a really great feeling.”

In the seventh, Michigan made yet another pitching change, which started with a single to center field from sophomore shortstop Dayton Murphy. Then senior first baseman Ryan Seymour continued to attack the new pitcher and hammered a two-run homer to center field for his team-leading 12th of the season and the third of the day for MSU.

“It’s great. It’s fun, finally getting things to click,” Seymour said. “It’s finally starting to click with me and the whole team, it’s really coming along, and it’s exciting to watch.”

Michigan found some offensive success in the late innings with a pair of runs scored in the eighth inning and added one more in the final inning of play, but it wasn't enough to erase the big eight-run deficit.

The Spartans will hope to use this game as a momentum boost for the rest of the season as they gear up for a long week starting at home against Oakland on Tuesday, followed by a game against Western Michigan on Wednesday. They finish off the week in Washington for a three-game Big Ten series.