EAST LANSING, Mich. — Michigan State baseball rallied from an early 2-0 deficit to beat Western Michigan, 3-2, Wednesday in the Spartans’ 2019 home opener at McLane Stadium at Kobs Field.
MSU scored on a suicide squeeze sacrifice bunt and a pair of sacrifice flies, and got solid bullpen pitching, ringing up seven strikeouts over 7.2 IP. Senior left-hander reliever Evan Flohr earned his first career win as a Spartan, while fellow reliever, right-handed junior Indigo Diaz collected his first career save.
“Yes hopefully, it certainly can’t hurt; it had been awhile since we won, so we’ve been through some tough times without playing well and getting a couple guys injured,” MSU head coach Jake Boss Jr. said about how Wednesday’s win can give the Spartans momentum going into a Big Ten Conference series with in-state foe Michigan this weekend. “A lot of different things have gone on, but it’s good to be home I think first of all, to play at our place, in front of our fans where we’re comfortable. We didn’t play great today, but we still were able to get it done at the end of the day, so yes something positive that will carry us into the conference weekend.”
Michigan State improves to 10-1 in the first game of the year played at McLane Stadium at Kobs Field under Coach Boss with the win. MSU has also won 11 of the last 13 meetings with WMU. The Spartans are also 14-5 vs. the Broncos under Boss. Additionally, Michigan State improves to 11-4 in match-ups between Boss and former Spartan assistant and current Broncos head coach Billy Gernon.
Wednesday was the 178th all-time meeting between Michigan State and Western Michigan, as the victory for MSU trimmed WMU’s gap in the all-time series to 94-84. It was also the first of two battles between the Spartans and the Broncos in a span of a week, as they’ll match up against each other next Tuesday, April 2 at Comerica Park, home of the Detroit Tigers.
Along with the home opener, Wednesday was the first time that the newly installed lights were used at McLane Stadium at Kobs Field, being turned on in the fifth inning as the sun was setting and dusk was nearing.
“It’s great to have the opportunity to play at night and while we didn’t know that they really impacted the game right now but it’s good to have them for sure, it’s good to have that option if we had to go into extra innings, we don’t have to be in a race against the sunshine,” Boss said. “I’m just very pleased and thankful to our athletic department for showing that we’re continuing to move forward with our program and moving in the right direction.”
Extra innings were avoided thanks in part to MSU’s eighth-inning rally, as the Spartans plated a run without a hit. Senior designated hitter Marty Bechina’s sacrifice fly in the eighth inning plated junior outfielder/infielder Justin Antoncic who led off with a walk, the first of three free passes in the inning issued by the Broncos.
Diaz then came on in the ninth and worked out of a first-and-third with one out jam, getting a blooper popup out to senior infielder Royce Ando before a fielder’s choice to Ando, who flipped to junior infielder Bailey Peterson at second for the final out, sparking the victory celebration.
The victory was secured by the Spartan bullpen, as freshman Colten Panaranto, junior Caleb Sleeman, Flohr and Diaz collectively kept the Broncos at bay. Sleeman registered four strikeouts, while Panaranto posted a pair of punchouts and Florh rang up one K, while limiting the hot WMU bats to just six hits in the final eight innings, as the Broncos entered Wednesday’s game ranking 24th in the NCAA with a .298 team batting average
WMU got on the board first, with a second-inning rally that chased sophomore starting pitcher Jesse Heikkinen, and the Broncos plated two runs off three hits, taking advantage of one MSU error, for an early 2-0 lead.
The Spartans cut the gap in half with a run in the home half of the second stanza, as Peterson sparked the rally with a walk. He moved to second on a single by Bechina, then stole second. Redshirt-freshman infielder Brendan Regan followed with a squeeze sac bunt and Peterson scampered home with first Spartan run scored at McLane Stadium this season.
MSU leveled the score at 2-all in the bottom of the sixth, after Ando ignited the rally by getting hit by a pitch. Ando moved up to third on a failed pickoff attempt, and freshman outfielder Zaid Walker followed with an RBI sac fly to center.
Ando and Peterson both ended the game 1-for-2, while Bechina was 1-for-3, junior outfielder Bryce Kelley was 1-for-4 and sophomore Joe Stewart laced a pinch hit double in the seventh, to round out MSU’s five hits.
The Spartans will then take on another in-state foe in Michigan, hosting the Wolverines on Friday and Sunday around Saturday’s game at Ann Arbor. Friday’s game will now have a 1 p.m. first pitch, after a time change update announced earlier Wednesday. Saturday’s game in Ann Arbor will start at 2 p.m. before Sunday’s series finale at 4 p.m. Friday and Sunday’s games will also be nationally televised on the Big Ten Network.
MSU is 10-1 in the first game of the year played at McLane Stadium at Kobs Field under Coach Boss with the win.
Fans can also follow this week’s Spartan baseball action through “Live Stats,” “Listen Live” and “Watch Live” links found at MSUSpartans.com. The games will be video streamed on BTN2Go, and will also be carried on the Spartan Sports Network live audio stream. The broadcast will be available exclusively at SpartanSportsNetwork.com and on the network’s 24/7 app for mobile devices (available on iTunes and Google Play). Broadcast veteran Scott Moore calls the action alongside former MSU manager/bullpen catcher David Greenberg in select games.
Any schedule updates will be announced on www.MSUSpartans.com and on twitter @statebaseball.
