Michigan State University
Iowa
Roberts Leads Spartans Past Iowa, 15-4
4/25/2009 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 25, 2009
IOWA CITY, Iowa - Chris Roberts tied an MSU individual single-game season high with six RBIs in a 5-for-6 performance to help the Spartan baseball team crush Iowa, 15-4, on Saturday (April 25) afternoon in Iowa City, Iowa. Michigan State is now 7-7 in conference play and 16-23 overall.
"Chris had a big day today," said MSU head coach Jake Boss Jr. "He's the best hitter on our ballclub and has kind of been in a funk lately, so it was good to see him break out of it today."
The Spartans have now scored a total of 30 runs in consecutive games against the Hawkeyes this season, which is the most they have put up in back-to-back games since scoring a total of 27 in two wins over Iowa in 2008.
The Spartans picked up where they left off on Friday, scoring twice in the first inning with back-to-back doubles from Roberts and Eric Roof.
In the second, the Spartans put up five hits, leading to four more runs that ended Iowa starter Phil Schreiber's day after just 1.1 innings. Bo Felt and Jeff Holm led off with singles and the Spartans then got their first run of the inning on a perfectly executed squeeze play from Brandon Eckerle that scored Felt from third. Eli Boike then drove in Holm with his second base hit of the day. After A.J. Shindler singled, Roberts drilled his second double, clearing the bases and putting MSU up 6-0.
The Hawkeyes erased half of the deficit in the bottom of the second with their own multi-run inning. Iowa scored three runs off an RBI double from T.J. Cataldo, a wild pitch and a sacrifice fly to make the score 6-3.
MSU put up a solo run in the third and capitalized on two Hawkeye errors in the fourth to tack on three more to push the lead to 10-3. Johnny Lee highlighted the inning with the Spartans' third, two-run double of the day. Lee later scored on an error by Iowa shortstop Chett Zeise.
After a half-hour rain delay, the Hawkeyes scored one and loaded the bases in the fifth, but Kurt Wunderlich entered in relief of A.J. Achter and got a double play to end the inning.
Bo Felt drove in his first run of the day in the sixth before Roberts helped MSU put up its fourth multi-run inning by scoring three more times in the seventh. Roberts' triple to the right field corner scored two runners to give him five RBIs on the day.
Roberts ended his career day in the ninth with one more RBI hit to make the final score 15-4.
Iowa loaded the bases three times in separate innings but Achter and Wunderlich combined to keep the Hawkeyes from producing the key run-scoring hits. Achter stranded three runners in the first and two in the second with inning-ending strikeouts. For the game, Iowa (14-23, 3-10) stranded a total of 15 runners.
"Our pitchers struggled a bit but they controlled the damage and allowed our offense to get back out and produce," Boss said.
Wunderlich threw four scoreless innings and earned the win to improve to improve to 5-4 on the year.
Game three of the series is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. on Sunday (April 26) at Duane Banks Field. The game will be aired live on the Big Ten Network.
