Michigan State University
Illinois
Baseball Falls In First Round of Big Ten Tournament
5/20/2009 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 20, 2009
Post Game Press Conference Audio
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COLUMBUS, Ohio - In their first appearance in the Big Ten Tournament since 2004, the Michigan State baseball team fell to fourth-seeded Illinois, 16-5, on Wednesday (May 20) afternoon at Huntington Park in Columbus, Ohio. The No. 5 Spartans will now look to stay alive in the double-elimination tourney by playing Purdue at 12:05 p.m. on Thursday (May 21).
Illinois scored five runs in the fourth, two more in the fifth and then took advantage of two Spartan errors in the sixth to score seven more times to put the game away.
"Illinois is an outstanding team that puts pressure on you offensively and pressures you to execute and obviously, we didn't handle that well today," said MSU head coach Jake Boss Jr. "We got some momentum early with a couple base runners and then Eric's (Roof) home run but we were unable to stop the bleeding there in the fourth and sixth innings."
After retiring the side the first, MSU starting pitcher Nolan Moody was tested for the first in the bottom of the second. An error followed by a base hit put runners on the corners for the Illini with one out, but Moody sent Matt Dittman down swinging and then ended the threat when Pete Capetta took strike three.
The momentum from Moody's consecutive K's carried over for the Spartans into the top of the third inning as Bo Felt led off with a single and Brandon Eckerle put down and well-placed bunt single that put MSU in business. After a sacrifice bunt, A.J. Shindler took a pitch off his back to load the bases and give the Spartans a golden opportunity. After a Chris Roberts pop out to second base, Eric Roof delivered a towering blast to right center field that cleared the 365-foot wall and bounced off the scoreboard to give MSU a 4-0 lead. The grand slam was Roof's second of the season and first in Huntington Park history.
A single and double to lead off the bottom of the fourth put the Illini in position to rally and a two-RBI double by Cappetta cut the lead to 4-2. With two outs in the frame, Illinois used three consecutive run-scoring singles to take the lead, 5-4.
With one out in the fifth, Illinois' Josh Parr doubled in run to make it 6-4 and ending Moody's day. The senior right hander finished the day with five strikeouts.
Two critical errors by the Spartans in the sixth blew the game open for Illinois as they scored seven runs, of which six were unearned, to take a 14-4 lead.
The Illini added two more in the seventh and MSU pushed across one more run in the eighth to make the final score 16-5.
"We're disappointed but the good thing is that this is over with and we have a chance to come back and compete tomorrow," said Boss.
MSU will take on the No. 6 seed Purdue Boilermakers on Thursday. The loser of that game will be eliminated from the tournament.
