Spartans Knocked From Big Ten Tournament

May 21, 2009

Jake

COLUMBUS, Ohio - The Michigan State baseball team fell, 12-9, to Purdue in an elimination game of the Big Ten Tournament on Wednesday (May 21), ending the Spartans' season at 23-31. The Spartans fought back from deficits all day and cut a five-run Purdue lead to three runs in the ninth but couldn't pull any closer.

"I was proud of our guys for the way they came back today," MSU head coach Jake Boss Jr. said. "They gave us a chance to win in the ninth."

MSU didn't have an answer for the Purdue offense all day as the Boilermakers scored at least one run in eight innings.

"We couldn't really stop the bleeding early in the ballgame," said Boss. "They kept chipping away and before you knew it they had 12 runs on the board and that made it difficult on us to try and gain momentum."

With the score 2-0 Boilermakers in the bottom of the second inning, the Spartans went to work at the plate - scoring twice to tie the game. Jeff Holm got things going with a one-out double to deep center field and Jonathan Roof followed with a base hit up the middle to bring in Holm for the first Spartan run of the afternoon. With two outs, a single by Brandon Eckerle kept the inning alive for Eli Boike who then drove in Roof with a single to tie the game.

After a leadoff walk to Purdue's John Cummins in the third, Achter narrowly missed a called strike three to the Boilermakers' Dan Black, but Black would then homered on the next pitch to reclaim the lead for Purdue, 4-2.

The Boilermakers scored an unearned run in the fourth and then put up two more in the fifth off MSU reliever A.J. Dunn to extend the lead to 7-2.

Back-to-back home runs got MSU back into the game in the fifth frame as Eli Boike took Purdue starter Matt Jansen deep to right field followed by A.J. Shindler who hit his second home run of the season to left field.

The Spartans couldn't slow down the Purdue offense as they made it six consecutive innings with a run scored as they put up one more in the sixth to make it an 8-4 game. The Boilermakers had a chance to add another run when with one out, a fly ball to right field was deep enough to score Drew Madia who was on third, but he left early and was tagged out by Eric Roof on an appeal to end the inning.

The resilient Spartans used the long ball to respond again, this time it was Seth Williams with a monster home run to deep right center field. After a leadoff single by Jonathan Roof, Williams sent Drew Wurdack's offering over the fence and into the street, making the score 8-6 in the bottom of the sixth.

MSU finally kept Purdue off the board in the seventh but with it still a two-run game in the top of the ninth, the Boilermakers used consecutive doubles to extend its lead to 12-7.

Jeff Holm led the final Spartan rally in the bottom of the frame with a two-run triple. But after coming back from deficits all day, MSU finally ran out of steam and Purdue hung on for 12-9 win.

"I'm proud of our kids, they accomplished a lot in a season that had a lot of ups and downs and I'm proud of them for getting to the tournament because it's a place Michigan State hasn't been in a long time," said Boss.

The Spartans' appearance in this year's Big Ten Tournament was their first since 2004.