Michigan State University
Purdue
Baseball's Comeback Effort Falls Short
5/9/2010 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 9, 2010
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Michigan State fought back from a five-run deficit to tie the game at five in the eighth inning on Sunday against Purdue, but the Boilermakers got a two-out RBI single from Jonathan Lilly in the bottom of the eighth and held on to win, 6-5. The loss dropped MSU to 28-16 overall and 7-10 in the Big Ten. Purdue improved to 28-17 and 10-7 in the conference.
Two unearned runs in the bottom of the first inning and a three-run home run by Drew Madia in the third inning gave Purdue a quick 5-0 lead. MSU's bats had trouble getting going as it sent just 15 batters to the plate through four innings and put up only two hits. A leadoff single by Chris Roberts followed by a double down the line by Andy Johnson got MSU going though in the top of the fifth. With two on and no out, Bo Felt put MSU on the board with a sacrifice fly that scored Roberts.
The Spartans got another run in the top of the sixth when Roberts' RBI double scored Ryan Jones to make the score 5-2.
After slowing cutting into the Purdue lead, Michigan State's comeback effort hit full stride in the top of the eighth inning when they scored three runs to tie the game at five.
With two on and one out, Jones capitalized for MSU with a double to left field. The Spartans' third double of the day scored Jonathan Roof and Torsten Boss, cutting the deficit to just one run. Felt then completed the comeback for MSU with a two-out base hit through the left side that scored Jones and tied the game.
The Spartans' hopes for a comeback win took a hit when Purdue's Kevin Plawecki led off the bottom of the eighth with a triple. Reliever Kurtis Frymier was then able to get consecutive ground-ball outs and it looked like the Spartans might escape the inning with the game still even. But Lilly's single in the next at-bat scored Plawecki and gave Purdue the lead for good, 6-5.
After allowing three earned runs off five hits through the first three innings, MSU starting pitcher Kurt Wunderlich allowed just four hits the rest of the way. He was charged with the loss and is now 7-3 on the year.
Purdue's Brad Schreiber (1-1) pitched the final 1.2 innings and earned the win.
The two teams will meet in the final game of the series on Monday at 1 p.m.
