EAST LANSING, Mich. – The Michigan State baseball team rallied for two runs in the bottom of the eighth inning on Sunday to knock off the visiting University of Evansville Purple Aces, 6-5, at McLane Stadium at Kobs Field in East Lansing, Michigan.
“This is a tough one,” said UE head coach Wes Carroll. “After we rallied to take the lead with some great at-bats in the middle innings, to lose this late is really tough.
“We have to find a way to put this game behind us and bounce back quickly though. This week is a very important week for us, especially with MVC play starting on Friday.”
After Evansville rallied for three runs in the sixth inning to take a 5-4 lead on home runs by senior first baseman Kip Fougerousse and graduate catcher Brendan Hord, the Spartans mounted a rally of its own in the eighth inning to win the game and the series. Outfielder Nick Williams and second baseman Ryan McKay knocked back-to-back one-out doubles to tie the game at 5-5. Then, the Spartans worked back-to-back walks to load the bases, and after a strikeout, catcher Noah Bright worked another walk to give Michigan State a 6-5 lead.
After a brief delay for snow going into the ninth inning, Michigan State closer Tommy Szczepanski worked a perfect ninth inning with a pair of strikeouts to earn his second save of the year.
Michigan State took an early 3-0 lead in the contest with two runs in the first inning, and one more in the third inning, before Evansville would begin to chip away. A lead-off double by senior shortstop Simon Scherry and an RBI single by junior second baseman Cal McGinnis in the fourth inning plated UE’s first run of the contest.
The two teams traded runs in the fifth inning, before Fougerousse and Hord powered Evansville to a 5-4 lead in the sixth inning. With one out, Fougerousse wrapped a solo home run around the right-field foul pole for his team-leading fifth home run of the year. Then, after a single by junior outfielder Harrison Taubert, Hord launched his second home run of the series over the wall in right field to give UE a 5-4 lead with a two-run blast.
Evansville out-hit Michigan State, 11-7, in the contest, as graduate third baseman Brent Widder went 3-for-4, while graduate outfielder Mark Shallenberger went 2-for-3 with a run scored to extend his on-base streak to 35-straight games dating back to last year. Third baseman Dillon Kark led Michigan State by going 3-for-4, while McKay went 2-for-4 with a run scored and three RBI.
With the victory, Michigan State improves to 7-10 overall. Evansville, meanwhile, falls to 9-10 on the 2024 season. Evansville will be back in action on Tuesday night at 5:30 p.m. central time with a contest at the University of Kentucky. Tuesday’s game can be heard live on 107.1 FM-WJPS and seen on the SEC Network+ streaming service.
