Michigan State baseball played a three game series against Rutgers over the weekend and while they may have lost two out of the three contests there was one silver lining.

The Spartans head coach, Jake Boss Jr. was able to earn his 300th victory (for MSU) with Michigan State’s 6-0 win over the Scarlet Knights Sunday afternoon. The win (which is pretty cool for Spartan fans) comes a year after he was able to earn his 300th career win during the 2017 season.

Jake Boss is now the fifth head coach in Michigan State baseball history to ever reach the 300-win mark. In his tenth season as the Spartan skipper he is now 300-222.

Sunday’s victory snapped a eight game losing streak for Michigan State. They are now 7-19 overall and have acquired their first Big Ten win of the season (1-5).

In the first game, Michigan State jumped out to an early 2-0 lead throughout the second inning thanks to a two run home run that was hit by Zach McGuire.

Riley McCauley (who was on the mound for the day), one of the Spartans talented pitchers, had a no-hitter going through four innings before the Scarlet Knights finally established some offense.

During the fifth inning, Rutgers was able to get three straight hits to load the bases. Jawaun Harris (who was up to bat next) decided it’d be a good idea to bring everyone home with a bases clearing triple. He was also able to score due to a sacrifice fly ball that was hit by Kyle Walker, which gave the Scarlet Knights a 5-2 lead.

Fast forward to the eighth inning and the Spartans have pulled themselves back into this ball game with their offense leading the way. The score is now 6-4 heading into the top of the ninth. Unfortunately, the Spartan rally would be short lived because Rutgers plated two more runs in the ninth and won, 8-4.

During the second game, the Scarlet Knights scored in the first inning giving them an early 1-0 lead.

Michigan State rallied back during the third with a runner on second and Bryce Kelly up to bat. Kelley drove the run home and tied the game at one run a piece. Again, things just didn’t go right for our Spartans. In the very next inning Rutgers would hit four straight singles followed by an extra base hit to clear the bases and give them a 5-1 lead.

The Spartans put together a huge rally in the eighth inning when they loaded the bases and score two more runs due to walks but it wasn’t enough. MSU didn’t have much more to offer and lost the game, 6-4.

Sunday’s finale was Michigan State’s time to shine. They had fought long and hard all weekend and came up short both times. But they weren’t going to let that happen this time around. Freshman pitcher Mason Erla took the mound Sunday afternoon and pitched 7.0 innings, fired off six strikeouts, allowed four hits, and gave up zero runs.

Mitchell Tyranski and Jake Lowery each pitched one inning a piece without allowing any runs and the Spartans were able to hold onto a much needed victory.

Spartans Staying The Course

Sunday was an all around great day for Spartan Nation. The team was finally able to ditch their eight game losing streak and gave Jake Boss his 300th victory.

Offensively, Michigan State performed very well. Chad Roskelly was 1-3 with a RBI and two runs scored. Sophomore, Justin Antoncic was 2-3 with a run scored and Danny Gleaves finished his day going 2-3 with an RBI.

Kory Young, Ryan King, and Nic Lacayo were a combined 3-for-10 with two RBI and two runs scored.

Here’s a look at the other great Spartan hitters:

• Justin Antoncic (CF): .295 (23-78), 4 2B, 2 3B, 1 HR, 8 RBI, 9 SB
• Dan Chmielewski (RF): .269 (21-78), 3 2B, 3 3B, 11 RBI, 7 SB
• Zach Iverson (3B): .269 (14-52), 3 2B, 1 3B, 1 RBI, 2 SB
• Ryan King (SS): .268 (22-82), 3 2B, 6 RBI

Final Takeaways

• The outcome of this series doesn’t surprise me, nor should it surprise the rest of Spartan Nation. MSU is struggling right now and will be for the rest of the season.
• Jake Boss Jr. gets his 300th win and takes attention off of the fact that his team isn’t what they should be.
• Eastern Michigan is up next, let’s see what the Spartans bring to the table this time.

Next Series

The Spartans will take on Eastern Michigan in another mid-week matchup Wednesday, April 4th at 3:05 p.m.