University of Minnesota Athletics
Michigan State Eliminates Iowa With 13-9 Win
5/23/2002 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Michigan State eliminated Iowa by defeating the Hawkeyes' 13-9 in the opening game of day two of the 2002 Big Ten Baseball Tournament. Mother Nature wreaked havoc on both teams' pitching, as she imparted upon Siebert Stadium blustery winds strongly blowing out to left and center field. What resulted was a slugfest between the two teams. Michigan State and Iowa combined to hit nine home runs, including four leadoff solo shots. However, the Spartans were able to hold off the Hawkeyes' late-inning comeback attempts and survive to advance to tomorrow's contest against an opponent yet to be determined.
Michigan State wasted no time in attempting to put behind its first-game power outage, jumping on Iowa starting pitcher Cory Hollenhorst in the top of the first inning. Bob Malek, one of a trio of 2002 Big Ten players of the year, hammered a home run to almost dead center to put the Spartans ahead 1-0. Chris McCuiston followed the round tripper with a double smashed to right-center field. Brady Burrill moved McCuiston to third with a single to left field. The next hitter, Kyle Geswein, flew out to shallow right field. McCuiston tagged at third and attempted to head home but a brilliant throw from Hawkeye right fielder John Paul Cappellano nabbed the Spartan at the plate to end the inning.
The Spartans struck again in the second inning in the same fashion. Scott Koerber cracked a solo home run to deep left field that Hawkeye Andy Jansen just stood and watched clear the fence. The shot was estimated at 395 feet in length.
The Michigan State scoring drought officially ended in its half of the third inning, as the Spartans exploded for seven runs. Bob Malek began the frame by hitting his second solo home run of the game. After a single by McCuiston and a double by Burrill, Kyle Geswein singled to bring home McCuiston. James Moreno reached base on a single to load the bases, setting up Travis Gulick for early-game heroics. Gulick took advantage of the circumstances by clubbing a grand slam off of Iowa reliever Chris Maliszewski. Gulick's grand slam was his third in a span of one week. MSU added one more run on an RBI infield single by Chris McCuiston to put the Spartans up by a 9-0 margin.
Iowa responded by flexing its home run muscles in the bottom of the third. Cliff Bruckner, in his first at-bat of the tournament, blasted a solo shot. After a turned double play by Michigan State, Andy Jansen took his base after being hit by a Bryan Gale pitch. Brad Carlson then crushed a two-run home run. Carlson's round tripper, the 44th of his career, made the senior Iowa native the all-time home run hitter in Hawkeyes' history. After three complete innings, MSU held a 9-3 lead.
Michigan State then proceeded to pad its lead by adding a run in both the fourth and fifth innings. In the fourth frame, a Kyle Geswein solo home run represented the Spartans' lone run. Bob Malek, after singling, scored on a McCuiston double to left center in the fifth inning. The two one-run innings gave the Spartans an 11-3 advantage.
Ian Mattiace of Iowa homered with the bases empty in the Hawkeyes' half of the sixth to shave the Michigan State advantage to 11-4.
In the sixth inning, a two-out single to left field by second basemen Kevin Crews scored baserunners Geswein and Gulick to put Michigan State on top by a score of 13-4.
The Hawkeyes began to make things a little uncomfortable for the Spartans in their half of the seventh inning. Following two hit batsmen who were struck by MSU reliever Jon Huizinga, Brad Carlson put a three-run home run over the fence in left-center field. Carlson's second home run of the game further cut Michigan State's lead to 13-7. It was sliced to 13-8 in the eighth stanza, as back to back doubles by Jeff Gremley and Ian Mattiace added one more run to the Iowa effort.
Iowa added one more run in the ninth but the rally was halted after MSU reliever got Dylan Putnam got Andy Jansen to fly out to center field.
Bob Malek and Chris McCuiston headed the Spartans' offensive onslaught, each collecting five hits on the day. Iowa's Brad Carlson led the Hawkeyes with three hits and five RBI.
In a rather strange occurrence, Iowa and Michigan State batsmen were hit by opposing teams' pitchers a total of 16 times throughout the game.
Post-game quotes
Michigan State head coach Ted Mahan "Well, we live for another day. We're happy to win. It wasn't our best game of the season, but we'll take it. Iowa just didn't quit. They kept fighting. I was concerned all the up to the last out in the last inning. But we survive another day"
"We hit a few ball that probably wouldn't have been out without the wind today. We like the wind blowing out. We had 90-some home runs on the season. It's definitely more conducive fore us with the wind blowing out. But we let Iowa get back in by walking and hitting some people. It turned out to be a good game because of that."
Michigan State right fielder Bob Malek "It was a lot better day to hit out there today. We went out there needing to put some runs on the board and we did just that. Coach reminded us to stay after them for the whole game. It was kind of like déj vu all over again when Iowa was fighting to get back into it. But we really wanted to put those runs on the board."
Iowa head coach Scott Broghamer "Michigan State is a good hitting team. We gave up nine runs in the first three innings, seven in one inning, which is tough to come back from. Hats off to the MSU players. Our kids battled, but just couldn't score the runs. It's hard to come back from those big deficits."
"This year we did a lot of things, we opened up many doors: we won or tied five series, we made it to the tourney, we were able to snap the Minnesota losing streak. Getting into the tourney, guys realized what it's like to be here. Now they know what to take away to win."
