Michigan State recently clinched its first Big Ten Tournament bid since 2018, and the Spartans' first opponent in the double-elimination conference event was Maryland, which is the No. 1 overall seed in the 2023 Big Ten Tournament.
On Tuesday, the Spartans started Nick Powers on the mound against the top-seeded Terrapins and their starter, Kyle McCoy. The Spartans advanced to the Big Tournament after defeating Indiana on the second to final day of the regular season and were looking to shock in Omaha, Nebraska by defeating Maryland.
Mitch Jebb put the Spartans on top in the top of the first inning with an RBI-ground ball. The Terps would answer with a pair of their own runs in the bottom-half of the first inning to take a 2-1 lead after an exciting first inning.
Both pitching staff’s were excellent Tuesday evening, as neither staff gave up more than three earned runs and no more than seven hits. Powers went 7.1 innings, scattering five hits and giving up just three earned runs. The Maryland effort was the bullpen, as the Terps' pen totaled five total arms and gave up just two earned runs in the contest.
Michigan State star Brock Vradenburg couldn’t be held down for long, as he would tie the game up at two runs apiece in the top of the seventh inning with an RBI-single. The Terrapins responded in the eighth inning with an RBI-double off the bat of leadoff man Luke Shliger.
Those would be the last runs of the day, as Maryland defeated Michigan State by a final score 3-2 in game one of the Big Ten Tournament for MSU.
Maryland advanced to the winners' bracket with the victory and now the Spartans will have to fight out of the losers' bracket if they want their season to continue.
Game two of Michigan State’s Big Tournament was in the second round of the losers' bracket against Rutgers on Thursday.
In the second-round elimination game, Michigan State sent Andrew Carson to the mound against Rutgers’ Drew Conover.
Jebb started to the scoring against Rutgers, as his groundout scored Vradenburg to give Michigan State a 1-0 lead after the first inning. Carson’s first earned run came in the second inning, when Jordan Sweeney hit an RBI-single into left field to notch the score up at one run each.
The Spartans added two to their total in the fourth and fifth innings, but the Scarlet Knights would add three runs in the fifth inning to take a 4-3 lead against Michigan State, threatening to end MSU's season.
In the sixth inning, Greg Ziegler would tie the game up with an RBI-single to square the game up at 4-4.
From that point on, it was all Spartans. Michigan State would score two more in the eighth inning and closer Wyatt Rush would finish off a 4.2-inning masterpiece to give Michigan State the 6-4 win on Thursday and advance to the next round of the Big Ten Tournament .
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