Michigan State and Illinois played a three-game series over the weekend in Champaign, with the Fighting Illini completing a clean sweep over the Spartans, in what was a huge series for the Spartans' NCAA Tournament hopes.
In game one, Michigan State sent Joseph Dzierwa to the mound and the Illini countered with Riley Gowens.
Illinois would strike first with a solo home run off the bat of Branden Comia to take a 1-0 lead after one inning. The Spartans responded in the top-half of the second inning with three runs of their own, highlighted by Sam Busch's home run.
Dzierwa had a rough go on Friday night against a struggling Illinois offense, giving up seven runs in 4.1 innings. Illinois starter Riley Gowens was not much better, as he gave up five runs in 3.1 innings.
After five innings, the Illini led the Spartans 8-7 after a three-run bottom of the fifth inning. The Spartans have been in their fair share of shootouts this season, so Friday night was nothing out of the ordinary. Michigan State has also had numerous comebacks, so there was no reason to not believe the Spartans would not make a comeback against the Illini.
In the top half of the seventh inning, the Spartans would tie the game up at eight with an RBI groundout from Casey Mayes. The Illini took the lead right back in the bottom half of the inning on a sacrifice fly from Brody Harding. Neither team scored in the eighth inning, so the Illini took a 9-8 lead to the ninth inning in hopes of closing out the dangerous Spartan lineup.
Illinois sent Logan Tabeling out for the top-half of the ninth inning against the bottom-half of the Michigan State lineup. Jack Frank would begin the inning with a leadoff single to get the rally started. Head coach Jake Boss put on a sacrifice bunt to advance Frank to second base with one out. Mayes came up with a chance to tie the game at nine, and that is exactly what he did. On an 0-2 pitch, Mayes would double down the left field line to score Frank and the Spartans tied the game up at nine. Mayes would be stranded on second ase to end the top of the ninth.
With one out in the bottom half of the ninth inning, Ryan Moerman sent a ball deep into the Illinois night for a walk-off home run, sending the Illini home with a 10-9 victory in game one of the three-game series. The loss dropped the Spartans to 28-14 overall and 10-6 in the Big Ten, while the Illini improved to 20-22 and 9-10 in the Big Ten.
In game two, the Spartans hoped to respond after Friday's heartbreaking loss in walk-off fashion. The Green and White sent Nolan Higgins to the mound and Illinois sent Jack Wenninger to the bump.
The trend from Friday night would continue, as both starting pitchers did not make it further than 4.2 innings. Higgins would give up nine earned runs in his four innings of work, while Wenninger gave up three runs in his 4.2 innings of work, but walked six Spartans, driving his pitch count up to 110 pitches.
The Illini stayed hot on Saturday against the Spartan arms, hitting five home runs and three doubles. Three of the home runs were hit by Drake Westcott, who also finished with seven RBIs. After the Spartans took a brief 3-2 lead in the second inning, Illinois would go on to score nine consecutive runs to take an 11-3 lead, which put the game away early.
The Spartans would scratch the board late, and Mitch Jebb hit is first home run of the season in the top of the eighth inning, but ended up being too little, too late as the Illini took game two in emphatic fashion, 14-7.
The loss dropped Michigan State to 28-15 overall and 10-7 in the Big Ten, and with the victory, Illinois improved to 21-22 overall and 10-10 in the Big Ten.
With the Illini already securing the series win on Saturday, the Spartans were fighting to just salvage one game in Champaign on Sunday.
The starting pitchers in Sunday's contest followed the same pattern of the weekend, as both pitchers did not qualify themselves for a win. Spartan starting pitcher Nick Powers went four innings, giving up four earned runs. Illinois starting pitcher Julius Sanchez went 4.1 innings and gave up three earned runs.
Michigan State actually scored first as Jebb scored on a fielder's choice in the first inning, but Illinois then raced out to a 4-1 lead after three innings of play.
The Spartans closed the gap on a two-run single by Brock Vradenburg in the top of the fifth inning to cut the Illini's lead to one run at 4-3.
Illinois would then take a 5-3 game in the bottom of the sixth inning as Camden Janik sent a ball deep left center field for a solo home run. The same would happen in the bottom of the eighth, as Friday's hero, Ryan Moerman, would hit a solo home run to start a big inning for the Illini, which resulted in five total runs being scored, capped off by a Branden Comia two-run home run.
This would ultimately put the dagger in the Spartans for the weekend, as the Illini swept Michigan State by outscoring them 34-19 in the three-game series.
Michigan State dropped to 28-16 overall and 10-8 in the Big Ten, and with the win on Sunday, Illinois improved to 22-22 overall and 11-10 in the Big Ten.
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