Michigan State and Indiana faced off in a three-game season finale series in East Lansing this past weekend. The Spartans came into this series needing to win two games to make the Big Ten Conference tournament.

In game one, Andrew Carson toed the slab for the Green and White to the start the game, while Luke Sinnard got the start for the Hoosiers.

Indiana started the scoring off in the top of the second inning with a Bobby Whalen two-RBI single to give Indiana an early 2-0 lead. The Spartans would respond in the third inning with a Trent Farquhar two-run home run to notch the score up at two runs apiece. The Hoosiers would add a run in the fourth and fifth innings to jump out to a 4-2 lead after five innings of play.

Down 4-2 in the bottom of the sixth, Jack Frank came up with two runners on and delivered with a go-ahead, three-RBI double to left field to put the Spartans up 5-4 in the bottom of the sixth inning. The Spartans would add three insurance runs over the seventh and eighth innings to give themselves an 8-4 lead going into the ninth inning.

Wyatt Rush came on to close the game for the Spartans, giving him his ninth save of the season as Michigan State outlasted Indiana 8-6 in game one.

With the win, Michigan State improved to 31-19 overall and 11-11 in conference play, while only needing to win one more game to clinch a Big Ten Tournament spot.

With the loss, the Hoosiers drop to 39-15 overall and 15-7 in the Big Ten.

In game two of the three-game set, Michigan State sent Nolan Higgins to the mound to try and clinch the team’s first Big Ten Tournament bid since 2018. Higgins struggled in his outing, giving up three earned runs in two innings, while walking four Hoosier hitters.

Indiana jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the top half of the second inning, but the Spartans answered quickly by scoring three runs of their own in the bottom-half of the inning. After two innings, the Spartans led 3-1.

Higgins' rough day carried over to the third inning where he did not record an out and watched the Hoosiers record three runs to take a 4-3 lead in the top of the third. With a runner on, Sam Busch tied the game back up with an RBI-single, scoring Brock Vradenburg.

The Spartans took the lead in the fourth inning with a Trent Farquhar RBI-triple to give the Spartans a 5-4 lead. The Spartans would tack on with two insurance runs to take a 7-4 lead into the ninth inning where Harrison Cook handed the ball of to Wyatt Rush. Cook relieved Higgins and went six shutout innings, while scattering four hits.

Rush recorded his tenth save of the season and the Spartans clinched their bid to the 2023 Big Ten Tournament in Omaha, Nebraska.

With the win, Michigan State improved to 32-19 overall and 12-11 in the Big Ten, while Indiana dropped to 39-16 overall and 15-8 with the loss.

In game three, with the Spartans looking for the sweep, MSU would send Nick Powers to start the ballgame in what would be a bullpen game for the Spartans after just clinching their bid to the Big Ten Tournament. Countering Powers was Indiania starting pitcher Ty Bothwell.

Mitch Jebb put the Spartans on top in the first inning with an RBI-single. The next two runs in the game would be home runs hit by the same player. Devin Taylor, right fielder for the Hoosiers, hit solo home runs in the third and fifth innings to give Indiana a 2-1 lead, which was followed up with a sacrifice fly to extend the lead to 3-1.

Jebb would answer back with another RBI-single to cut the Hoosiers' lead to one. IU would hit their third home run of the afternoon when Carter Mathison, the designated hitter, launched a ball over the center field wall to give Indiana a 4-2 lead.

Michigan State would tack on a run in the bottom-half of the inning, but Indiana added two insurance runs in the eighth inning to give the Hoosiers a 6-3 lead going into the bottom of the ninth inning.

Connor Foley was on to close the game out for Indiana, but would have to face the big sluggers of the Spartan order to close out a win on Saturday. After Greg Ziegler and Frank singled to get on, Vradenburg came up with one out and two runners on. Vradenburg would double to center field to cut the Indiana lead down to one with two outs to play with.

After Jebb was intentionally walked, Foley struck out Bryan Broecker and Busch to end the game, sealing a 6-5 victory for Indiana.

With the win, Indiana improved to 40-16 and 16-8 in the Big Ten. With the loss, Michigan State dropped to 32-20 overall and 12-12 in the Big Ten, which is good for the No. 8-seed in the Big Ten Tournament.

Michigan State will start the the double-elimination Big Ten Tournament on Tuesday at 6 p.m. Eastern Time versus Maryland. The game will be played Omaha, Nebraska and will be broadcast on the Big Ten Network. The Spartans will be doing something that they have not since 2018, and that is participating in the conference tournament.

MSU will be facing off against the Maryland Terrapins in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament, and this will be the first meeting of the season between the two programs. The Terrapins come into this game with a 37-19 overall record and a league-best 17-7 record in Big Ten play.

Maryland and Michigan State are the top-two teams in the Big Ten in hitting, as Maryland leads the conference with a .317 team batting average. Michigan State comes in second with a .303 team batting average. For a while, Michigan State led the Big Ten in hitting, but after the sweeps against Illinois and Iowa, the Spartans dropped to second in the conference.

Both the Terrapins and Spartans have two hitters with batting averages in the top-10 in the conference. Brock Vradenburg and Trent Farquhar hold those spots for the Spartans, while Nick Lorusso and Matt Shaw are in the top-10 for the Terps.

Maryland and Michigan State both have team ERAs over 5.50, so expect a good amount of runs to be scored in the contest on Tuesday, while each bullpen will more than likely have to record a bunch of outs if the starters aren't able to last too long in this one.

Michigan State head coach Jake Boss had this to say after Saturday's senior day:

"It's a great senior class, its a special group — to see our guys kind of band together through a bunch of highs and lows and stay together as a group; this might be the tightest group we've ever had."

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