Michigan State Baseball starts Big Ten play with series win over Purdue

Michigan State baseball kicked off conference play over the weekend and it notched its first Big Ten series win.

Coming into the start of the Big Ten schedule, Michigan State baseball was 11-7 on the season after winning six straight games. That 3-1 start to the season quickly fell apart as Michigan State went on to lose six out of the next seven games.

The issue of pitching, which has affected the program for years, finally surfaced again. In those seven games, the pitching staff gave up at least seven earned runs in each game. You are not going to win a majority of baseball games in college if your pitching staff gives up that many runs.

In the nine games since that stretch, Michigan State has won eight of the nine games and the most runs they have given up is seven, which happened in a 10-7 victory over Indiana State. Pitching is the key stat for this baseball team and that really showed in this past weekend’s matchup with Purdue.

This past weekend, Michigan State was taking on a Purdue team that had not won a series against Michigan State in a while. That was in jeopardy as Michigan State lost the first game of the series 5-4. This was one of those games that, again, pitching allowed Purdue to get back into the game and eventually win it. Michigan State was up 4-0 and then Purdue scored five unanswered runs. This happens every once in a while in baseball games but it seemed like it has been a partner for Michigan State especially when they went on the losing streak.

Now, you can not fully blame the pitching staff because sometimes the hitters just get hot. This was one of those games and it was a tough game to lose at home.

The next game was supposed to be Saturday but because of the weather, the games got moved to a doubleheader on Sunday. If the Spartans wanted to win the series and start Big Ten play above .500, they needed to find a way to win both games, which they did.

The first game of the doubleheader was basically the exact opposite of the first game of the series. Purdue had a hot start to the game as they were up 3-1 after the fifth inning. Again, Michigan State was in danger of losing the series to Purdue. This all changed when Michigan State scratched a run across in the bottom of the seventh and three more runs in the bottom of the eighth.

Heading into the top of the ninth, Michigan State had a two-run lead and it got scary pretty quickly. Purdue had scored a run and the bases were loaded with two outs. Wyatt Rush ended up getting the final out with a pop up to first base.

Michigan State took Game 1 of the doubleheader and was feeling good headed into Game 2.

Those good vibes continued in Game 2 as Michigan State’s bats came alive and scored 12 runs to dominate Purdue 12-6. It was not just one player that contributed to this victory. There were a healthy number of players that had tat least one RBI.

When Michigan State can get its bats going and the pitching can hold up, this is a team that can win quite a few games. The main question, especially in a good Big Ten, is: will Michigan State be able to win games that the offense only scores a few runs? They have done it a few times but in Big Ten play, those types of games will become more common. If the answer to that question is yes, Michigan State will see a much improved record for the baseball team, which could mean the first winning season since 2017, which is much needed.

The next game for Michigan State is on Wednesday against Western Michigan and then it starts a series with Rutgers over the weekend.

Currently, Michigan State is 13-8 and 2-1 in the conference.