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The Michigan State baseball team looked on Friday like the team it had been for most of the first half of the season.
The Spartans got solid pitching and showcased their power and hitting depth, tagging Ohio State pitchers for 17 hits and nine extra-base-hits — their highest totals in a nine-inning game this season — in an 11-4 Big Ten victory at McLane Stadium.
MSU, which improved to 21-15 overall and 7-9 in the Big Ten, also blasted three home runs. Longballs from senior first baseman Sam Busch, grad-transfer catcher Caleb Berry and sophomore outfielder Parker Picot ran MSU’s total to 38 longballs on the season.
“We wanted to try and see the ball up in the strike zone, because we knew we would have a hard time being successful if we had to chase the ball down, and so I think for the most part we pretty much did that so it was a good day,” MSU head coach Jake Boss Jr. said. “We got the ball in the air, we got some guys with some juice at the plate, so it worked out for us today.”
The win was the fourth straight for the Spartans, who seem to have gotten their season back on track after a five-game losing streak in early April.
MSU got off to its best start since the 2016 season, winning 12 of its first 14, and was still 17-10 through 27 games at the end of March. But after winnining its exhibition with the Lansing Lugnuts in the Crosstown Showdown on April 1 for just the second time in 17 tries in the annual game, the Spartans’ season took a turn.
Bad weather wiped out or postponed games the next four days, blunting MSU’s momentum. The Spartans’ return to the field on April 6 was a 6-4 loss at Indiana that started a five-game losing streak, losing all three to the Hoosiers, a non-conference home game to Central Michigan and an 11-inning game at home to Northwestern on April 11.
But MSU seems to have bombed its way out of that tailspin. Starting with a 10-0 victory over Northwestern on April 12, the Spartans have now outscored opponents 38-5 in their four-game winning streak.
This has been one of MSU’s best hitting teams in recent years, with nine hitters batting at least .260 and three hitters batting over .330 — sophomore second baseman Ryan McKay (.353), Berry (.347) and Busch (.333).
Busch, a former East Lansing star, had been the Spartans’ most productive hitter with 10 home runs and 46 RBIs. Busch’s homer Friday was the 24th of his career, moving up to tie for No. 11 on MSU’s career list.
Junior infielder Randy Seymour rapped out a career-high four hits, going 4-for-4 with three runs and an RBI.
“We are capable one through nine if we stick to the approach and the plan, that there’s a chance to experience a lot of success,” Boss said. “I know these guys grind out at-bats, they work hard at it, and they study, so I’ll take my chances with guys that compete any day of the week.”
The Spartans are trying to make their way into the postseason Big Ten tournament, an event they’ve only reached once 2019. This year, the tournament, which starts on May 20, will feature 12 teams playing round-robin style in three groups of four.
MSU currently sits ninth in the conference and is primed for a chance to move up against the struggling Buckeyes, who have now lost seven in a row and are 9-25 overall, 2-11 in the Big Ten.
“We’re trying to take it one game at a time, and if you do that, stack up enough wins, the future will be very good for the program,” McKay said. “We pick each other up. Our pitching has been really good; that’s been a huge key. And if we keep doing things in the box like we did today, we’re going to have real success.”
That good pitching has been led by junior left-hander Joseph Dzierwa, one of the best starters in the nation who will start the second game of the series against OSU on Saturday. Dzierwa is 6-1 this season with a 1.65 earned-run average and 67 strikeouts in 54.2 innings. He’s projected to be selected as high as the second round in this summer’s MLB draft.
Redshirt-sophomore Tate Farquhar earned the win Friday, allowing just one hit and striking out a career-high five in four innings.
MSU has two more games against Ohio State — a 3:30 p.m start on Saturday and at 1 p.m. on Sunday — and four more Big Ten series in the regular season, starting with three games in Ann Arbor against Michigan next weekend.
Contact Nathaniel Bott at nbott@lsj.com and follow him on X @Nathaniel_Bott
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