Errant pitching and a brutal second inning pushed the Spartans to the brink of postseason elimination as the Buckeyes feasted on nine hit batsmen in a lopsided blowout.
The Spartans are on the brink of being eliminated from the Big Ten Tournament before the tournament even begins.
Michigan State entered Friday sitting 13th in the Big Ten standings, just one spot outside of the 12 teams that will qualify for this year’s conference tournament.
The team directly above the Spartans, Rutgers, has played three fewer Big Ten games than MSU this season. The Scarlet Knights would need to lose all five of their remaining conference games, while Michigan State would need to capitalize by winning at least one game in that scenario to keep its postseason hopes alive.
Unfortunately for the Spartans, that needed win did not come Friday night when Michigan State traveled to Columbus, Ohio, to take on the Ohio State Buckeyes in its final conference series of the season.
JD Greeley got the bump for the Spartans, and things got off to a rocky start.
In the second inning, the Buckeyes were able to scratch a couple of runs across the board to take an early lead. However, the biggest swing of the inning came with two outs and the bases loaded. With Ohio State already leading 2-0, Henry Kaczmar cleared the bases with a back-breaking double that effectively ended the contest before it ever truly got underway.
Greeley ended up lasting 4.1 innings, allowing eight runs—seven earned—on four hits, while issuing two walks, hitting two batters, and striking out three. With the loss, Greeley drops to 0-3 on the season in an outing he’ll need to learn from and grow from.
As a unit, Spartans pitching truly took the brunt of the loss.
Andrew Everson came on in relief and allowed three runs on two hits, while also hitting three batters and issuing one walk over 1.1 innings. Bobby Crane was the final pitcher Michigan State sent to the mound. He threw one inning and allowed four runs—three earned—while giving up two hits, one walk, hitting four batters, and striking out two.
Michigan State’s pitching staff simply could not stop hitting batters, totaling nine hit-by-pitches in the game. Meanwhile, the Spartans’ offense had a difficult enough time trying to string together consistent contact.
MSU still managed to tally five runs in Friday’s blowout loss, doing so on six hits and four walks.
Dayton Murphy recorded his 19th RBI of the season when he singled in Randy Seymour, pulling the Spartans within four at the time, 5-1.
Later, with Michigan State trailing 8-1, the Spartans pulled within four once again with one swing of the bat.
Isaac Sturgess launched his fourth home run of the season, scoring two runners and himself. Sturgess briefly gave the Spartans a glimmer of hope—small as it may have been—that a comeback could still be possible.
Until it wasn’t.
The Buckeyes quickly pushed the lead back to six runs, making it 10-4. Ohio State then gift-wrapped another run for Michigan State when an errant pickoff attempt with the bases loaded allowed Nick Williams to score, trimming the deficit to 10-5.
That would be as close as the Spartans would get.
Ohio State tacked on five more runs, extending the lead to trigger the mercy rule—a 10-run advantage after seven innings—and the game ended early in the eighth with the Buckeyes claiming a 15-5 victory.
Michigan State remains 13th in the Big Ten standings at 10-18, still chasing Rutgers, who sits 12th at 10-15.
The Spartans now have just two conference games remaining, both against Ohio State, to close out the regular season. The Buckeyes, meanwhile, sit seventh in the Big Ten with a 14-11 conference record.
The two teams will face off again Saturday at 3 p.m. EST, with Michigan State’s postseason hopes hanging by a thread.