May 17, 2011
Box Score | Box Score in PDF Format
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Michigan State registered season-highs in both hits and runs en route to a 20-3 victory over Notre Dame Tuesday night at Frank Eck Stadium. The Spartans improved to 32-18, while the Irish dropped to 21-25-1.
Zak Wilkerson picked up the victory and improved to 1-0 on the year. He tossed 3.0 scoreless innings and allowed two hits. Wilkerson struck out three and walked two.
Freshman Anthony McIver was charged with the loss. He dropped to 2-5 on the campaign. McIver allowed four earned runs on five hits in 1.0 inning. He fanned one and walked one.
With a critical BIG EAST series opening on Thursday night, Notre Dame used seven different pitchers. Unfortunately for the sake of the Irish, most were ineffective.
Notre Dame did grab a 3-1 lead in the bottom of the first inning. Freshman LF Eric Jagielo hammered his fourth home run of the season deep over the postseason appearances board in right field. Sophomore RHP/DH Adam Norton added an RBI double later in the inning.
The lead was short-lived.
After Norton tossed a scoreless second inning, his final inning of work, Michigan State scored four in the third, four in the fourth, six in the fifth, two in the sixth and three more in the eighth.
The Spartan bullpen of Wilkerson, Joe Zwierzynski, Chad Nielson and Cody Huge kept the Irish off the scoreboard over the final eight innings.
Jagielo went 1-for-3 with a run scored and the two-run home run. Norton went 2-for-2 with an RBI double.
Notre Dame travels to conference rival Louisville for a three-game set that opens at 6:00 p.m. ET on Thursday. Both Friday (7:00 p.m.) and Saturday’s (1:00 p.m.) game will be televised on CBS College Sports. All three games in the series can be heard in South Bend on WHME / Harvest 103.1 FM and around the world at UND.com.
As always, please visit UND.com regularly for full coverage of all Notre Dame athletics news and events.
— ND —