April 10, 2012
EAST LANSING, Mich. – Michigan State 3B Torsten Boss broke up a 2-0 game with a three-run triple in the bottom of the fifth inning and the Spartans never looked back en route to a 8-2 victory over Notre Dame Tuesday afternoon at McLane Baseball Stadium at Kobs Field. The Irish dropped to 17-14 overall, while Michigan State improved to 20-10.
Boss’ bases-clearing triple provided all the offense the Spartans and starter Mick VanVossen would need. The freshman RHP handcuffed the Irish over 6.1 innings of work and improved to 1-0 on the year. VanVossen limited Notre Dame to a pair of runs, one earned, on six hits. He struck out two and walked two.
Irish rookie RHP Matt Ternowchek (Glenmoore, Pa./Downington East H.S.) was charged with the loss and dropped to 1-1 on the season. He allowed five runs, all earned, on six hits in 4.0+ innings of work. He struck out two and walked one. The earned runs allowed were the first against Ternowchek all season. He entered today’s outing without allowing an earned run (just one run total) in 13.1 innings of work.
Sophomore 3B Eric Jagielo (Downers Grove, Ill./Downers Grove North H.S.) was the lone Notre Dame player with more than one hit. He went 2-for-4 with a single and double.
Freshman RHP Scott Kerrigan (Saugus, Calif./Saugus H.S.) made his first career appearance in an Irish uniform and retired all six Spartans he faced. He also added a pair of strikeouts.
Michigan State jumped out to a 2-0 lead after one inning. Jordan Keur reached on an infield single to leadoff the game and Ryan Jones followed with a single to right field. After Boss popped out, Ryan Krill dropped in a perfectly placed single in shallow right field in between senior CF Alex Robinson (Dallas, Texas/First Baptist Academy) and freshman LF Ryan Bull (Eden Prairie, Minn./Eden Prairie H.S.) to give the Spartans a 1-0 lead. Justin Scanlon followed with a slow roller to second base and beat out a possible inning-ending double play to extend the lead to 2-0.
Ternowcheck allowed a couple more hits in the second inning, but seemed to settle down afterwards. The right-handed hurler retired seven straight Spartans before running into trouble in the fifth. After Anthony Cheky dropped a bloop double on the left field line, just steps in front of a diving freshman LF Conor Biggio (Houston, Texas/St. Thomas H.S.), Ternowchek got a ground ball right back to the mound. Instead of getting the certain out at first base, Ternowchek threw to third base to retire the lead runner, but hesitated before doing so, which allowed the runner to slide in safely.
Ternowchek then issued a walk to load the bases with no outs.
Senior LHP Ryan Richter (South Bend, Ind./St. Joseph’s H.S.) replaced Ternowchek and was greeted with a bases-clearing, three-run triple off the bat of Boss that extended Michigan State’s lead to 5-0. The Spartans added another run on an infield single.
Notre Dame narrowed the deficit in the top of the seventh inning. Junior 1B Adam Norton (Highland, Ind./Andrean H.S.) and Bull led off the inning with back-to-back singles. Freshman SS Phil Mosey (Fishers, Ind./Cathedral H.S.) followed with a sacrifice fly to make the score, 6-1. After an error allowed Bull to reach third and freshman PH Alex Carter (Winter Park, Fla./Orangewood Christian H.S.) to reach first, PR Mac Hudgins (Richmond, Va./Douglass Freeman H.S.) was thrown out trying to advance on a ball that evaded the Spartans catcher.
Junior 2B Frank DeSico (Cleveland, Ohio/St. Ignatius H.S.) then pulled an RBI single to left field to bring the Irish within four runs, 6-2, but Michigan State would get out of the inning and add a couple of runs in the bottom of the eighth to close the scoring.
Notre Dame returns to the diamond at 5:05 p.m. ET Wednesday at Frank Eck Stadium for a non-conference tilt with Western Michigan. In-game updates will be available on Twitter at @NDBaseball and Facebook at NDBaseball, and fans can listen to all the action locally on 103.1 FM and on the Internet at UND.com.
— ND —