The Hoosiers began their last home series of the season Friday against the Michigan State Spartans. Due to weather conditions, Saturday’s game was moved into a Friday doubleheader.
In the first game, the Hoosiers won 16-9 in a game where was no problem pushing runs across the board.
In the first inning, the Spartans jumped off to an early 3-0 lead on RBI base hits, each run going unearned due to errors on the Hoosiers defense.
However, in the bottom half of the first, the Hoosiers would respond by scoring four runs of their own, starting with an RBI fielder’s choice by sophomore CaraMia Tsirigos. Later, the Hoosiers would hit three RBI singles from junior Michlle Huber, freshman Katelyn Conenna and freshman Rachel O’Malley to make the score 4-3 in favor of IU.
After the Spartans tied the game in the top of the second on an RBI double, Tsirigos quickly gave the Hoosiers back the lead with her second RBI of the game, this time an RBI double to center, to make it 5-4.
For the first time in the game, a team would fail to score in their at-bats as IU held Michigan State to no runs in the third inning. IU however, would add two runs in their third inning at-bats on an RBI single from sophomore Erin Lehman, one run being unearned, to extend their lead to 7-4.
A big fourth inning by the Spartans, scoring four runs on an RBI single, RBI groundout and two-run homerun gave the Spartans a 8-7 lead, their first lead since the first inning.
After the Spartans scored another run on an RBI flyout to extend their lead to 9-7, the Hoosiers had their biggest inning of the game, scoring nine runs in the sixth to ultimately win the game 16-9.
Huber got thing started with an RBI single to left field, followed by a Coneena flyout to center and a freshman Mena Fulton RBI single to left field. Junior Kelsey Dotson and senior Shannon Cawley capped off what was the decided inning in the game with RBI base hits that ultimately game the Hoosiers a 16-9 victory over the Spartans in game one of a doubleheader.
In the second game of the doubleheader, the Hoosiers were the ones to strike fist, scoring Lehman on a wild pitch to give the Hoosiers an early 1-0 lead in the first inning.
The Spartans however, scored three runs in the second inning on a pair of RBI single and an RBI double to take the lead 3-1.
The Hoosiers would answer back quality in the third inning with an RBI single from Cawley to make it 3-2. However. Huber would pick up a four run RBI homerun on a grand slam to left center give the Hoosiers a 6-3 advantage.
The Spartans would pick up another run before the Hoosiers would add another run in the bottom of the fourth inning on an RBI single from Lehman to give the Hoosiers the three-run advantage, 7-4.
Michigan State would score the next five runs, scoring three runs in the sixth on an RBI singles and an RBI flyout to tie the game at six a piece. The Spartans would take the lead in the top of the seventh inning on a two-rum homerun to give the Spartans the 9-7 lead going into the Hoosiers last at-bats.
The Hoosiers would pick up one run an RBI double from Tsirgos to make it 9-8 however would leave runners stranded on second and third to lose the second game of a doubleheader.
The series finale will take pace on Sunday with the first pitch scheduled to take place at 1:00, also being their final home game of the season.
