Northwestern University Athletics
Northwestern
Michigan St
Baseball Falls in Series Finale to Michigan State, 6-2
4/22/2001 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 22, 2001
EAST LANSING, MICH. - The Northwestern baseball team dropped the series finale against Michigan State 6-2 at Cobs Field in East Lansing. MSU used a four run eighth inning to down the Wildcats. Northwestern falls to 17-24 overall and 6-10 in the Big Ten.
After this weekend's Big Ten action, NU is in seventh place. The top six teams at the end of the season advance to the Big Ten postseason tournament. Minnesota leads conference action with a 15-4 record.
NU started the scoring in the top of the second when Frank Favia's (Barrington, Ill./Barrington) single to center was bobbled allowing Todd Morgan (Shorewood, Minn./Minnetonka) to score from first.
Michigan State answered in their half of the third when Chris McCuiston doubled home Troy Bergman tying the score at one.
As the Wildcats came to bat in the fourth inning the skies opened up and rain began to fall, but play continued until the top of the fifth when umpires suspended the game.
After a one hour 55 minute rain delay, play was resumed at 3:55 p.m., Eastern Time.
The `Cats got on the board first scoring a single run in the top of sixth off a Jason Krynski (Niles, Ill./Niles West) home run to left field. It was Krynski's third round tripper of the series and fourth of the season. Krynski hit .444 for the weekend going 4-9 with a double and his three home runs. He has hit home runs in three straight games.
The Spartans responded with a run in the bottom half of the sixth when Bob Malek scored on a James Moreno double play groundball. Malek's run tied the game at 2-2.
MSU pitcher Bryan Gale held the NU offense in check in the top half of the eighth and the Spartan bats came alive. They scored four runs on three hits to take a 6-2 lead into the final inning.
Freshman Dan Konecny (Ripon, Wis./Ripon) came on in relief of starting pitcher Ryan Bos (Barrington, Ill./Lake Zurich) with one out in the eighth, retiring both batters he faced. Bos threw seven and one-third innings giving up six runs and striking out four. His record falls to 3-3 on the year.
Over the weekend, junior Steve Haake (Belleville, Ill./Gibault) went off, hitting a blistering .438 on a 7-of-16 performance at the plate. Six of Haake's seven hits went for extra bases, tallying four doubles and two home runs. Haake leads the team with 14 doubles and four triples. Designated hitter Todd Morgan (Shorewood, Minn./ Minnetonka) also had a good weekend hitting .389-going 7-18 at the plate.
