BOX SCORE
JACKSONVILLE – Michigan State jumped on the Jacksonville State baseball team on Thursday and handed the Gamecocks a 17-2 loss in nonconference action at Rudy Abbott Field.
The Spartans (8-4) got seven solid innings from starter A.J. Achter and tagged the Gamecocks (4-8) for 17 hits en route to handing JSU a loss in its first of four home games over the next four days. Eli Boike went 4-for-5 with two home runs and four RBI, while Andrew Carpenter also homered twice for the MSU offense.
The Gamecocks managed just five hits off of Achter (1-0), who earned the win after allowing two runs, one earned, while striking out four and walking two in seven innings on the mound. JSU starter
Daniel Watts (0-3) was tagged with the loss for the Gamecocks after giving up three runs, two earned, on four hits in two innings of work. He also walked three and recorded one strikeout.
The JSU offense scattered its five hits between five players, with
Todd Cunningham and
Daniel Adamson tripled for the Gamecocks, while
Blake Seguin doubled in three at bats.
Christo Sullivan singled in his only plate appearance, his first career single, while
Bert Smith picked up the team's other hit, a first-inning single.
The Spartans drew first blood in the top of the first when JSU shortstop Seguin booted a Bo Felt line drive with two outs, allowing Boike to score an unearned run form third. The Gamecocks answered in the home half of the frame, thanks to a single from Smith, who took third on an errant pickoff attempt from Atcher.
Kyle Bluestein pushed Smith home two batters later with a ground out to third, tying the game at 1-1.
Three MSU doubles in the top of the second gave the Spartans the lead right back at 3-1. They would break it open in the fourth with eight runs on six hits and a pair of JSU errors. The inning began with a leadoff homer from Boike and was capped by a two-run blast by Boike. Carpenter also homered in the inning for MSU, a two-run shot that chased
Austin Lucas from the hill. Carpenter belted his second homer of the game in the fifth, a two-run line drive down the left field line that pushed the Spartans up 13-1.
They got four more in the seventh before JSU got another in the home half, thanks to a leadoff triple from Adamson that set up an RBI ground ball from
Sam Eberle.
The Gamecocks will continue their four-game stretch in four days on Friday, when they host Eastern Michigan at 3 p.m. for the first of a three-game series at Rudy Abbott Field. Prior to the game, EMU will face Michigan State at 12 p.m. CT.