East Lansing- Coming into Sunday’s game on a three-game winning streak Michigan State looked to sweep the weekend series against Penn State, on a sunny day at McLane Stadium.

Senior Nick Ferazzi was the starter for MSU, after allowing a base hit and a walk with two outs, he induced a fielder’s choice to get out of the early jam. 

Frankie Sanchez got the nod for PSU, and after allowing a two-out single, Nick Williams was able to reach this on a two-base error by Penn State left fielder Bobby Marsh, but escaped trouble after tagging out Ryan McKay on a soft grounder.

Bryce Molinaro led off the second inning with a single to left for Penn State, but Ferazzi was still able to work an efficient inning after getting a flyout and then a 6-4-3 double play to end the inning.

Greg Ziegler led off the Spartan half of the inning with a hard-hit single to extend his hitting streak to eight games and on-base streak to eleven games. He stole his eighth base of the season on the following pitch. Sanchez was able to get out of the inning and keep the game scoreless.

Ferazzi faced his first trouble in the third, after a one-out walk by Joe Jaconski. Bobby Marsh stepped into the box and drilled a deep home run over the high wall in right field, to give the Nittany Lions a 2-0 lead in the third.

PSU continued to pour it on, as the next batter JT Marr lined a single into center, before the Big Ten home run leader extended his conference lead, as Adam Cecere drilled his 13th home run of the season to double Penn State’s lead to 4-0.

Sanchez gave PSU the shutdown inning they needed in the bottom half as he set down the Spartans in order before Nick Ferazzi got himself into another jam.

After Tayven Kelley led off the top of the fourth for the Nittany Lions, sophomore Bobby Marsh stepped back in and smacked a towering fly ball into the Red Cedar for his second home run of the afternoon, making it a 6-0 ballgame.

The next batter, JT Marr ripped a two-out double, and MSU head coach Jake Boss Jr had seen enough, calling on freshman lefty Garrett Brewer to get the last out of the inning, and ending Ferazzi’s afternoon.

Wake Forest transfer Adam Cecere came up and did more damage, drilling a two-run double off Brewer to give Penn State a 7-0 lead. The hit closed the line on Ferazzi, he allowed seven earned runs on eight hits while walking three, striking out one of three and two-thirds innings pitched.

Facing a tall deficit, Nick Williams led off the bottom of the fourth for MSU with a walk, reaching base for the second time on the day. McKay then looped a single into left to set the Spartans up with two on and nobody out. 

Ziegler stayed hot, working a walk to load the bases to bring up Christian Williams. The designated hitter was able to work a walk in a full count to get Michigan State its first run of the day, cutting the lead to 7-1 with nobody out in the inning, and the bases still loaded.

After Sam Busch struck out swinging, Michigan State catcher Sam Thompson lined a ball hard to second base, where PSU second baseman Kevin Michaels made an error. Which allowed two runs to score, and making the Penn State lead, 7-3.

Senior Jack Frank stayed hot, lacing a two-out RBI single to left field to continue the Spartan rally and cut the PSU lead to 7-4. The RBI was Frank’s 31st of the season, leading the Spartans.

Dillon Kark tallied the fifth Spartan run of the inning, driving in Thompson, and ending the day for Sanchez starter in the fourth inning. Freshman lefty Matt Morash came on in relief for PSU, and ended the inning, but not before Michigan State batted around, sending 11 batters to the plate and cutting the score to 7-5 Penn State.

“I thought our guys showed a lot of competitiveness, I thought they stayed in it mentally, it would have been easy to pack it in down 7-0, but they completed their tails off,” said MSU head coach Jake Boss Jr. 

The final line for Sanchez was five runs (two earned), on three strikeouts and three walks, also going three and two-thirds innings. 

Senior righty Aaron Mishoulam came on in relief for MSU to start the fifth and retired Penn State quickly.

Morash worked around a one-out single in the bottom of the fifth to hold the lead at 7-5 for the Nittany Lions headed to the sixth. 

Mishoulam continued his work in the sixth and produced another scoreless inning, getting around a leadoff walk with an unconventional 6-5-3 double play due to the shift, and a strikeout of Marsh to end the inning.

“Aaron Mishoulam did a heck of a job today after throwing close to forty pitches on Friday,” said Boss.

Randy Seymour led off the bottom of the sixth with a four-pitch walk to turnover the order for the Spartans. Jack Frank worked another walk to get the first two batters on for MSU, knocking Morash out of the game with the Spartans threatening.

Anthony Steele came on for Penn State looking to get them out of trouble, Nick Williams worked his third walk off the day to load the bases with one out for the Spartans. 

With Ryan McKay at the dish, Steele spiked a breaking ball for a wild pitch to score Randy Seymour and cut the PSU lead in half down to 7-6.

McKay finished the at-bat lining a sacrifice fly to left center to plate Frank, and tie the game at 7-7.

“I thought our two hitting coaches Graham Sikes and Andrew Snow put together a great plan and a great approach, and our guys bought in on that plan all weekend long and that was certainly really positive,” said Boss. 

Mishoulam came on for a third inning of work for Jake Boss Jr, and delivered another scoreless inning, striking out two and holding the tie.

PSU Head coach called on freshman Mason Horwat out of the bullpen, who worked a quick inning setting the Spartans down in order in the seventh. 

Nolan Higgins came on in relief for Michigan State in the eighth, closing the book on Mishoulam. Mishoulam was excellent out of the bullpen today, with a final line of no runs, four strikeouts, and only one walk and hit allowed each while pitching three innings. 

Mason Horwat was on for a second inning of work in the eighth and gave up a one-out double to Jack Frank to set MSU up with the tying run in scoring position. 

After a Kark Groundout, Nick Williams came up and looped an RBI single into no-man’s-land to tie the game back at 8-8. It was Nick William’s fifth time reaching base in the afternoon. 

Higgins stayed in the game for the Spartans to start the ninth and allowed the first two runners to reach base, with a walk to Cecere and a base hit by Norris.

This set the stage for PSU third baseman Bryce Molinaro, who delivered the big blow for the Nittany Lions, with a towering go-ahead three-run home run over the high wall in right field to make it 11-8. It was the fourth Penn State home run of the game.

“This one stings a little bit because we couldn’t really keep the ball in the park today, you know it feels like we let one slip away there,” said Boss Jr. 

Logan Pikur came on in relief of Higgins after the home run and recorded the final three outs of the inning to send the game to the bottom of the ninth.

Mason Horwat started off the ninth for Penn State looking to finish the game and pick up the win, and gave up back-to-back singles to Ziegler and Christain Williams to start off the inning. 

Busch came up as the tying run for MSU in the ninth with nobody out, but he grounded into a double play (4-5-3) to force the Spartans down to their final out. 

Ziegler would come in to score on a passed ball to cut the lead to 11-9, but Sam Thompson popped out to end the game and secure the win for Penn State.

“These guys did a nice job flipping the script after a really bad week last week, to come in and turn things around and go 3-1 this week is a testament to these guys,” said Boss.

The Nittany Lions broke their five-game losing streak with today’s win and improved to 6-9 in conference play on the year, while MSU dropped to 5-7 in Big Ten play. 

Michigan State is now off until Friday, when they open up a three-game set on the road in Columbus, for a three-game set against Ohio State at Bill Davis Stadium.