May 13, 2016
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By JAMES ALLAN
hawkeyesports.com
IOWA CITY, Iowa — Michigan State hit the game’s first pitch for a solo home run in a 5-1 series-opening victory over the University of Iowa baseball team Friday night at Duane Banks Field.
“It was a tough loss,” said UI head coach Rick Heller. “They played well and swung the bat up and down the lineup. We had a couple of chances with two outs, but couldn’t get a two-out hit.
“They were feeling it and you could tell. C.J. (Eldred) battled for us, but he didn’t have his best stuff. When he missed, they made him pay.”
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After Brandon Hughes deposited C.J. Eldred’s first pitch over the right field fence in the first, the Spartans stretched its lead to 3-0 with a two-run second. Kory Young had a sacrifice fly and Jordan Zimmerman had an RBI single to right field.
Michigan State pushed its lead to 5-0 with single runs in the fourth and fifth innings.
The Hawkeyes threatened throughout the game, twice leaving the bases loaded and stranding 11 runners on the night. Iowa finished 2-for-10 with runners in scoring position, and it couldn’t break through on the scoreboard until the eighth.
Junior Mason McCoy started the inning with a one-out bunt single and he advanced to second base on the play via a Spartan throwing error. Freshman Robert Neustrom drove in the run with an RBI single to right field to cut the deficit to 5-1, but the Hawkeyes stranded its final two runners when pinch-hitter Luke Farley struck out looking to end the inning.
Neustrom and senior Eric Schenck-Joblinske collected five of Iowa’s seven hits in the game. Neustrom was 3-for-4 with an RBI; it was his sixth three-hit game of the year. Schenck-Joblinske finished 2-for-3.
Eldred (2-8) suffered the loss, allowing five runs on seven hits over six innings. He had five strikeouts to two walks in the contest. Michigan State’s Ethan Landon (7-2) earned the win, scattering four hits over six shutout innings.
Game two of the series will begin at 2:05 p.m. (CT) Saturday.