Michigan State baseball falls short in Big Ten tournament opener with 3-2 loss to Maryland

Michigan State baseball’s first appearance in the Big Ten tournament since 2018 may be a short one.

The Spartans will need a win Thursday to keep playing in Omaha, Nebraska, after a 3-2 loss to top-seeded Maryland on Tuesday night, despite an impressive effort by junior Nick Powers on the mound.

Luke Shliger went 2-for-3 with two doubles, a run and the go-ahead RBI in the eighth inning to send the eighth-seeded Spartans to an elimination game on Thursday. MSU (32-21) will face the loser of Wednesday’s game between fourth-seeded Nebraska and fifth-seeded Rutgers; the knockout game is scheduled for 11 a.m. Thursday (Big Ten Network). Maryland (38-19) will face the winner of the Nebraska/Rutgers game at 7 p.m. Thursday.

The Spartans took advantage of a Maryland flub to grab a first-inning lead. After a walk by Trent Farquhar and a single by Brock Vradenburg (MSU’s leading hitter) — which advanced Farquhar to third — Mitch Jebb grounded a potential double-play ball to pitcher Kyle McCoy. But McCoy’s throw to second was off, allowing Farquhar to score.

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But Maryland took the lead in the bottom of the frame.

Powers, who led the Spartans in lowest batting average allowed (.230), faced a tough task in Maryland: The Terrapins led the Big Ten in scoring, at 9.5 runs a game — nearly 1.5 runs a game more than the next-best squad. But the left-hander proved up to it, after a while. Powers gave up a leadoff walk, followed by a double and two sacrifice flies in the first inning. From there, however, the Flushing native surrendered just two hits to Maryland over the next six innings: A double in the third and a single in the sixth.

Michigan State tied it up in the seventh as Greg Ziegler tripled to open the inning, followed by a groundout and a walk. With runners on the corners, Vradenburg singled the opposite way to bring Ziegler home — his 67th RBI of the season. That moved him into second place by himself on the Spartans’ single-season RBI list, passing Mike Eddington (1984) and Bob Malek (2002) and behind only Chris McCuiston’s 71 in 2002.

Maryland reclaimed the lead in the eighth, though, as Jacob Orr lead off the inning with a single, advanced to second on a sac bunt and then to third on a wild pitch. That brought Shliger to the plate, and on a 3-1 count, the left-hander doubled down the line the opposite way to bring home Orr. That was it for Powers, who finished with six strikeouts over his 7⅓ innings. Wyatt Rush came on in relief for the final two outs of the eighth inning.

The Spartans were unable to muster a rally in the ninth, as Jack Frank and Farquhar struck out, and Vradenburg flied out to left off Maryland reliever Dave Franco, who got the win.

MSU is still looking for its first win in the Big Ten tournament since beating Maryland, 4-3, on May 27, 2016.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State baseball loses to Maryland, 3-2, in Big Ten tournament