April 2, 2004

EAST LANSING, Mich. - Kobs Field was the sight of one of Michigan State's most memorable baseball games in recent years Friday, April 2, when the Spartans edged Iowa, 1-0, in both teams' Big Ten opener. Bryan Gale's 12 strikeouts - a career-high - placed him all alone at the top of MSU's all-time strikeout list with 229 while his nine innings of work also allowed the righty to become State's career record holder in innings pitched with 301.0.

Needing seven Ks to break Ron Perranoski's mark of 223 set from 1956-58, Gale got into trouble in the very first inning for State (10-10, 1-0). The Hawkeyes (6-13, 0-1) put the first two runners aboard following a walk to Jeff Gremley and Kris Welker getting beaned. Gale recorded his first strikeout of the afternoon against Nate Yoho, but balked the runners into scoring position. The Spartan fireballer turned it up a notch by retiring the next two batters, both going down on strikes, to get out of the jam.

Iowa's Nathan Johnson looked even sharper on the mound, picking up two strikeouts in the bottom of the first, causing the large crowd of Spartan fans to realize they were in for a real pitching duel. Gale did give up his first hit in the second and following a sacrifice bunt to send the runner to second, he got two more Hawkeyes to go down swinging. State threatened in the bottom half with two singles by James Moreno (Holt, Mich.) and Erik Morris (Orchard Lake, Mich.) only to be stranded when Johnson forced David Miller (Whitehall, Mich.) to ground out to second.

Another Hawkeye got into scoring position, reaching third with two outs in the third but once again, Gale left him there by striking out Jesse Brownell, which tied Gale for the career mark in Ks. Iowa's first batter in the fourth, Andy Cox, would fall again to Gale's brilliance. With a 1-2 count, Cox struck out for the second time on the day, becoming Gale's 224th career victim, putting him ahead of Perranoski for good. To make it count, Gale retired the next batter, Mike Mogard, on strikes and got Mike Best to fly out. To acknowledge the feat, Gale received a standing ovation from the crowd of 637.

The sixth inning proved to be more trouble for Gale, however, as the score was still knotted at 0-0. Yoho and Brownell opened with back-to-back singles and Cox moved them over with a sacrifice bunt. With one down, confusion hit the diamond with Mogard at the plate as the runners took off in a possible squeeze bunt attempt. Mogard took the first pitch leaving Yoho hovering between third and home. MSU's catcher, Morris, started to run after him then fired the ball to Moreno, getting Yoho in a run-down. The Iowa right fielder was quickly tagged when Moreno gave the ball back to Morris, but the play was not over. Seeing Brownell still leaning past second base, Morris threw over to Oliver Wolcott (Plymouth, Mich.) who placed his mitt on the Hawkeye for the final out.

As Johnson and Gale kept the opposing hitters off the scoreboard through eight innings, Gale needed two outs to break the innings pitched mark, set by Brian Murphy from 1995-98. More importantly, he needed to put another zero on the scoreboard. He managed to do both even though he put runners on first and second. The record-breaking out came on a strikeout against Mogard.

Johnson was relieved in the bottom of the ninth by Tim Gudex but the Spartans still could not get a runner home as the game went into extra frames. Gale then took a seat in place of Jon Kowalski (Sterling Heights, Mich.) and Iowa tried to secure momentum. With one down, Jason White reached first on an error by Wolcott. Gremley appeared as though he would drive him home with a double to right, but White was held up at third. Kowalski was then relieved by Adam White (Jenison, Mich.) and the change brought good fortune to MSU. White blew away Welker and Jim Reid on strikes in a dominating performance to leave runners at second and third.

State had its chance in the bottom of the 10th when Alan Cattrysse (Chatham, Ont.) reached second on a single and a throwing error by Jason White. Wolcott was next in line but flied out to left field for the second out. Travis Gulick (East Lansing, Mich.), who had already posted two hits and a free pass, was intentionally walked and Scott Koerber (Harper Woods, Mich.) got a free ride as well to load the bases. Gudex would not let the Spartans escape so easily, getting Moreno to fly out to right to end the inning.

Adam White retired the Hawkeyes in the 11th, 1-2-3, to end his day by facing the minimum five batters in 1.2 innings. Adam Tripp (Saugus, Calif.) led off in the bottom of the inning with a single and the crowd got into it when Morris reached on a two-base error by Welker, Iowa's catcher. Sean Walker (Round Lake Beach, Ill.) was put on with an intentional walk to load the bags with no one out, bringing Troy Krider (Coldwater, Mich./DeKalb, Ind.) to the plate. But things began to get worse when Morris was retired going home on a fielder's choice and Cattrysse flied out. Wolcott grabbed his bat to try and finally bring the game to a conclusion, but he would not need it, walking on five pitches. Morris scored the only run of the day, but it was all the Spartans needed as the contest went final, 1-0.

Cattrysse, Gulick and Morris each had two hits on the day and Gulick's hitting streak extended to 16 games as a result.

Michigan State and Iowa return to Kobs for a doubleheader Saturday beginning at 1 p.m. and wrap up the series Sunday at 1 p.m.