East Lansing, Mich. – A contest that saw three lead changes, Michigan State topped Oakland, 6-5, on Tuesday, April 19 at McLane Stadium at Kobs Field.

Snapping a five-game losing streak, the Spartans improve to 14-19 (2-7 B1G), while the Golden Grizzlies are now 17-18 (7-5 Horizon League).

The first of seven Oakland hits on the night, redshirt senior right fielder Brenton Phillips started the scoring with an infield single in the first, scoring graduate student second baseman Brad Goulet.

This 1-0 Golden Grizzlies lead would last until the bottom of the second when sophomore shortstop Mitch Jebb singled through the right side, plating junior left fielder Casey Mayes and redshirt freshman catcher Christian Williams and putting Michigan State ahead for the first time.

Courtesy of a solo home run by sophomore center fielder Jack Frank, the Spartans extended their cushion to 3-1 in the third.

After graduate student center fielder Seth Tucker was hit by a pitch and stole second, Oakland made it a one-run game again in the fifth when the native Arkansan came home on a groundout by Goulet.

The RBI was Goulet's team-leading 29^th of the season, but, unfortunately, he saw his 13-game hit streak come to an end Tuesday with an 0-5.

Their lone multi-run inning of the night, the Golden Grizzles re-took the lead, 5-3, by scoring three times in the sixth. Junior left fielder Ian Cleary drove in sophomore catcher Brandon Heidal with a triple to tie the tilt and scored himself when Tucker laid down a bunt and reached on a throwing error by junior right-hander Andrew Carson.

With senior first baseman Gabe Lux executing the back half of a double steal, Tucker swiped home to give Oakland their two-run advantage.

On a pair of singles, the first by Frank and the second by redshirt freshman third baseman Bryan Broecker, Michigan State evened the score at five in their half of the sixth and scored what wound up being the game-winner in the seventh when sophomore second baseman Trent Farquhar's single brought home Williams.

Senior third baseman Luke Malmanger led off the top of the ninth with a double, but graduate student righty Kyle Bischoff was able to seal the deal with a pair of strikeouts and a groundball for his seventh save of the campaign.

Recording the last out of the sixth and all three in the seventh, redshirt sophomore right-hander Brian Martin picked up the win for the Spartans, moving him to 2-0.

Tossing the last two frames for the Golden Grizzlies, sophomore righty Brandon Decker took the loss, dropping him to 3-3. The North Farmington product allowed a run on two hits with a walk and three strikeouts.

Redshirt senior left-hander Christian Stelling made his first start of the season for Oakland, working 3.1 innings and giving up three runs on five hits with a trio of walks and five punchouts.

Between Stelling and Decker, freshman righty Hunter Pidek and graduate student left-hander Chas Sagedahl also saw time on the mound.

Up next
A big weekend is on deck for the Golden Grizzlies as they return to conference action and hit the road for a pair of doubleheaders against Youngstown State on Friday, April 22 and Purdue Fort Wayne on Sunday, April 24.

The Horizon League has its seven baseball members play one another a total of five times apiece. Oakland previously took two of three in Rochester from both the Penguins and Mastodons, meaning they can claim wins in the respective season series if they split both twinbills.