EAST LANSING, Mich. – Playing their first road game in two-and-a-half weeks after posting a winning record on a 10-game homestand, the Oakland Golden Grizzlies were defeated by the Michigan State Spartans, 8-3, on a sunny Wednesday, April 12 evening in mid-Michigan.

Snapping a season-long four-game win streak, Oakland is now 14-18 (7-5 Horizon League), while the Spartans, a member of the Big Ten Conference (B1G), improve to 20-10 and have won three-straight.

Making his first start in 12 appearances as a Golden Grizzly, junior left-hander Jake Matthaidess went the first two innings, giving up one run, which scored via a balk, on two hits with a pair of walks and a strikeout.

Redshirt senior righty Sean Fekete was the next of seven Oakland pitchers on the night and took the loss, dropping him to 1-2. He allowed five runs on four hits with three walks and a strikeout over 2.2 frames.

Junior Ben Paugh, a fellow right-hander, threw a clean seventh inning and Cedar Rapids, Iowa senior southpaw Chase Keeney recorded the first out of the eighth.

Although it is a very small sample size, Keeney has not allowed a hit or run over his two appearances (1.1 innings) in 2023.

Working the fourth through the seventh, freshman righty and Orchard Lake St. Mary's product Nolan Higgins earned the win for Michigan State, moving his season record to 3-1. Keeping the Golden Grizzlies off the scoreboard in his four innings, he surrendered two hits, walked four and sent down six on strikes.

After redshirt sophomore center fielder Drew Collins drew a leadoff walk to begin the game, Oakland struck first when he scored on a double to left center off the bat of sophomore third baseman Brandon Nigh, his 13^th RBI of the year.

The Spartans tied the tilt at one in the half of the first, but the Golden Grizzlies took a two-run lead, 3-1, on a two-out opposite field single from senior right fielder Ian Cleary in the third, scoring freshman left fielder Reggie Bussey and Collins.

Finishing 1-4 and tallying his first career double, Bussey was also one of the stars of the evening for his highlight reel catch that took a home run away from graduate student catcher Sam Thompson to begin the bottom of the fourth.

Following Cleary's clutch third-inning knock, which tied him with redshirt senior shortstop Thomas Green for the Oakland lead in RBI at 23, it was all Michigan State, with the Spartans scoring the contest's final seven runs, all of which came in the third, fifth and sixth.

Junior first baseman Brock Vradenburg, who is hitting a remarkable .424 (53-125) this season, went 4-5 with two triples and a pair of RBI and right fielder Jack Frank and shortstop Mitch Jebb, both fellow juniors, collected two hits apiece.

Seven different Golden Grizzlies registered one hit each for Oakland and Nigh's first-inning double extended his hit streak to eight games.

UP NEXT
Returning to Horizon League play, the Golden Grizzlies will round out this four-game road swing with three games with the Northern Kentucky Norse (18-13, 8-4) at the Bill Aker Baseball Complex in Highland Heights from Friday-Sunday, April 14-16.

With the Norse entering play one game ahead of Oakland and the Wright State Raiders for the top spot in the conference standings, Friday's action will begin at 2 p.m.