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EAST LANSING, Mich. (EMUEagles.com) – Junior Logan Hugo cracked the Eagles' second grand slam of the season, as the Eastern Michigan University baseball team fell to Michigan State University, 9-8 in the final non-conference contest of the season Tuesday, May 14, at McLane Stadium.

Senior Isiah Lindsey (Nunica, Mich./Spring Lake/Lake Michigan/Lansing C.C.) was a bright spot out of the bullpen, going three innings, surrendering one run on one hit, walking one and striking out three.

Glenn Miller's (Pentwater, Mich./Pentwater/Spring Arbor) three extra base hits were the highlight of a 3-for-5 day, and included two doubles, a home run and two RBI. 

Brendan Kleiman (Olney, Md./Sherwood/Frederick C.C.) also helped out for the Eagles, putting together two hits in four trips to the plate while adding a double, a walk and an RBI.

How it Happened
Trailing 2-0 in the second inning, the Eagles put runs on the board with Kleiman's RBI double, his sixth of the season.

The Spartans expanded their lead to 5-1 before the Eagles offense got back to work, cutting into that lead in the third. Eastern picked up a run on Miller's leadoff home run, which brought the score to 5-2 in favor of the Spartans.

Eastern Michigan held the Spartans off the board before rallying to grab a 6-5 lead in the fourth. The Eagles got a grand slam from Hugo (Essexville, Mich./Essexville Garber) to cash in four runs in what was the Eagles second bases loaded homer of the season.

Eastern Michigan surrendered the lead they built in the fourth, but got back on the scoreboard in the eighth trailing 9-6. The Eagles pushed across two runs in the frame, the big hit being an RBI double from Miller, his third hit of the contest, bringing the score to 9-8 in favor of Michigan State.

The Eagles were unable to get any closer, as neither team scored again in the ballgame.

Game Notes
» Miller crushed a ball out to left field in the first inning for his first homer of the season and the fourth of his Eastern Michigan career. The long ball marked Miller's seventh extra-base hit of the season, 14th RBI, and the Eagles' 56th jack of the season. The senior finished the game with three hits, all going for extra bases for his fourth three-hit outing of the season.
» Hugo left the playing field with the bases loaded in the top of the fourth for his 11th home run of the season, elevating his RBI total to 30. The grand slam marked Eastern's second of the season and first since Aidan Arbogast (Livonia, Mich./Stevenson/Mid-Michigan/Kellogg C.C.) had a grand homer against Ohio University in a 15-6 win. Arbogast finished that game with seven RBI, the highest mark from the Eagles this season. Hugo finished the game with four RBI, his highest mark of the season.
» Eastern tied a season-high with eight walks in the game. Tuesday night is the eighth time the Eagles have walked eight times as they most recently did so against BGSU, May 10.
» Giano Zuccaro (Middleburg Heights, Ohio/Berea Midpark/Charleston) was patient at the plate, working three walks on the day. Zuccaro's three walks ties a career-high for the Charleston transfer as he also worked three against the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown as a member of the Golden Eagles March 10, 2023. Additionally, three walks marks the most from an individual Eagle this season as the outfielder's three walks went down as the sixth occurrence of an Eagle doing so in 2024.
» Liam Baker (Cleveland, Ohio/St. Ignatius) pitched 2.2 innings, allowing zero earned runs. The outing marked Baker's 11th of the season in which he did not relinquish an earned run and his second consecutive time doing so as he also didn't allow an earned run against Bowling Green State University, May 10. Baker has totaled zero earned runs in 11-of-19 appearances in the 2024 campaign.  
» Lindsey struck out three batters and allowed one earned run in three innings of work. The appearance goes down as Lindsey's second with three or more strikeouts and 11th allowing one earned run or less.  
» Kleiman tallied two hits, marking his 12th multi-hit game of the season. Kleiman's first hit of the game was an RBI double, bringing his double count up to six and marking his 21st RBI of the year.
 
Historical Notes
» Tuesday night's contest went down as the 141st all-time between the Eagles and Spartans, after the result, the Eagles post a 58-81-2 record when playing Michigan State.
» The game against MSU marked Eastern's 394th against a Big Ten opponent, after the result, EMU compiles a 146-243-5 when facing Big Ten opponents.

Up Next
The Eagles will face Northern Illinois University in their final series of the 2024 season Thursday-Saturday, May 16-18.
 
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