Baseball Travels To Northwestern For Weekend Series
4/3/2002 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 3, 2002
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TOP STORY: The 17-5 Spartans, off to its best 22-game start since 1992, travel to Northwestern for a four-game series with the Wildcats. In their conference openers last weekend, State split a four game series with Minnesota while the Wildcats droped three of four at Ohio State.
KING OF K's: Senior Nick Bates has won all six times he has taken the hill this season. The right-handed starter is a perfect 6-0 with a 3.26 ERA. Last weekend vs. Minnesota, Bates threw his second complete game of the season and punched out 10 along the way, setting a career-high. He leads the team in strikeouts with 47, just 10 shy of his career total heading into 2001.
McCUISTON CONTINUES RAID: Chris McCuiston kept on his record-setting home run pace after hitting two more vs. Minnesota to give him 10 on the season. Entering 2002, his career total was nine. He also leads the team in RBI with 37, total bases with 74 and is tied for the lead in runs scored with 29. This season, he has set game highs in hits (6), runs scored (5), RBI (7), home runs (3) and total bases (15).
PICKING UP WHERE HE LEFT OFF: After setting MSU's single-season record for hits with 88 in 2001, Bob Malek already has 41 just 22 games into this season. The junior right fielder is second in the Big Ten in batting average at .461. He now stands alone in ninth place on the MSU all-time hits list with 198, needing just 40 to tie the record of 238 held by Steve Money, who set the record over a four-year period.
GREEN MACHINE: The Spartans have lead the Big Ten in batting average all season, currently hitting with a .362 average. Through 22 games, State has collected 290 hits and held opponents to 121. Almost halfway through the season, they are on pace to set the single-season team hits mark which is 567. The Spartans have posted impressive numbers in several games this season: runs (22-vs. Charlotte), home runs (6 vs. UC Santa Barbara) and hits 24 (vs. UC Santa Barbara).
