Green And White Series Takes Place This Week
10/3/2005 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Oct. 3, 2005
EAST LANSING, Mich. - The Michigan State baseball team will take the field this week, in the capstone of five weeks of fall ball play, with the annual Green and White Series at Kobs Field. The inter-squad scrimmage will be a best of three series, spread out over Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday of this week; all games will be seven innings and begin at 3:30 p.m.
Fall baseball has been a crucial time for Michigan State, as the program has underwent an overhaul in 2005, with the hiring of first-year head coach David Grewe. Accompanying Grewe, and also in their first year with the program, are assistant coaches Tony Baldwin, Mike Steele, and Daniel Lopaze. The coaching staff has used the past five weeks of fall ball to set the tone for the program's future, which aims at taking Michigan State baseball to the top.
"I think one of the most important things this fall was to motivate our team and to all get on the same page; to accept the responsibility of playing the game the right way," Grewe stated. "It's been important that the coaches bring the energy out to practice, to emphasize the energy we want the players to have. Right now we are trying to motivate them to play what we believe is championship style baseball."
Under the new direction, players have used the fall ball period to display their individual talents, as playing time will be up for grabs come spring.
"We want to see competition; players competing, playing the game hard," Grewe remarked. "I want the Green and White Series to be a very high intensity style of games. I want the guys to pretend that it is the College World Series in Omaha. I want the guys to understand that this is the last opportunity to showcase their skills this fall and show the coaches what kind of competitors they truly are."
"We've thrown guys at several positions this fall," Grewe added. "We are trying to evaluate where they can best help out the ball club. Right now we have seen a lot of great things out of guys."
The Spartans hope to build on the progress they have made this fall, carrying it into winter weight training and the spring season. A disappointing season in 2005, the team looks to improve on the 22-31, 10-18 Big Ten record from a year ago. The change starts with an overall change in attitude.
"We have seen a change in attitude, from returning players, and new players excepting that," said Grewe. "To us that is really important. The attitude is one of excitement; excitement for playing the game the right way, excitement for dedicating themselves to a high level of commitment."
Coaching the two teams at the Green and White will be Coach Baldwin and Coach Lopaze, who will draft their teams on Monday, prior to the series. The Spartans will take the yard on Tuesday, Oct. 4 at 3:30 p.m. in game one.
