Spartans Practice at Sunken Diamond in Preparation for Pepperdine
5/31/2012 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 31, 2012
STANFORD, Calif. - After arriving in Palo Alto, Calif., late Wednesday evening, the Michigan State baseball team practiced for an hour and 15 minutes at Sunken Diamond on Thursday as the Spartans continued preparations for their matchup against Pepperdine.
The Spartans (37-21) and Waves (34-21) will meet on Friday, June 1 in the first round of the Stanford Regional at 4 p.m. EDT (1 p.m. PDT).
"Stanford is a storied program in college baseball and there's a lot of history out here at the ballpark," said MSU head coach Jake Boss. "We're happy to be here. We got a good workout in today, and we get a chance to rest and relax this afternoon to get ready for tomorrow.
"It was good to get out and practice today and get a lay of the land. You can tell the guys are starting to tighten the focus a little bit and we'll be ready to play tomorrow."
The Waves are making their 26th appearance in the NCAA Tournament and their first since 2008. They qualified by winning the West Coast Conference regular-season title with a 16-8 league mark following a series victory over San Diego last weekend. Pepperdine has made two trips to the College World Series and won the National Championship in 1992.
"Pepperdine a solid ball club - they're going to pitch it real well and play good defense," said Boss. "They're going to do the things they have to do to move runners and put themselves in a position to score. I think we're really going to have to execute both offensively and defensively."
The pitching matchup will feature Spartan senior right-hander Tony Bucciferro (6-3, 2.80 ERA) and Pepperdine junior right-hander Jon Moscot (6-5, 2.97 ERA). Both starters have thrown 106.0 innings this season have almost the exact number of strikeouts - 91 for Moscot and 90 for Bucciferro.
"Tony is a guy we want with the ball in his hand," said Boss. "He deserves the opportunity , and he's certainly earned it. He's had a great four years here and we look forward to seeing him tomorrow."
Tomorrow's game will be broadcast live on SpartanSportsNetwork.com, as well as the Spartan Sports Network mobile app. All of the games in the Stanford Regional can also be viewed at ESPN3.com.
