Michigan State University Athletics
Spartans Head West For Weekend Tournament
2/19/2015 12:00:00 AM | Softball
| Michigan State (7-3) at UC Riverside Amy S. Harrison Tournament | |
| Dates | Fri.- Sun. February 20-22, 2015 |
| Location | Riverside, Calif; Amy S. Harrison Field |
| Webstream | none |
| Live Statistics | |
| Download Game Notes | Michigan State | Utah State | UC Riverside | San Diego |
| Social Media | @MSU_Softball  | Facebook  |
TOURNAMENT NOTES
• Michigan State heads to California this weekend to take part in the Amy S. Harrison Tournament at UC-Riverside. The Spartans will play both the host school and San Diego, as well as have a pair of games against Utah State.
• MSU has three Californians on its roster - catcher Lindsey Besson (San Rafael), infielder Shanin Thomas (Whittier) and freshman infielder McKenzie Long (Los Osos). It also brings the two Arizona products - Surprise native Destinee Luna and Mesa product Valerie Kaff - closer to home.
• The game against host Riverside will be the fourth meeting all-time between the schools. In 2004, MSU swept a doubleheader, and the teams last met in March 2012, a 15-6 MSU win in six innings. The Highlanders are off to a 6-4 start this season, as losses to Sacramento State and Cal last Sunday snapped a six-game winning streak. UC-Riverside started it's streak with a 7-1 victory over Western Michigan, a team the Spartans will see later this season.
• San Diego is currently 5-5 on the season, which includes a win over then-No. 16 Arizona State and a loss to Indiana. The Spartans hold a 4-1 edge in the all-time series, which includes a four-game winning streak.The last meeting of the teams came back in 2003.
• MSU and Utah State have met just once on the softball field, a 3-2 Spartan victory in 2012. The Aggies are a combined 1-8 in the season's first two weekends, the lone win a 6-5 victory over Indiana last Sunday at the Wilson/DeMarini Desert Classic in Las Vegas.
Live stats will be available for all four games, with links to each at www.MSUSpartans.com.
• There will be no audio or video streams of games this weekend.
TEAM NOTES
• MSU is off to its best start to a season since 2006, posting a 7-3 overall record through two weekends of play. The 2006 team started the year 11-3.
• The Spartans went 3-2 at the Florida Atlantic tournament last weekend, dropping both games to the host Owls but downing No. 22 Tulsa (4-3), Providence (7-3), and Drexel (1-0).
• MSU's win over Tulsa was the Spartans first over a ranked team since downing No. 25 Wisconsin in April 2013.
• The Spartans are a perfect 3-0 in one-run games this season, which included a win over No. 22 Tulsa and getting out of a bases-loaded, no-out jam in the sixth inning vs. Drexel. MSU went 4-6 in one-run decisions in 2014.
• The Spartans have scored 24 of their 39 runs in the first three innings this season- and are 6-0 when holding a lead after the fourth inning. MSU has held its opponent to two runs or fewer in five of the 10 games.
• MSU, now with 998 wins, is closing in on it's 1,000 program victory. In the Big Ten, only Michigan (1,512), Nebraska (1,328) and Northwestern (1,104) have won more games. Indiana (991), Penn State (938), and Rutgers (913) are the other programs with 900+ victories.
• MSU's pitching staff - a group greatly hindered by injury last season - has been strong over the first two weeks of the season. MSU is fifth the Big Ten in team ERA (2.47) and fewest runs allowed (31), surrendering just 31 over ten games. The Spartans are also third in strikeouts (32) and second in saves (3).
• The Spartans also had success at the plate. MSU's .265 team batting average is in the top half of Conference schools (seventh), while ranking fifth in on-base percentage (.376). Batters have been issued 34 walks (good for fifth), while near the top of the league in both sacrifice bunts (third, 9) and sac flies (second, 3).
• MSU baserunners have stolen 12 bases, good for fifth in the B1G; in 2014, MSU stole 27 bases on the season.
• A 20-game home schedule and non-conference games against schools from 17 different conferences (including six NCAA Tournament teams and eight conference champions) comprises Michigan State's 2015 schedule.
• MSU will play 18 of 27 games in Florida in the pre-Big Ten portion of the season, playing four in California this weekend and five in Georgia over Spring Break.
• Once the Spartans "come back north", they will play seven non-conference midweek games around their Big Ten schedule, with six of them coming at Secchia Stadium: against Detroit (March 24), Toledo (April 8), Eastern Michigan (April 14), Western Michigan (April 22), and Notre Dame (April 28); the lone road non-conference contest will be at Central Michigan on Wednesday, April 29.
PLAYER NOTES
• Kristina Zalewski was named the Big Ten Freshman of the Week after the first week of the season, and turned in nearly as impressive a second week as her first. Last weekend at FAU, Zalewski went 2-1 and picked up a save, posting a 0.99 ERA in 21 innings pitched, racking up 20 strikeouts against just four walks.
• Zalewski leads the Big Ten in saves (2), and games finished (4), and ranks second in ERA (0.65), wins (4), appearances (8), games in relief (5), while ranking fifth in innings pitched (32.1) and strikeouts (34).
• Dani Goranson, who last pitched in a game in the spring of 2013, returned to the lineup against Morehead State (2/7), tossing three innings, surrendering just one hit and striking out four to earn the save. She owns a 2.42 ERA in four appearances.
• MSU's workhorse a year ago, Valerie Kaff, threw more than 140 innings as a freshman, and came out of the gate in game one with a one-hit gem against Akron, striking out five.
• Junior Shanin Thomas set a school record against Providence, smacking three doubles. She tied the school record for doubles in a single game, most recently accomplished by Ali Grant against Indiana in May 2012. Meghan Darhower (vs. Wright State, 2006) and Shealee Dunavan (vs. Mississippi Sate, 1999) also accomplished the feat. Thomas hit .444 in the weekend tournament at FAU, with a slugging percentage of .778.
• Senior Alyssa McBride led the Spartans at the plate in the FAU tournament, hitting .500 (5-for-10) with a pari of RBI, walking four times. She ranks fourth in the Big Ten in free passes, with eight on the season. Her season .429 batting average, which leads MSU through two weeks, ranks 14th; her .586 on-base percentage is fourth.
• Senior Stephanie Sanders leads the Big Ten in doubles, with four. She also leads the team in RBI, with seven.
• Sarah Gutknecht leads the Spartans in hits (11), and slugging percentage (.667), and ranks second in RBI (6). She also leads the squad with three home runs, which is fifth in the Big Ten.
• Infielder Jacquie Reiser hit .429 with a double and a pair of stolen bases in the opening weekend, and is currently hitting .250 and is a perfect 5-for-5 on stolen bases, good for sixth in the Big Ten.
• Freshmen Lea Foerster and McKenzie Long have seen the most action of any first-year players, each starting nine of 10 games. Foerster is third on the team, batting .346 with nine hits and two RBI; She is 3-for-3 on stolen base attempts and has scored a team-high seven runs. Long is hitting .208, with five hits and three RBI, working six walks - good for second on the team.
• First-year pitcher Bridgette Rainey made her collegiate debut by throwing four innings against Rhode Island on Feb. 6. She allowed two hits and walked two. She also threw 1.1 innings against Akron in the tournament finale, a game in which all four MSU pitchers saw time in the circle.
• McKinzie Freimuth is one of top-fielding players in the league. She ranks second in the Big Ten in putouts (69), and owns a .986 fielding percentage (one error in 73 chances). She brings a four-game hitting streak into the games at UC-Riverside - the longest active streak on the team.
