Michigan State University Athletics
Spartans Head to Florida to Lead Off Season
2/5/2015 12:00:00 AM | Softball
| Michigan State (0-0) at Westin Lake Mary Leadoff Classic | |
| Dates | Fri.- Sun. February 6-8, 2015 |
| Location | DeLand, Fla.; Patricia Wilson Field (Cap. 1,000) |
| Webstream | Live Video Stream (Game vs. Stetson only; subscription required) |
| Live Statistics | |
| Download Game Notes | Michigan State |
| Season Preview | Watch |
| Social Media | @MSU_Softball  | Facebook  |
SERIES NOTES
• Michigan State heads DeLand, Florida to participate in the Westin Lake Mary Leadoff Classic at Stetson. MSU will play Akron (twice), Morehead State, and Rhode Island in addition to the host Hatters.
• MSU is playing in Stetson's Leadoff Classic for the fifth time in six years, and is overall making its seventh trip to DeLand in the tenure of Jacquie Joseph.
• MSU owns a 1-4 record all-time against Akron, with the last meetings between the teams a doubleheader sweep by the Zips in the 1992 season. The teams will meet on both Friday and Sunday, the opening and closing games of the tournament for MSU.
• The Spartans and Rams have met just twice all-time, with MSU sweeping URI last year in a doubleheader (5-0, 9-0) in the opening weekend at Stetson.
• MSU is 4-3 all-time against the host Hatters, splitting the two most recent meetings: the hosts took a 5-1 win in 2014 and MSU came away with a 4-1 win in 2013.
LOGISTICS
• Live stats will be available via Stat Broadcast, with links to each of the five games at www.MSUSpartans.com.
• Saturday's game against the host Stetson Hatters will air live on HatterVision, at www.gohatters.com.
TEAM NOTES
• MSU is looking to rebound from an injury-plagued 2014 season in which it went 12-37 overall and 4-19 in Big Ten play. Only four players appeared in all 49 games, and only two started each contest.
• MSU holds a 30-14 record all-time in season-opening games, which includes a 13-8 mark under Joseph.
• The February 6 opening games is the earliest start to a season in program history.
• 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 and five in Georgia.
• 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.
• MSU was limited to just 10 home games in 2014. The Spartans lost six games to weather cancellations and also had to move the Big Ten-opening series to Purdue.
• MSU's infield features mostly underclassmen, with the exception being senior 1B McKinzie Freimuth. The duo of Jacquie Reiser and Destinee Luna are juniors, while Sarah Gutknecht (3B), catcher Lindsey Besson, and three of MSU's four pitchers have thrown in a collegiate game - sophomores Dani Goranson and Valerie Kaff, and redshirt freshman Kristina Zalewski. Freshman McKenzie Long has earned a starting spot at short. Three of MSU's outfielders are seniors- Alyssa McBride, Stephanie Sanders, and Ellie Stoffer - along with sophomore left fielder Kassidy Kujawa. First-year players Lea Foerster and Sydney Heath look to earn time in the outfield, as does freshman catcher Jordan Davis behind the sophomore Besson.
PLAYER NOTES
• MSU's opponents were the beneficiary of MSU's thin pitching staff a year ago, which had just two healthy hurlers. Valerie Kaff ranked second among freshmen pitchers in the Big Ten in both innings pitched and appearances, as she threw a team-best 141.2 innings in 30 games, earning 21 starts.
• In 2014, only two players started in all 49 contests, - the middle infield duo of 2B Jacquie Reiser and SS Destinee Luna.
• Two players - both pitchers - had medical redshirts granted for the 2014 season. Dani Goranson missed the entire year, while Kristina Zalewski threw just 33.1 innings and was injured right before the start of Big Ten play.
• The top three hitters in the Spartan lineup last year were freshmen. Sarah Gutknecht owned the team lead in batting average (.291), hits (41), RBI (25), homers (6), and doubles (11); catcher Lindsey Besson hit .270 with three doubles and nine RBI, while Kassidy Kujawa hit .250 with 13 RBI on 30 hits, which included eight doubles and three homers. Kujawa was also second on the team in walks, with 19.
• Gutknecht played the most positions on the field of any player on the roster. She logged games in right field, third and first base, in addition to being the designated player. She played all of the Big Ten season, and the most games overall, at third base.
• Only three times last season did Gutknecht go back-to-back games, and never three in a row, without a hit (all in the pre-conference season). She had at least one hit in 17 of 23 Big Ten games.
• Stephanie Sanders had limited opportunities due to injuries last season, but hit .230 (fifth on the team) and was second on the team in RBI (17). Even when she couldn't play in the field, she went 7-for-12 as a pinch hitter with 10 RBI.
• Spartan batters were hit by pitches 56 times, the most in the league. Destinee Luna was hit a team-high eight times, which ranked 11th in the Big Ten; Freimuth, Kujawa, and Jacquie Reiser were each hit seven times.
• McKinzie Freimuth is one of top-fielding players in the league. She is just outside the league's top 12 in putouts (240), and committed just three errors in 249 chances - a fielding percentage of .988. Kassidy Kujawa (.988, 83 po, 1 E) and Lindsey Besson (.981, 150 po, 3 E) ranked second and third, respectively, on the roster in fielding pct.
• Alyssa McBride leads all active players in both games played (150) and starts (147). Freimuth has played and started 146 career games.
• McBride walked a team-high 20 times in 2014, owned the team's longest hitting streak of the season (six games) and also the longest streak of consecutive games reaching base safely (13).
• MSU led the B1G a year ago in sacrifice bunts (53), nine more than second-place Indiana. Jacquie Reiser set an MSU single-game record with four sacrifice hits in the 5-2 win over UNC-Wilmington on Feb. 21. Those four sacrifice bunts were the most by any Big Ten player in a game in 2014. Reiser's 13 sac bunts were the most in the B1G and ranked 16th nationally.
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