Michigan State University Athletics
Georgia On Their Mind
3/12/2015 12:00:00 AM | Softball
| Michigan State (10-8) at Mercer Bears Classic | |
| Dates | Fri.- Sun. March 13-15, 2015 |
| Location | Macon, Georgia; Sikes Field |
| Live Statistics | www.msuspartans.com |
| Download Game Notes | Michigan State | Mercer | Youngstown State | Alabama A&M |
| Social Media | @MSU_Softball  | Facebook  |
TOURNAMENT NOTES
• Michigan State wraps up a 10-day spring break odyssey with five games at the Mercer Bears Classic this weekend in Macon, Georgia. MSU will play host Mercer and Alabama A&M twice, and has a single game against Youngstown State on the schedule.
• Live stats will be available for all five games, with links to each at www.MSUSpartans.com.
• MSU's first opponent on Friday, Youngstown State, owns a 2-1 record all-time against the Spartans. The most recent meeting of the teams came in March of 2008, a 6-2 Penguin victory. YSU is 5-9 on the season, with an entire weekend slate at Elon wiped out earlier this year due to weather. MSU and the Penguins don't share any common opponents this season.
• Alabama A&M is 8-10 on the season, and is coming off a 1-3 weekend at the Tiny Laster HBCU Classic in Birmingham, Alabama. This will be the first-ever meeting of the two schools on the softball field.
• The host Mercer Bears have met MSU just once previously, a 9-1 Spartan victory in six innings back in March of 2007. Mercer has played the most games of anyone in this weekend's field, bringing a 15-13 record into the weekend. Mercer's last game came Tuesday at Central Florida, a 7-3 loss to the No. 15 Knights. The Bears have defeated both Central Michigan (10-6) and Western Michigan (5-4) this season - future Spartan opponents once the teams begin playing home contests.
TEAM NOTES
• The Spartans went 2-2 last weekend in Orlando, earning a pair of wins over Bradley (4-3, 7-5 (8)) and falling to both Kent State (9-0) and No. 15 UCF (8-0, (6).
• At 12-10 on the season, the Spartans have matched their 2014 win total. The 12th win last season came on April 20 vs. Iowa.
• Eight of MSU's 22 games have been one-run affairs, and the Spartans are 5-3 in those contests.
• MSU is 10-3 on the season when scoring first, and owns a 9-1 mark when leading after five innings. MSU has scored 43 of its 81 runs on the year in the first three innings.
• Fifteen of MSU's 22 games this season have been neutral-site contests, and MSU holds a 10-5 record in those games. MSU is 2-5 in true road games.
• The Spartans are 11-2 when scoring three runs or more, but 1-8 when scoring two or fewer.
• MSU recorded it's 1,000th victory in program history with a 4-3 win over Florida International on Feb. 28. In the Big Ten, only Michigan (1,512), Nebraska (1,328), Iowa (1,251) and Northwestern (1,104) have won more games.
• MSU's pitching staff - a group greatly hindered by injury in 2014 - has been strong over the opening month of the season. MSU ranks fourth in strikeouts (122), and is fifth the Big Ten in team ERA (3.54), and sixth in runs allowed (87). MSU's staff is also second in the Big Ten in saves (4).
• The Spartans rank in the top half of the Big Ten in the "little things" - ranking first in sacrifice bunts (22), third in sacrifice flies (6), seventh in walks (68), and fourth in stolen bases (33).
• MSU's bats were quiet last weekend at UCF, hitting just .174 over the four games.
• MSU baserunners have stolen 33 bases, good for fourth in the B1G; in 2014, MSU stole 27 bases on the season. MSU is 33-for-35 (.943) on the season in swipes.
• MSU has hit 25 doubles this season, and has 33 extra-base hits overall; MSU has allowed 25 extra-base hits on the year.
• 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 played a total of 18 of 22 games in Florida in the pre-Big Ten portion of the season, and an additional four in California. MSU has five on tap in Georgia this weekend.
• 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
• Senior Alyssa McBride continues to lead the Spartans with a .449 batting average, which is fifth in the Big Ten. She is also fifth in on-base percentage (.547), and tied for 12th in walks (12). McBride has tied her career high with three doubles, and posted a career-best 11 RBI; her 22 hits are two away from bettering her 2014 total.
• McBride had her 11-game hitting streak snapped as MSU was no-hit by Kent State on March 7; she came back with a 3-for-3 effort in the nightcap vs. Bradley that day. It was the second game this season with three hits, a team high.
• Classmate McKinzie Freimuth also has a hot hand, hitting better than .350 for the third straight weekend. She hit .364 at the UCF tournament, racking up a team-best four hits, knocking in three and smacking a double.
• Freimuth has tied her single-season best with five doubles (good for ninth in the Big Ten), and her .317 batting average is currently the best of her career. Her 11 RBI are a also a career best. She has reached base safely in 10 straight games, the current team high, while her three-game hitting streak is also the team's current best.
• Freimuth also continues her sure-handed ways at first base; she has a team-best 145 putouts in 152 chances (good for fourth in the league in both categories, with just one error for a .993 fielding percentage.
• Freshman Lea Foerster is establishing herself in the Spartan lineup. On the season, she is third on the team in batting (.288), with 19 hits and a team-high 13 RBI, scoring a team-high 14 runs and swiping five bases.
• Foerster leads the team with four multiple-RBI games and shares the team lead (with Freimuth) in multiple-hit games (6). She and Sarah Gutknecht share the team lead in extra-base hits (6).
• Kristina Zalewski ranks fifth in the Big Ten in ERA (1.74), and stands sixth in wins (8), and strikeouts (69), seventh in innings pitched (72.1). She also leads the league in saves (3), a total which is seventh all-time in MSU's single-season pitching annals.
• Zalewski is fifth in the league in batters struck out looking (18), and tied for sixth in the league in appearances (16). She is also fourth in the B1G in relief appearances (8).
• MSU's workhorse a year ago, Valerie Kaff is 15th in the league in ERA (3.95), tied for 14th starts (9).
• Junior Jacquie Reiser ranks eighth in the Big Ten with eight stolen bases, and she is 8-for-9 on theft attempts. She leads the league in both sacrifice bunts (7) and hit by pitches (8), and has already matched her hit total from 2015 (5). She led the Big Ten a year ago in sac bunts (13), and has surpassed her career total in stolen bases - she had four last season.
• Bridgette Rainey pitched her first career complete game against UCF, striking out four. The Acworth, Georgia product will play in her home state this weekend.
