Michigan State University Athletics
Softball B1G Play Opens at Nebraska
3/19/2015 12:00:00 AM | Softball
| Michigan State (15-13, 0-0 B1G) at Nebraska (12-12, 0-0 B1G) | |
| Dates | Fri.- Sun. March 20-22, 2015 |
| Location | Lincoln, Nebraska; Bowlin Stadium (cap. 2,500) |
| Webstream | none |
| Live Statistics | www.huskers.com |
| Radio | Nebraska Broadcast |
| Download Game Notes | Michigan State | Nebraska |
| Social Media | @MSU_Softball  | Facebook  |
NEBRASKA SERIES NOTES
• Michigan State opens Big Ten play this weekend, traveling to Lincoln to tangle with Nebraska in a three- game series.
• MSU has met the Huskers five times since they joined the conference, and have played one series at each home field. MSU is 0-7 all-time against Nebraska, 0-5 in two B1G series.
• Nebraska enters the series with a 12-12 overall record, and has gone 6-3 over it's last two weeks after a tough start to the season. Last weekend, the Huskers went 3-1 at the Easton Tournament in Fullerton, Calif, getting run-rule wins over Boise State (11-3), and DePaul (13-2), a 8-3 win over Charleston Southern, and dropped their only game of the trip to the host team, 3-0. Nebraska's pitchers tossed 21 of 29 scoreless innings, eight runs over the four games.
• The Huskers are led at the plate by junior Kiki Stokes, who is fourth in the Big Ten in both batting average (.444) and slugging percentage (.806), with 13 extra-base hits. Sophomore pitcher Cassie McClure is hitting .421 ,while junior Alicia Armstrong rounds out the trio of .400 hitters with a .416 BA. In the circle, McClure leads the way with a 7-2 overall record and 3.26 ERA in 53 innings; junior Emily Lockman owns a 6.09 ERA over a team-high 66.2 innings, and owns a 5-7 overall record.
TEAM NOTES
• The Spartans went 3-2 last weekend in Georgia, earning a pair of wins over Alabama A&M (8-4, 12-0) and one over Youngstown State (7-3), and falling to host Mercer (1-0, 6-0).
• The Spartans finished the tournament portion of their schedule with a 15-12 overall record, the fifth-most wins of any Big Ten team prior to conference play.
• Nine of MSU's 27 games have been one-run affairs, and the Spartans are 5-4 in those contests.
• MSU is 12-3 on the season when scoring first, and owns a 11-2 mark when leading after four innings. MSU has scored 63 of its 108 runs on the year in the first three innings.
• Eighteen of MSU's 27 games this season have been neutral-site contests, and MSU holds a 13-5 record in those games. MSU is 2-7 in true road games.
• The Spartans are 14-2 when scoring three runs or more, but 1-10 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) entered the season with 1,000 or more victories.
• MSU's pitching staff - a group greatly hindered by injury in 2014 - has been strong over the opening month of the season. MSU's pitching staff ranks fourth in strikeouts (151), fifth in team ERA (3.43), and also second in the Big Ten in saves (4).
• The Spartans rank in the top half of the B1G in the "little things" - first in sacrifice bunts (26), second in sacrifice flies (9), eighth in walks (76), and fifth in stolen bases (37). • MSU's bats were quiet last weekend at UCF, hitting just .174 over the four games.
• MSU baserunners have stolen 37 bases, good for fifth in the B1G; in 2014, MSU stole 27 bases on the season. MSU is 37-for-40 (.925) on the season in swipes.
• MSU has hit 32 doubles this season, and has 42 extra-base hits overall; MSU has allowed 33 extra-base hits on the year.
• An 18-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. The Spartans cap a 30-game swing away from East Lansing in Lincoln, but will play 18 of its next 26 at Secchia Stadium, starting Tuesday against Detroit. 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 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.
PLAYER NOTES
• Senior Alyssa McBride continues to lead the Spartans with a .443 batting average, which is sixth in the Big Ten. She is also fifth in on-base percentage (.538), and tied for 11th in walks (14). McBride has tied her career high with three doubles, and posted a career-best 11 RBI; her 27 hits are three more than her 2014 total.
• McBride has three games with a 3-for-3 effort at the plate, most recently against Youngstown State (3/13).
• Classmate 1B McKinzie Freimuth has not only continued her steadfast field defense, but is hitting a career-best .304 this season, has a career-best 12 RBI, and hit a team-best six doubles. MSU has smacked 32 doubles this season after posting 43 a year ago.
• Freimuth also continues her sure-handed ways at first base; she has a team-best 175 putouts in 184 chances (good for fifth and fourth in the league in both categories, respectively) with just one error for a .995 fielding percentage.
• Freshman Lea Foerster is establishing herself in the Spartan lineup. On the season, the center fielder is second on the team in batting (.313), with 26 hits and a team-high 16 RBI, scoring a team-high 18 runs. She is tied for second in the Big Ten with two triples.
• Foerster leads the team with five multiple-RBI games, and seven extra-base hits. At Mercer, she hit .412 with seven hits (including a triple) and had three RBI.
• Freshman McKenzie Long went 8-for-15 on the weekend at Mercer, hitting .533 and smacking four doubles and adding a team-best seven RBI. Against Alabama A&M on 3/14, she went a perfect 4-for-4, the second-most hits in a single game in school history, scoring three times and knocking in a pair of runs.
• Redshirt freshman Kristina Zalewski is among league leaders in ERA (1.63, 4th), wins (11, 4-4th), strikeouts (91), games started (12, 8th), and innings pitched (94.2, 6th). She also is tied for first in the league in saves (3), a total which is seventh all-time in MSU's single-season pitching annals.
• Junior Jacquie Reiser ranks in a tie for ninth in the Big Ten with nine stolen bases, and she is 9-for-10 on theft attempts. She leads the league in both sacrifice bunts (7) and hit by pitches (89), and has already surpassed her hit total from 2014 (5) by smacking her first career home run against Alabama A&M. 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.
