Second Half Of Spring Break Slate Starts at CBU

2020 Softball Week Four
CAL BAPTIST CBU TOURNAMENT // UCR SPRING BREAK INVITATIONAL
Dates	Thursday-Saturday, March 5-7, 2020
Location	Riverside, Calif. \| John C Funk Stadium (Thursday/Saturday) \| Tickets A my S. Harrison Field (Friday) \| Tickets
Spartan Schedule
Thurs., 8 pm ET/ 5 PT	at California Baptist (DH) Live Stats \| Webstream
Fri., 2:30 ET/ 11:30 PT	vs. CSU-Bakersfield (at UCR) Live Stats
Fri., 5 pm ET/ 2 PT	vs. UC-Riverside Live Stats
Sat.., 4 pm ET/ 1 PT	vs. Southern Utah (at CBU) Live Stats \| W atch: Facebook Live
Game Notes	Michigan State \| UC Riverside \| C alifornia Baptist \| S outhern Utah
Social Media	Facebook Twitter Instagram

THE WEEKEND AHEAD

• Michigan State will play five games to wrap up its spring break trip to California. The Spartans will play a doubleheader against host California Baptist on Thursday evening, then a single game against Southern Utah at CBU on Saturday. On Friday, MSU will take on CSU-Bakersfield and UC-Riverside at the Amy S. Harrison Field at Riverside.

TEAM NOTES
• The Spartans have five California natives on the 2020 roster: Brooke Snyder (Westlake Village), Erica Holt (Newport Beach), Mackenzie Meech (Riverside) and Caitie and Sarah Ladd (Los Alamitos).

• The Spartans have a very youthful look in 2020, with six juniors and six freshmen, four sophomores, and just one senior (Katelyn Hendershott).

• MSU is 5-12 after splitting four games at UC-Riverside's Amy S. Harrison Tournament last week. The Spartans lost their first two to Nebraska-Omaha (4-2) and Montana (6-0) before posting six-inning run-rule victories in the rematch with UNO (11-3) and against host UC-Riverside (10-1).

• The Spartans opened the 2020 season with eight straight games against Power Five conference schools (Cal x2, Syracuse, Penn State, Pitt x2, Clemson x2). Only Liberty University has played more consecutive games against P5 competition to start the season - 13 games.

• MSU had its best weekend at the plate at UCR, hitting .319 as a team with six doubles, two triples, two homers, and 22 RBI. MSU also worked 10 walks over the four games.

• While MSU is still looking to improve its overall team batting average on the season (.255, ninth B1G), the Spartans have consistently produced some quality at-bats. MSU ranks fifth in the B1G in walks (56), and has the fourth-fewest strikeouts, with 79 in 501 plate appearances.

• MSU's pitching staff has shown vast growth and improvement from its returning players and gotten a boost from a talented freshman. The staff boasts a 2.43 ERA (fifth, B1G) and has allowed a league-low 37 earned runs in 106.2 innings pitched. The staff is averaging 0.78 K's per inning in 2020 compared to 0.45 in 2019. Also, the staff issued 0.46 walks per inning in 2019, compared to 0.33 through the first 17 games this season.

• The Spartans will play 28 games away from East Lansing before their scheduled home opener on March 25. MSU plays its first two B1G series - against Northwestern and Iowa - on the road. MSU has 16 games scheduled in the month of April, with 12 of those at Secchia Stadium, before wrapping up the B1G slate at Maryland May 1-3.

• Spartan head coach Jacquie Joseph is in her 27th season at the helm of the Spartan softball program, and is the longest-tenured coach in program history, along with being the second-longest-tenured head coach in MSU's athletics department. She earned her 700th victory as the Spartan mentor on March 8, 2019 vs. Mercer, and she owns 844 wins overall.

• Joseph is the third-longest tenured head coach in the Big Ten Conference, behind Carol Hutchins (Michigan, 35th season) and Rhonda Revelle (Nebraska, 27th.)

• Joseph's staff consists of pitching coach Ben Sorden, hitting coach Corrie Hill, and volunteer Erin Pond. Sorden begins his third season with the Spartan pitchers, while Hill joined the staff in the fall of 2018. Sorden and Pond both have previous Big Ten experience - Sorden was on staff at Indiana before coming to MSU, and Pond was a Penn State letterwinner. Hill spent 16 seasons as the hitting coach at Texas after serving as the head coach at UTSA from 1998-2005.

PLAYER NOTES - PITCHERS
• MSU posted a team ERA of 3.21 in a 2-2 weekend at UCR. Alli Walker tossed eight innings with three K's and a 1.75 ERA, while Sarah Ladd went 16 innings, struck out 17, and had an ERA of 3.94. Both pitchers earned a win and a save.

• Walker boasts a season ERA of 1.81 (fourth, B1G), is third in the league in relief appearances (8), and has 12 overall appearances (11th, B1G). She started two of the four games at UCR, earning the save in the victory over Riverside and the save against

• Ladd, a freshman, ranks 14th in the Big Ten in ERA (2.60), eighth in innings pitched (59.1), tenth in strikeouts (56), and fourth in both appearances (14) and starts (10).

PLAYER NOTES - FIELD PLAYERS
• Freshman Camryn Wincher had an explosive weekend at the plate, going 7-for-14 with three RBI, including multiple-hit outings in each of her last three games. She has started 14 of her 16 games at shortstop and is has improved her batting average to .310, good for second on the team.

• Sophomore Courtney Callahan is the only player to start every game of the season at the same position (all 17 in left field). She was 6-for-13 over last weekend's games, which included her first career homer and triple.

• Caitie Ladd had five base hits (including two doubles) at UCR , hitting .357. She leads the Spartans with a .353 average on the season (15th, B1G), boasting a .476 on-base percentage (sixth, B1G) and is third in the B1G in walks (13).

• Riverside native Mackenzie Meech hit .308 last weekend with two doubles, a homer, and a team-best seven RBI. She's hitting .277 on the year with six doubles and 14 RBI, which ranks third and eighth, respectively, in the Big Ten.

• Meech and Caitie Ladd both had two doubles in MSU's most recent game against UC-Riverside, the second-most in a single game in school history. Meech has three career games with two doubles, and CLadd two.

• Shae Schreckengost was walked three times in the game against UC-Riverside, the second-most in a game in program history. Schreckengost owns a .250 batting average on the season with two doubles and six walks. She started all four games behind the plate last weekend.

• Joanna Bartz hit .333 at UCR, with a double, and one RBI. She owns a .303 average on the season (third on the team),, ranks second in walks (7), and has three RBI.

• Katie Quinlan owns a .268 average with nine RBI, just four strikeouts and a team-best six stolen bases. She had her second triple of the season (and third of her career) last weekend, posting four RBI.

• Freshman Brooke Snyder picked up the first two base hits of her career last weekend in her first games in her home state. Her hits came in MSU's Sunday victories over Nebraska-Omaha and UC-Riverside. She's now 2-for-4 with a walk in her plate appearances and 2-for-4 on stolen base attempts.

• Erica Holt started three of the four games last weekend in California, and is hitting .205 with eight base hits (one triple) and three RBI. She's drawn five walks and struck out just twice, (the lowest number among starters). She has started 13 of MSU's 17 games this season.

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Players Mentioned

Joanna Bartz

Courtney Callahan

Erica Holt

Caitie Ladd

Sarah Ladd

Mackenzie Meech

Katie Quinlan

Shae Schreckengost

Brooke Snyder

Alli Walker

Camryn Wincher