Friday, February 24
Cleveland S. Harley Baseball Park | Spartanburg, S.C.
3 p.m.
Michigan State University
at
USC Upstate
Michigan State Heads To South Carolina For First Of Three Weekends In Palmetto State
2/23/2023 4:47:00 PM | Baseball
MSU opens weekend in all-Spartan battle vs USC Upstate on Friday, then takes on Gardner-Webb Saturday before wrapping up weekend with Presbyterian.
| MICHIGAN STATE (3-1, 0-0 B1G) at USC Upstate, Gardner-Webb and Presbyterian | |
| Teams | Michigan State, USC Upstate, Gardner-Webb and Presbyterian |
| Location | Harley Park / Spartanburg, S.C. || Bill Masters Field at John Henry Moss Stadium / Boiling Springs, N.C. || PC Baseball Complex / Clinton, S.C. |
| Tickets | USC Upstate - Free Admission | Gardner-Webb Tickets | Presbyterian - Free Admission |
| Weather | High/Low - Fri: 71° / 48° | Sat: 53° / 48° | Sun: 74° / 57° |
| Game Notes | MICHIGAN STATE | USC UPSTATE | GARDNER-WEBB | PRESBYTERIAN |
| Social Media |  @MSUbaseball |  MichiganStateBaseball  @msu_baseball |
| Television | None |
| Game 1 | MSU vs. USC Upstate | Friday, Feb. 24 | 3 p.m. ET |
| Probable Pitching Matchup | USCU: #31 R-JR RHP Reese Dutton (1-0, 0.00 ERA) MSU: #16 FR LHP Joseph Dzierwa (1-0, 0.00 ERA) |
| Coverage | Live Stats | Watch Live |
| Game 2 | MSU vs. Gardner-Webb | Sunday, Feb. 25 | 2 p.m. ET |
| Probable Pitching Matchup | GWU: #38 SO LHP Tyler Switalski (0-1, 3.18 ERA) MSU: #29 R-SO RHP Noah Matheny (0-1, 7.20 ERA) |
| Coverage | Live Stats | Watch Live - None |
| Game 3 | MSU vs. Presbyterian | Sunday, Feb. 26 | 1 p.m. ET |
| Probable Pitching Matchup | PC: #31 JR LHP Charlie McDaniel (0-1, 7.50 ERA) MSU: #17 SR RHP Andrew Carson (1-0, 0.00 ERA) |
| Coverage | Live Stats | Watch Live - None |
• Michigan State baseball heads to South Carolina for the weekend playing in the OneSpartanburg, Inc. Baseball Classic Friday-Sunday, Feb. 24-26, facing three different teams in three days, rotating with fellow visiting teams Northwestern and Toledo in playing at USC Upstate, Gardner-Webb and Presbyterian ... MSU opens the weekend in an all-Spartans clash vs. USC Upstate on Friday, Feb. 24 at 3 p.m., followed by heading to Boiling Springs, N.C. to take on Gardner-Webb on Saturday at 2 p.m., marking the first-ever meeting ... Michigan State concludes the weekend in the Spartanburg area by playing Presbyterian on Sunday at 1 p.m.
• Fans can follow this weekend's action with "Watch Live" and "Live Stats" links at MSUSpartans.com ... Friday and Sunday's games will streamed on ESPN+, with a subscription fee.
SPARTAN STRONG
This is MSU's second weekend following the mass shooting on the East Lansing campus on Monday, Feb. 13, when three MSU students were killed and five were hospitalized. Michigan State University canceled classes last week following the deaths of the three students – juniors Arielle Anderson and Alexandria Verner and sophomore Brian Fraser.
Michigan State players are wearing "Spartan Strong" stickers on their helmets in a tribute of the three lives lost and for the five students still hospitalized, and several players have personal tributes as well.
Classes resumed on Monday, Feb. 20.
MEDIA ADVISORY (when discussing the events of Monday, Feb. 13)
• Can describe the shooting that happened on Feb. 13 as "The violence the Michigan State community experienced."
• Refrain from or be spare with the use of adjectives: Horrific, senseless, devastating, etc.
• Use "students" instead of "victims."
• Referring to this event as "a tragedy" is okay. Saying "tragic loss of life" is also okay.
SOUTH CAROLINA TRAVELING
• MSU's travel theme music for the next three weeks will be James Taylor's "Carolina In My Mind" as this weekend marks the first of three-straight weekends the Spartans will be playing in the Palmetto State, as MSU will return next weekend on its Spring Break, opening the weekend in Charleston, before heading back to Greenville for the remainder of the week, playing at the Spartans' home-away-from home, Fluor Field, home of the Greenville Drive ... MSU plays at College of Charleston on Friday, March 3; at Charleston Southern on Saturday, March 4; then back at College of Charleston on Sunday, March 5 ... the Spartans then play Air Force in a neutral-site meeting on Monday, March 6 at Shipyard Park ... Michigan State then heads to Greenville, S.C. to play at Fluor Field, where MSU will meet Wofford on Wednesday, March 8, before hosting the First Pitch Invitational, taking on Western Carolina and Kansas in a rotating schedule March 10-12.
LAST WEEK IN THE DESERT
• MSU started the season at the 2023 MLB Desert Invitational in the Phoenix, Arizona area, beginning with a 15-8 win over Michigan in the season-opener on Feb. 17, then split a day-night doubleheader with Fresno State, winning 7-4, and Arizona, losing 7-1, to wrap up the Desert Invite action ... the Spartans then wrapped up the extended weekend with a 7-1 win at Grand Canyon on Monday, the same GCU team that upset No. 2 Tennessee on Saturday night ... MSU playing its third game in 24 hours, after playing a day-night doubleheader on Sunday that started at 1 p.m. MT / 3 p.m. ET, beating Fresno State, 7-4, Sunday afternoon before losing to Arizona, 7-1, in the night cap, then taking on Grand Canyon in an 11 a.m. MT / 1 p.m. ET start time, before MSU flew home to East Lansing Monday evening.
3-1 OR BETTER THROUGH FIRST FOUR IN LAST FOUR SEASONS
• Michigan State is 3-1 on the young season, marking the fourth-straight season and the sixth time in the last eight seasons that the Spartans have opened 3-1 or better, after also starting 3-1 last year at UNLV; 3-1 vs. Maryland at Fluor Field in Greenville, S.C., in 2021 in the B1G-only slate; 4-0 in 2020, taking on Morehead State in a four-game series at Shipyard Park in Charleston, S.C.; 3-1 in 2017 in the First Pitch Invitational at Fluor Field; and 4-0 in 2016 also in the First Pitch Invitational at Fluor Field ... Overall, it is the 10th time in the 15 seasons under head coach Jake Boss Jr. that the Spartans have started 3-1 or better, also doing so in 2010, 2011, 2013 and 2014.
SEASON-OPENING SUCCESS
• The 15-8 Victory for MSU over Michigan in the season-opener marked the fourth time in the last five seasons that the Spartans were victorious in their season-opener, getting back on the winning track after dropping last year's lid-lifter at UNLV following winning the previous three openers ... overall, MSU is 12-3 in the 15 season-openers under Coach Boss, only losing in 2013 vs. Furman, 2018 at Fresno State and 2022 at UNLV.
TWO MSU BASEBALL PLAYERS EARN BIG TEN WEEKLY HONORS
• Michigan State baseball players Brock Vradenburg and Dominic Pianto both collected weekly award honors from the Big Ten Conference, the league office announced Tuesday afternoon. Vradenburg garnered Player of the Week accolades, while Pianto was tabbed Co-Pitcher of the Week.
Both Vradenburg and Pianto collected their first career weekly B1G honors for their performances over the weekend in Phoenix, helping MSU to a 3-1 record, marking the third-straight season that the Spartans have opened 3-1 or better. Vradenburg is MSU's first B1G Player of the Week Award since Mitch Jebb collected the honor on March 16 of last season, while Pianto is the first Spartan to earn B1G Pitcher of the Week since Sam Benschoter on April 27, 2021.
Vradenburg, a junior from Pasadena, Calif., hit .556 (10-for-18) for the weekend with four RBI, seven runs scored, with a double and triple, and also drawing two walks. He posted a .600 on-base percentage for the weekend, along with a .722 slugging percentage, logging three hits in three of the four games and had two RBI each in a pair of games, along with scoring at least two runs in three of the four games, adding three runs in the win over Fresno State.
The Spartans' first baseman started the season and the weekend going 3-for-5 with two ribbies and two runs scored in MSU's emotional win over Michigan, the Spartans' first game after the shooting on campus at MSU, as the Spartans rallied from down 5-1. He knocked in MSU first run of game with an RBI single in the first inning, then after drawing a walk in the third frame, roped a triple to the right-center gap in the fifth to spark the Spartan comeback, later scoring a run as well. In the eighth, he again sparked the rally leading off the inning with a single to center and two batters later scored the Spartans' first run of the inning, and later batted again in the inning, reaching on an RBI fielder's choice, part of a seven-run stanza.
Vradenburg went 3-for-4 with three runs scored in the 7-1 Victory for MSU over Fresno State, including giving MSU the 3-2 lead when he scored in the third after a walk. He also sparked a Spartan rally in the fifth with a single to lead off the frame, coming around to score from first on a double by Jack Frank, then knocked a ground-rule double in the seventh into the bullpen down the right-field line. In the ninth, he laced a single and later came around to score MSU's final run of the game to secure the 7-4 win.
In the loss to Arizona, Vradenburg knocked his lone hit in the game with a single in the sixth.
He wrapped up the weekend going 3-for-5 with two RBI and two runs scored in the 7-1 win over Grand Canyon, the same team that beat No. 2 Tennessee on Saturday. Vradenburg got MSU's scoring going with an RBI single in the third inning for the Spartans' first run of the day, and came around to score the second and last run of the inning as the Spartans took a 2-0 lead. He started the Spartan rally in the seventh by leading off with a single and came around to score on a sac fly, and capped weekend with an RBI single in the eighth.
Pianto, a redshirt-sophomore relief pitcher from Hendersonville, Tenn., came on with two on and two outs in the first inning with MSU already down 2-0 to Fresno State in Sunday's game. He then went the remaining 8.1 innings of relief for a new career-long outing, ringing up a career-high tying four strikeouts, with just three hits and only yielding one earned run without a walk, as MSU rallied for a 7-4 triumph
The Spartan hurler rang up a total of five 3-up, 3-down innings in the eight innings he started the frame, starting with opening the second with back-to-back strikeouts, then worked around a one-out single in the fourth, another in-order inning in the fourth and fifth, ending with another K, before some defensive miscues led to Bulldog base runners in the sixth and scoring two runs, one earned, before getting out of the jam by fielding position on a comebacker and starting a 1-6-3 double play to end the inning. After retiring Fresno State in order in the seventh and eighth, he worked around a one-out single in the ninth, getting a popup and flyout to end the game and seal the Victory for MSU.
DOUBLE THE SPARTAN B1G AWARDS
• With Brock Vradenburg winning B1G Player of the Week and Dominic Pianto winning B1G Pitcher of the Week, it marked the first time since April 29, 2013 that two Spartan players collected weekly honors in the same week, when Blaise Salter collected Freshman of the Week accolades and Andrew Waszak was tabbed Pitcher of the Week ... it was the first time since Feb. 28, 2011 that two Spartans won both the Player and Pitcher awards in the same week, when Brandon Ecklerle was named the Player of the Week, while Kurt Wunderlich was the Pitcher of the Week.
MAYES MAKING MARK
• Last season, senior outfielder Casey Mayes led not just MSU, but also the B1G as part of ranking tied for third in the NCAA with seven triples ... Mayes picked up right where he left off, knocking a triple in game two in MSU's 7-4 win over Fresno State.
The triple vs. Fresno State was the 10th career triple for Mayes, moving into the MSU Career Top 10 Triples list, tying for No. 9 with Chris Roberts (2007-10), Alex Gagin (1989-92) and Abe Eliowitz (1931-33).
PROFESSIONAL STADIUM EXPERIENCE
• This weekend's three games of the MLB Desert Invitational are Michigan State's first games played in two different professional stadiums ... overall, MSU is slated to play eight official games and one exhibition contest in four different professional stadiums.
The Spartans will also play five games this season at their home-away-from-home, Fluor Field, in Greenville, S.C., home of the Greenville Drive, taking on Wofford (March 8), then hosting the 2023 First Pitch Invitational on March 10-12 against Western Carolina and Kansas.
Michigan State will take on the Lansing Lugnuts, the High-A affiliate of the Oakland A's, in the 2023 Crosstown Showdown on April 4 at Jackson Field in an exhibition game.
Last season, MSU played in five different professional stadiums, and playing 15 official games, along with one exhibition contest.
The Spartans played at US Bank Stadium, home of the Minnesota Vikings, for the Minnesota Cambria Classic, for the first meeting with Notre Dame on March 5, along with Kansas (March 4) and West Virginia (March 6), going 2-1 ... MSU also played at its home-away-from-home, Fluor Field, in Greenville, S.C., home of the Greenville Drive, March 9 & 10-13, going 2-2.
The Spartans played the Lansing Lugnuts in the Crosstown Showdown on April 6 at Jackson Field (L, 3-2 in exhibition), and then Michigan State returned to Jackson Field on April 15 to take on Michigan in the Capital Clash, losing the in-state battle ... MSU also played No. 12 Notre Dame at Comeria Park, home of the Detroit Tigers on April 26, winning 6-2.
Michigan State played at Penn State at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park, home of the State College Spikes minor league team, losing all three ballgames with the Nittany Lions May 8-9 ... MSU then played Nebraska at Hawks Field at Haymarket Park in Lincoln, home of the Lincoln Saltdogs of the American Association of Professional Baseball.
MICHIGAN STATE ONE OF 10 SCHOOLS WITH A CFP, MF4 AND CWS APPEARANCE
• Michigan State is one of 10 schools in the country with a College Football Playoff, Men's Basketball Final Four appearance and a College World Series appearance, including one of three Big Ten Conference schools:
Michigan State
Florida State
Georgia
LSU
Michigan
Notre Dame
Ohio State
Oklahoma
Oregon
Washington
TRIO OF SPARTANS EARN B1G PRESEASON PLAYERS TO WATCH ACCOLADES
• Three Michigan State baseball players earned Big Ten Preseason Players to Watch honors, as the conference announced its preseason honors list and preseason poll on Thursday, ahead of Friday's 2023 season-opening action around the conference.
The conference coaches voted on the top six teams and also selected three student-athletes from their own squads to a Preseason Honors list.
Junior infielders Trent Farquhar and Mitch Jebb, along with senior outfielder Casey Mayes garnered preseason recognition.
Farquhar, a native of Highland, Mich., is now a two-time Preseason All-B1G honoree, after earning recognition last season ... he also has garnered B1G honors in the classroom, as he is a two-time Academic All-Big Ten honoree and also earned Big Ten Distinguished Scholar accolades.
The Spartans' primary second baseman was the recipient of the Danny Litwhiler Defensive Player of the Year MSU Team Award for the second-straight year ... Last season, he started all 54 games at second base, leading the Big Ten in fielding double plays with 39, helping MSU lead the B1G and rank fifth in the NCAA with 53 double plays, as well as leading the conference and ranking sixth in the country with 0.98 double plays per game ... For the season, Farquhar posted 143 assists and 115 putouts.
At the plate, Farquhar hit .271 with 29 RBI in 2022, as well as ranking tied for second on the team with six home runs, including the first grand slam of his Spartan career in MSU's season-finale at Nebraska on May 21 ... Farquhar was also second on the team with a .392 on-base percentage, 34 walks and eight hit by pitches, along with third in both runs scored (37) and doubles (13) ... He had a nine-game hitting streak (March 29 - April 13), ranking fourth on the Spartan squad, as well as ranking second with an 18-game reached base streak ... Farquhar was also fourth on the team in multiple hit games (14) and tied for fourth in multiple RBI games (6).
Jebb, a native of Saginaw, Mich., is also a two-time Preseason All-B1G award collector ... The Spartans' primary shortstop also earned Third-Team All-Big Ten Conference honors in 2022 and named to Big Ten All-Freshman Team in 2021.
Jebb has been tabbed to several 2023 preseason MLB Prospects lists, including No. 44 on MLB's Top 100 Prospects; No. 60 on d1baseball.com's College Top 100 Prospects and the No. 76 MLB Draft Prospect by ProspectsLive.
He is coming off a big summer of 2022 in which he finished ranked No. 3 on Baseball America's Top 50 Cape Cod League Prospects list, after helping the Harbor Hawks to the West Division Championship series, ending with a 22-16-6 record, hitting .356 in 149 at-bats, leading the Harbor Hawks with eight doubles and three triples, while swiping 26 stolen bases ... Jebb was also elected to the West Division All-Star Team for the 2022 Cape Cod League All-Star Game for the Hyannis Harbor Hawks.
Jebb was selected as the 2022 MSU John Kobs Most Valuable Player Award recipient as well as the Kirk Gibson Offensive Player of the Year for the team awards ... He led MSU and ranked tied for eighth in the B1G with a .356 average, also topping the team and ranking fifth in the B1G with 78 hits ... Additionally, Jebb led the team in stolen bases and walks, ranking eighth in the conference with 20 stolen bases and sixth in the league with 38 walks ... He was tied for second on team with six home runs ... Furthermore, Jebb led the B1G and ranked 17th in the NCAA in toughest to strikeout - with just one K every 13.7 ABs - on just 16 Ks in 209 ABs.
He also tied for second on the team and tied for seventh in the B1G with three triples ... Jebb also had MSU's longest hitting streak (14 games) and reached base streak (19 games), along with team-high for multiple hit games (23) and multiple RBI games (12) ... The Spartan shortstop started the season on a 14-game hitting streak that was part of a 21-game hitting streak dating back to the last seven games of 2021 season ... He also had an eight-game hitting streak (April 29-May 11) and a seven-game hitting streak (April 17-26), as well as finishing the season with a six-game hitting streak (May 14-21), ending the year with at least one hit in 14 of the last 15 games, 29 of last 34 games ... Jebb did not go hitless in back-to-back games during the last 34-game stretch of the season, with that 34-game streak coming after only a stretch of consecutive games without a hit in a three-game spurt (March 25-27) during three-game Illinois series, one of only two teams that didn't have a hit against, joining one game vs. Purdue Fort Wayne ... He had at least one hit in 45 of the 54 games.
In the field, the Spartan shortstop was third in the B1G with 29 fielding double plays, and sixth in assists with 138 ... He was named Big Ten Player of the Week on March 16, for first career B1G weekly honor, for performance during MSU's four games during the week of March 7-13 in Greenville, South Carolina at Fluor Field, highlighted by belting two HR in the same game including a leadoff HR and then a two-run walk-off HR to cap the Spartan comeback in a 10-8 Victory for MSU over Cincinnati, for first multi-HR game of career.
Mayes, a Wichita, Kan. native, earns his first B1G recognition for playing, as he is a three-time Academic All-Big Ten and Big Ten Distinguished Scholar honoree, and recipient of the MSU Scholar-Athlete Award at the Spartan Academic Excellence Gala (April 11, 2022), for having the highest GPA on the baseball team ... He also earned the Jerry Sutton Student-Athlete MSU Team Award.
In 2022, Mayes started all 54 games, and was one of three Spartans to do so, joining Jebb and Farquhar ... Mayes made 49 starts in left field and five starts at DH ... He led MSU and the Big Ten as part of ranking tied for third in the NCAA with seven triples, including two in the Penn State series and added one at Michigan on May 17, scoring on an error on the play for a "Little League" home run.
Mayes also ranked second on the team with a .306 average, additionally ranking second on the team in hits (68), third in total bases (104), tied for third in stolen bases (11), fourth in slugging percentage (.468), fifth in home runs (4), runs scored (29) and RBI (28), and tied for fifth in doubles (10) ... He was also second on team with 21 multiple hit games with two hits in 15 games and three hits in six games.
The Spartan outfielder opened the season with a season-long eight-game hitting streak (Feb. 18-March 4), including six multiple-hit games in that stretch, highlighted by back-to-back three-hit outings in games against UNLV (Feb. 19 and 20) along with four games with two hits, including in all three games of the series at Abilene Christian (Feb. 27 and 28), going 6-for-11 with a double and triple in the three games.
He knocked in multiple RBI in six games to tie for third on the team, with two ribbies in four games, while driving in a career-high tying three RBI in two other games ... Additionally, he tallied three games with multiple extra-base hits ... In the outfield, Mayes made 90 putouts and had one assist.
BIG BATS RETURNING
• Michigan State returns its top five players in seven different offensive categories at the plate: batting average, slugging percentage, on-base percentage, runs, hits, home runs and RBI.
All five of the Spartans' top average hitters return in Mitch Jebb (.356), Casey Mayes (.306), Jack Frank (.294), Brock Vradenburg (.280), Bryan Broecker (.271).
MSU also returns its top five in slugging percentage in Frank (.527), Jebb (.511), Christian Williams (.470), Mayes (.468) and Vradenburg (.446).
The Green & White also has its top five in on-base percentage back in Jebb (.448), Trent Farquhar (.392), Frank (.376), Vradenburg (.363) and Broecker (.358).
In runs scored, MSU has tops five returns in Frank and Jebb (38), Farquhar (37), Broecker (31) and Mayes (29).
Jebb also tops the five Spartan returners in hits (78), followed by Mayes (68), Frank (59), Farquhar (56) and Broecker (48).
In home runs, Frank led the way (9), preceding Farquhar and Jebb (6), Vradenburg (5) and Mayes (4).
Additionally, Jebb topped the team in RBI (46), followed by Frank (34), Vradenburg and Farquhar (29) and Mayes (28).
ALMOST ALL ROUND-TRIPPERS RETURNING
• Along with the top five for home runs last year, Michigan State returns 92.3 percent of its home runs from 2022, returning 36 of the 39 home runs from a year ago.
BIG RETURNS ON MOUND
• Michigan State's pitching staff also has big returns, with 68.9 percent of its strikeout totals returning, led by its top three for punchouts, led by team-leader, right-hander Harrison Cook (50), along with southpaw Nick Powers (45) ... While the Spartans lost the number four and five spots on the team totals, they do have the number six spot back in righty Ryan Szczepaniak (35).
Additionally, the Spartan pitchers have the top three for batters struck out looking back in staff-leaders Cook and Carson (18), along with Powers (13).
The Green & White also has a majority of its starts and innings pitched returning, including four of the top five, led by numbers one and two in Cook (13), followed by Powers (11), along with fourth in Szczepaniak (8) and tied for fifth in Aidan Arbaugh (4) ... overall, the Spartans have 72.2 percent (39 of 54) of their starts returning.
For innings pitched, MSU has four of the top five back in number two Powers (58.2), followed by Cook (53.2), Rush (43.2) and Szczepaniak (42.1) ... overall, the Green & White pitchers have 66.6 percent (313.1 of 470.2 IP) of their inning pitched back in 2023.
UP NEXT
• MSU will return next weekend on its Spring Break, opening the weekend in Charleston, before heading back to Greenville for the remainder of the week, playing at the Spartans' home-away-from home, Fluor Field, home of the Greenville Drive ... MSU plays at College of Charleston on Friday, March 3; at Charleston Southern on Saturday, March 4; then back at College of Charleston on Sunday, March 5 ... the Spartans then play Air Force in a neutral-site meeting on Monday, March 6 at Shipyard Park ... Michigan State then heads to Greenville, S.C. to play at Fluor Field, where MSU will meet Wofford on Wednesday, March 8, before hosting the First Pitch Invitational, taking on Western Carolina and Kansas in a rotating schedule March 10-12 ... MSU's weekend schedule is subject to change.
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