Spartan Baseball Opens 2024 Season At Shipyard Park In Charleston, S.C.

MICHIGAN STATE (0-0, 0-0 B1G) at 2024 SWIG & SWINE CLASSIC)
Location	Shipyard Park \|\| Charleston, S.C.
Tickets	Shipyard Park Tickets
Weather	High/Low -- Fri: 65^° / 54^° \| Sat: 62^° / 40^° \| Sun: 51^° / 37^°
Game Notes	MICHIGAN STATE \| MERRIMACK \| SETON HALL \| LEHIGH \| BALL STATE
Social Media	@MSUbaseball \| MichiganStateBaseball @msu_baseball
Television	None
Game 1	Friday, Feb. 16 \| 6 p.m. ET
Probable Pitching Matchup	MC: #14 SR LHP Tyghe Healy (0-0, 0.00 ERA) MSU: #41 FR RHP Nolan Higgins (0-0, 0.00 ERA)
Coverage	Live Stats \| Watch Live ($) \| No Listen Live Options
Game 2	Saturday, Feb. 17 \| 12 p.m. ET
Probable Pitching Matchup	SH: #16 SO RHP Ryan Reich (0-0, 0.00 ERA) MSU: #16 SO LHP Joseph Dzierwa (0-0, 0.00 ERA)
Coverage	Live Stats \| Watch Live ($) \| No Listen Live Options
Game 3	Saturday, Feb. 17 \| 4 p.m. ET
Probable Pitching Matchup	LU: #21 SO RHP Cole Leaman (0-0, 0.00 ERA) MSU: #28 SR RHP Aaron Mishoulam (0-0, 0.00 ERA)
Coverage	Live Stats \| Watch Live ($) \| No Listen Live Options
Game 4	Sunday, Feb. 18 \| 9 a.m. ET
Probable Pitching Matchup	BSU: 20 Merritt Beeker (0-0, 0.00 ERA) MSU: #46 SR LHP Nick Powers (0-0, 0.00 ERA)
Coverage	Live Stats \| Watch Live ($) \| No Listen Live Options

• Michigan State opens its 140th season of Spartan baseball this weekend at the Swig & Swine Classic at Shipyard Park in Charleston, S.C. The Spartans start off the 2024 season and the season-opening weekend by facing Merrimack in the season-opener on Friday, Feb. 16 at 12 p.m. ET. MSU then plays a twinbill against Seton Hall and Lehigh on Saturday, Feb. 17 at 12 p.m. and 4 p.m., respectively. Michigan State wraps up the opening weekend on Sunday, Feb. 18 battling Ball State at 9 a.m.

• Fans can follow this weekend's action with "Watch Live" and "Live Stats" links at MSUSpartans.com, with video streaming available for all four games for a registration fee.

BOSS BEGINNING SWEET 16th SEASON WITH SPARTANS
• Head coach Jake Boss Jr. begins his 16th year at Michigan State and 17th overall as a collegiate head coach ... Boss enters the 2024 season at No. 3 on MSU's longest coaching list behind John H. Kobs (1935-63), the namesake for Kobs Field, location of McLane Stadium, with 39 seasons, and legendary head coach Denny Litwhiler (1964-82) with 19 seasons ... Boss is also No. 3 on the Spartan head coach list for wins and games coached, also behind Kobs with 576 wins in 969 games, and Litwhiler with 489 wins in 859 games.

SEASON-OPENING SUCCESS
• Last season's 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 ... overall, MSU enters Friday's 2024 season-opener 12-3 in the previous 15 season-openers under Coach Boss, only losing in 2013 vs. Furman, 2018 at Fresno State and 2022 at UNLV.

STARTIN' OFF AT SHIPYARD
• Michigan State is opening a season at Shipyard Park in Charleston, S.C. for the second time in the last four seasons, also opening the 2020 season there with a four-game series vs. Morehead State, as the Spartans swept the Eagles in the opening weekend.

SOUTH CAROLINA STARTERS
• MSU is starting off a season in South Carolina for the fifth time in the last eight seasons, as the 2024 season-opener joins 2021, 2020, 2017 and 2016 season lid-lifters ... overall, the Spartans have started off their campaign in the Palmetto State eight times under Coach Boss, posting a 5-1 record entering Friday:

2010 - Fluor Field (Greenville, S.C.) - MSU 8, Furman 6 - Feb. 19
2013 - Fluor Field (Greenville, S.C.) - Furman 4, MSU 3 - Feb. 15
2016 - Fluor Field (Greenville, S.C.) - MSU 11, Presbyterian 5 - Feb. 19
2017 - Fluor Field (Greenville, S.C.) - MSU 3, Furman 2 - March 3
2020 - Shipyard Park (Charleston, S.C.) - MSU 15, Morehead State 3 - Feb. 14
2021 - Fluor Field (Greenville, S.C.) - MSU 6, Maryland 0 - March 5
2024 - Shipyard Park (Charleston, S.C.) - TBD Friday

SHIPYARD PARK VISITS
• The Spartans are playing at Shipyard Park for the second-straight season and the third time in the last four seasons, with the aforementioned inaugural visit in 2020 ... last season, MSU took on Air Force in a single-game on March 7, falling, 7-4.

• Overall, MSU is 4-1 at Shipyard Park, with last year's loss to Air Force snapping the Spartans' four-game win streak there, after sweeping a four-game series vs. Morehead State:

MSU 15, Morehead State 3 - Feb. 14, 2020
MSU 5, Morehead State 2 - Feb. 15, 2020 - G1
MSU 5, Morehead State 3 - Feb. 15, 2020 - G2
MSU 10, Morehead State 4 - Feb. 16, 2020
Air Force 7, MSU 4 - March 7, 2023

SHIPPIN' UP TO SHIPYARD PARK
• 20 acre facility surrounded by the beautiful Wando River
• Including three youth-size fields and two collegiate-size fields
• Riverfront walking path with pavilions throughout the park
• Nautical themed playground for children
• State-of-the-art indoor training facility, press boxes, scoreboards, field surfaces and covered stands
• Fantastic concessions area run by local restauranteurs, with the Swig & Swine restaurant a short walk from the front gate.

SPARTANS IN CHARLESTON
Along with returning to Charleston, S.C. for the second-straight season, Michigan State is making its fifth-ever trip to the most populous city in South Carolina.

• This weekend will be MSU's 16th through 19th games played in Charleston.

• The Spartans will be playing their sixth through ninth neutral site games in Charleston, having played five previous games at Shipyard Park, along with seven previous games at Charleston Southern and three at College of Charleston ... in addition to going 4-1 at Shipyard Park, MSU is 6-2 at Charleston Southern and 0-3 at College of Charleston, going 9-6 overall in Charleston:
            at Charleston Southern - March 14-16, 1997 - 1-2
            at College of Charleston - March 16, 1997 - 0-1
            at Charleston Southern - March 8-9, 2002 - 3-0
            at Shipyard Park - Feb. 14-17, 2020 - 4-0 vs. Morehead State
            at College of Charleston - March 3 and 5, 2023 - 0-2
            at Charleston Southern - March 4, 2023 - 1-0
            at Shipyard Park - March 6, 2023 - 0-1 vs. Air Force

CAROLINA IN MY MIND AND TRAVEL ITINERARY
• Once again as in seasons past, MSU's travel theme music for the first few weeks of the season is James Taylor's "Carolina In My Mind" as this weekend's opening weekend of the season is the first of three weekends out of the first four weekends that the Spartans will be playing in the Palmetto State.

MSU is playing in the Swig & Swine Classic this weekend, opening Friday vs. Merrimack at Noon. The Spartans then have a Saturday twinbill, squaring off with Seton Hall at 12 p.m. and Lehigh at 4 p.m. MSU then wraps up the weekend action on Sunday battling Ball State at 9 a.m.

Michigan State then participates in the Snowbird Classic in Port Charlotte, Fla., playing Indiana State and Marshall, taking on Indiana State in the opener on Friday, Feb. 23 at 12 p.m. and Marshall at 3:30 p.m. On Saturday, Feb. 24, MSU meets Marshall at 3:30 p.m.

After playing at Georgia on Tuesday, Feb. 28, the Spartans return to their home-away-from-home, Fluor Field in Greenville, S.C., to play in the First Pitch Invitational I Friday-Sunday, March 1-3, taking on Western Michigan on Friday, March 1 at 6 p.m., then facing Florida State on Saturday, March 2 at 6 p.m., before finishing up the weekend playing Illinois on Sunday, March 3 at 10 a.m.

After traveling back to East Lansing for classes, the Spartans return to Greenville for the First Pitch Invitational II Friday-Sunday, March 8-10, tangling with VCU on Friday, March 8 at 2 p.m. then playing Western Carolina in a twinbill on Saturday, March 9 starting at 10 a.m. MSU then wraps up not just the weekend, but action at both Fluor Field and its South Carolina swing on Sunday, March 10 at 10 a.m. against Western Michigan.

140TH SEASON OF MICHIGAN STATE BASEBALL
Michigan State is playing its 140th season of baseball in 2024. The first season of Spartan baseball was 1884, going 4-2 in the six-game schedule, and baseball has been played every season since, with only no varsity in 1944 due to World War II. MSU enters 2024 with an all-time record of 2,452-2,019-30 (.548) in 4,501 games played.

70TH ANNIVERSARY OF 1954 MICHIGAN STATE COLLEGE WORLD SERIES TEAM
Michigan State will be celebrating the 1954 Spartan team that won the Big Ten Championship en route to the College World Series, the first and only trip to the CWS by MSU.

The 1954 season was one for the ages as the Spartans won their first Big Ten Championship, ran through the NCAA tournament en route to a College World Series 3rd place finish, and completed the season with a then school-record 25-10-1 record behind the leadership of Spartan legend John Kobs. The '54 team featured three future Major League players in Ed Hobaugh, Bob Powell, and College World Series MVP Tom Yewcic, and future NFL quarterback and 1968 NFL MVP Earl Morrall.

After winning the Big Ten Championship, the Spartans defeated Ohio University to earn its first bid to the College World Series. Michigan State won its first two games of the CWS, beating Massachusetts, 16-5, then topping Arizona, 2-1, before dropping a close game to Rollins College, 5-4. The Spartans rebounded to beat Rollins in extra innings 3-2 before dropping the season finale to eventual champion Missouri, 4-3, on a controversial call late in the game on a foul tip that wasn't called and led to the winning run crossing the plate.

***CONTINUED IN PDF OF GAME NOTES***

Spartan Baseball Opens 2024 Season At Shipyard Park In Charleston, S.C.

Players Mentioned

Joseph Dzierwa

Nolan Higgins

Aaron Mishoulam

Nick Powers

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