Saturday, March 23
Bob “Turtle” Smith Stadium | College Park, Md.
4 PM
Michigan State University
9-11, 1-1
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Maryland
17-6, 1-1
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Michigan State
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Photo by: Jeremy Fleming
Powers Propels MSU Over Maryland, 5-2, Saturday For First B1G Win
3/23/2024 10:46:00 PM | Baseball
Spartans beat Terps to even conference-opening series.
COLLEGE PARK, Md. – Michigan State baseball clinched its first Big Ten Conference win of the season, powering past Maryland, 5-2, on the road behind senior Nick Powers' eight strong innings on the mound Saturday evening at UMD's Bob "Turtle" Smith Stadium in the B1G opening series for both teams.
Powers hardly faltered against the Terrapin offense, tossing eight innings five punchouts, just one walk and two runs surrendered. The south paw improves to 3-2 on the season with the win.
"An outstanding performance by Nick Powers," MSU head coach Jake Boss Jr. said. "He's one of our leaders and he's a senior and he really came up big for us today when we needed him to. For him to get deep into the game really showed a lot of heart and a lot of guts on his part. I know he started to get tired after the seventh, but he wanted to go back out there for one more and just an all-around performance that we needed out of one of our team leaders today."
MSU improves to 9-11 overall and levels its B1G ledger at 1-1, as the Spartans have won four of their last six overall. Maryland had its four-game winning streak halted and is now 17-7 overall and 1-1 in league action.
The Spartans and Terrapins have played traditionally close ballgames, and Saturday's three-run deficit was just the seventh time out of the 18 total meetings that was decided by more than two runs, as MSU is making its first visit to College Park since 2017.
MSU knocked out nine hits, leading from start-to-finish, jumping out early and not looking back.
"I thought we played really well today. We played clean defensively, and we had some timely hits. We took advantage of an opportunity in the third, and we got some traffic on the bases. We had another really good start in the first inning and tacked one on in the eighth that was a really big run for us. I'm happy for our guys, they really played well today and deserved to win."
Sophomore Tommy Szczepanski came on and closed the door in the ninth, a day after conceding a blown save in an extra innings loss at the hands of Maryland Friday. Szczepanski collects his fourth save of the year.
"I thought Tommy Szczepanski did a nice job in the ninth today after a tough day yesterday and got right back out there and competed his tail off for us," Boss said.
Offensively, MSU used eight knocks to score five runs, three of which were scored by senior outfielder Jack Frank. MSU got the ball rolling in the first inning by way of Maryland errors, however.
For the second-straight day the Spartans jumped to an early first-inning lead, scoring twice in game's first frame, first by a fielding error then from an RBI single by freshman infielder Ryan McKay. MSU doubled its lead in the third inning, scoring two more runs on a UMD throwing error.
The Terrapins would get two runs back cutting the Spartans' lead in half to 4-2 in the sixth inning. In the top of the eighth, Spartan junior designated hitter Christian Williams knocked in Frank with an insurance RBI single, and Szczepanski secured the Victory for MSU.
The rubber match between the Spartans and Terps is slated to get underway at 1 p.m. in College Park with graduate student righty Nick Ferazzi expected to get the start on the hill.
Fans can follow this weekend's action with "Watch Live" and "Live Stats" links at MSUSpartans.com. "Listen live" options will only be available where available through Maryland's broadcast this weekend.
The schedule is subject to change based on weather.
---------
For the first time ever, Michigan State baseball fans have the ability to purchase season tickets.
Season tickets packages are on sale through the Spartan Ticket Office. The MSU baseball season ticket package, which includes 24 home games at McLane Stadium at Kobs Field, is available for $50.
All ticket levels for seniors, adults and children are the same price. Admission remains free for all Michigan State students by showing their MSU ID at the entry gate.
The 2024 Spartan baseball season includes Big Ten match-ups against Rutgers, Penn State and Nebraska, along with regional clashes with Central Michigan, Oakland and Notre Dame, in addition to giving fans admission to all three home games of baseball Rivalry Week against Michigan.
Individual game tickets will go on sale later this spring.
Fans can contact the Spartan Ticket Office at 517-355-1610 or by email at tickets@msu.edu for questions or more information. A direct link to purchase season tickets is here.
Powers hardly faltered against the Terrapin offense, tossing eight innings five punchouts, just one walk and two runs surrendered. The south paw improves to 3-2 on the season with the win.
"An outstanding performance by Nick Powers," MSU head coach Jake Boss Jr. said. "He's one of our leaders and he's a senior and he really came up big for us today when we needed him to. For him to get deep into the game really showed a lot of heart and a lot of guts on his part. I know he started to get tired after the seventh, but he wanted to go back out there for one more and just an all-around performance that we needed out of one of our team leaders today."
MSU improves to 9-11 overall and levels its B1G ledger at 1-1, as the Spartans have won four of their last six overall. Maryland had its four-game winning streak halted and is now 17-7 overall and 1-1 in league action.
The Spartans and Terrapins have played traditionally close ballgames, and Saturday's three-run deficit was just the seventh time out of the 18 total meetings that was decided by more than two runs, as MSU is making its first visit to College Park since 2017.
MSU knocked out nine hits, leading from start-to-finish, jumping out early and not looking back.
"I thought we played really well today. We played clean defensively, and we had some timely hits. We took advantage of an opportunity in the third, and we got some traffic on the bases. We had another really good start in the first inning and tacked one on in the eighth that was a really big run for us. I'm happy for our guys, they really played well today and deserved to win."
Sophomore Tommy Szczepanski came on and closed the door in the ninth, a day after conceding a blown save in an extra innings loss at the hands of Maryland Friday. Szczepanski collects his fourth save of the year.
"I thought Tommy Szczepanski did a nice job in the ninth today after a tough day yesterday and got right back out there and competed his tail off for us," Boss said.
Offensively, MSU used eight knocks to score five runs, three of which were scored by senior outfielder Jack Frank. MSU got the ball rolling in the first inning by way of Maryland errors, however.
For the second-straight day the Spartans jumped to an early first-inning lead, scoring twice in game's first frame, first by a fielding error then from an RBI single by freshman infielder Ryan McKay. MSU doubled its lead in the third inning, scoring two more runs on a UMD throwing error.
The Terrapins would get two runs back cutting the Spartans' lead in half to 4-2 in the sixth inning. In the top of the eighth, Spartan junior designated hitter Christian Williams knocked in Frank with an insurance RBI single, and Szczepanski secured the Victory for MSU.
The rubber match between the Spartans and Terps is slated to get underway at 1 p.m. in College Park with graduate student righty Nick Ferazzi expected to get the start on the hill.
Fans can follow this weekend's action with "Watch Live" and "Live Stats" links at MSUSpartans.com. "Listen live" options will only be available where available through Maryland's broadcast this weekend.
The schedule is subject to change based on weather.
---------
For the first time ever, Michigan State baseball fans have the ability to purchase season tickets.
Season tickets packages are on sale through the Spartan Ticket Office. The MSU baseball season ticket package, which includes 24 home games at McLane Stadium at Kobs Field, is available for $50.
All ticket levels for seniors, adults and children are the same price. Admission remains free for all Michigan State students by showing their MSU ID at the entry gate.
The 2024 Spartan baseball season includes Big Ten match-ups against Rutgers, Penn State and Nebraska, along with regional clashes with Central Michigan, Oakland and Notre Dame, in addition to giving fans admission to all three home games of baseball Rivalry Week against Michigan.
Individual game tickets will go on sale later this spring.
Fans can contact the Spartan Ticket Office at 517-355-1610 or by email at tickets@msu.edu for questions or more information. A direct link to purchase season tickets is here.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Powers, Nick (3-2)
L: Koester, Logan (4-1)
S: Szczepanski, Tommy (3)
Batting:
2B: Lozier, Landen 1
RBI: McKay, Ryan 1 ; Williams, Christian 1
SH: Lozier, Landen 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Lozier, Landen 1 ; Frank, Jack 3 ; McKay, Ryan 1
SB: Frank, Jack 1
CS: McKay, Ryan 1 ; Seymour, Randy 1
Batting:
HR: Hojnar, Sam 1
RBI: Keister, Kevin 1 ; Hojnar, Sam 1
SF: Keister, Kevin 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Hacopian, Chris 1 ; Hojnar, Sam 1
HBP: Orr, Jacob 1
Game Leaders
AB
4
R
1
H
3
RBI
1
AB
4
R
1
H
2
RBI
0
AB
4
R
3
H
1
RBI
0
AB
4
R
0
H
1
RBI
0
Players Mentioned
RHP
/ BaseballOF
/ BaseballINF
/ Baseball
LHP
/ Baseball
RHP
/ Baseball
C
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