Spartans Open 2025 Season In Cary, NC Facing Western Michigan And Monmouth

• Michigan State will open its 141st season of baseball in Cary, N.C., at the USA Baseball Complex, and the Spartans' 2025 season-opening weekend schedule has been altered due to inclement weather in the forecast.

Rain and wind are forecast for the Cary area Saturday afternoon and evening, and into Sunday.

Michigan State will now square off with Western Michigan on Friday, Feb. 14 on Field 4 in a doubleheader starting at 4:30 p.m. with game one slated for seven innings followed by game two for nine innings.

On Saturday, Feb. 15, MSU will battle Monmouth in a doubleheader starting at 9:30 a.m. in a pair of nine-inning contests on Field 5.

No games are currently scheduled for Sunday, meaning MSU will not face Dayton, but the schedule is subject to change.

• The Spartans' schedule is subject to change, stay tuned to MSUSpartans.com and @MSUBaseball on X/Twitter for schedule updates.

• Fans can follow this week's action with "Watch Live," and "Live Stats" links, where available, at MSUSpartans.com.

BOSS STARTING 17th SEASON WITH SPARTANS
• Head coach Jake Boss Jr. is in his 17th year at Michigan State and 18th overall as a collegiate head coach ... Boss enters the 2025 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 ... With 440 wins entering the 2025 season, 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
• Between the 2023 15-8 Victory for MSU over Michigan in the season-opener and the 2024 season-opening 10-3 win over Merrimack, the Spartans have been victorious in their season-opener in five of the last six seasons ... overall, MSU is now 13-3 in the 16 season-openers under Coach Boss, only losing in 2013 vs. Furman, 2018 at Fresno State and 2022 at UNLV.

LIGHTIN' UP THE SCOREBOARD ON OPENING DAY
• The Spartans' 10 runs on Opening Day on Feb. 16, 2024 in the 10-3 Victory for MSU was Michigan State's second-straight season-opener scoring 10+ runs after hanging 15 runs in 2023 opener ... MSU has now plated double-figure runs in its season-opener five times in the 16 seasons under Coach Boss, joining 2012 (W, 11-4 vs. St. Johns), 2016 (W, 11-5 vs. Presbyterian), 2020 (W, 15-3 vs. Morehead State), 2023 (W, 15-8 vs. Michigan) and 2024 (W, 10-3 vs. Merrimack).

BIG INNING IN GAME ONE OF SEASON
• In the 10-3 win over Merrimack in the 2024 season-opener, MSU had a six-run ninth inning to break the game open, sending nine batters to the plate, scoring six runs on five hits, and taking advantage of two Merrimack errors.

• The big inning against Merrimack marked the second-straight opener that MSU plated four or more in the game, as the Spartans had two big innings in the 2023 opener, with a five-run sixth stanza and a 7-run eighth inning in the 15-8 Victory for MSU over Michigan in Phoenix, Ariz.

HOME STATE FOE IN SEASON OPENER
• Michigan State is opening the 2025 season against in-state foe Western Michigan in Cary, N.C., marking the second time in three seasons that the Spartans have faced an in-state foe playing at a neutral field out of state in game one, after playing Michigan in the 2023 season-opener at the MLB Desert Invitational in Phoenix, Ariz., winning 15-8.

141ST SEASON OF MICHIGAN STATE BASEBALL
Michigan State is playing its 141st season of baseball in 2025. Baseball was the first organized varsity sport on campus with the first season of Spartan baseball in 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 2025 with an all-time record of 2,475-2,196-30 (.530) in 4,701 games played.

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 a Carolina.

MSU is playing in Cary, North Carolina this weekend against Western Michigan on Friday and Monmouth on Saturday in doubleheaders both days.

Next weekend, Michigan State heads to Corpus Christi, Texas for the Texas A&M-Corpus Christ Kleberg Bank College Classic at Whataburger Field. MSU will play Washington State on Friday, Feb. 21 at 3 p.m. ET/2 p.m. CT, before facing the host Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Saturday, Feb. 22 at 7 p.m. ET/6 p.m. CT. The Spartans then wrap up the weekend by taking on new fellow B1G team UCLA in a non-conference game on Sunday, Feb. 23 at 11:30 a.m. ET/10:30 am CT.

The Spartans return to their home-away-from-home, Fluor Field in Greenville, S.C., to play Harvard in a three-game series, Friday-Sunday, Feb. 28-March 2. MSU will then meet Western Carolina on Wednesday, March 5 at Fluor Field.

Michigan State will then host the First Pitch Invitational Friday-Sunday, March 7-9, clashing with Cornell on Friday, March 7 at 10 a.m. then returning to the diamond to meet UAB at 2 p.m. On Saturday, March 8, the Spartans face Winthrop at 4 p.m., before wrapping up the weekend and the Carolina swing for Spring Break on Sunday, March 9 against UAB at 12 p.m.

SPARTANS AND BRONCOS FAMILIAR BATTLING ON NEUTRAL GROUND
• Friday marks the fourth and fifth-straight meetings between Michigan State and Western Michigan being played on a neutral field, as they played three times last year on two different neutral fields. MSU and WMU first met on March 2, 2024 at Fluor Field in Greenville, S.C., with the Spartans corralling the Broncos, 13-3 in an 8-inning run-rule contest. Michigan State and Western Michigan met a week later, March 8, again at Fluor Field, and the Spartans nabbed a 5-3 triumph. MSU and WMU then met at Jackson® Field™ in Lansing, Mich., in the 2024 Capital Clash, with the Green & White collecting a 12-2 Victory for MSU in a 7-inning run-rule game.

• In the all-time series, MSU and WMU have met 14 previous times on a neutral field, with MSU leading, 9-5 ... the Broncos lead the all-time overall series, 95-90.

• The Spartans have won the last six meetings with the Broncos overall, including nine of the last 10 and 10 of the last 12 as part of 18 of the last 21.

• A total of 12 of the last 18 meetings have been decided by three runs or less, including seven one-run decisions, highlighted by five in a row from 2014-17 ... the winning team has posted 10+ runs in three of the last seven meetings.

ONLY ONE PREVIOUS MICHIGAN STATE AND MONMOUTH MEETING
• Michigan State and Monmouth only have one previous meeting, squaring off on March 8, 2001 in Boca Raton, Fla., with MSU winning, 9-5. MSU rallied from an early 3-0 deficit after Monmouth plated three runs in the top of the first, before the Spartans rallied, winning their third in a row to improve to 3-5 on the young season, while dealing Monmouth its sixth-straight defeat to open the season.

Monmouth started the scoring early, scoring three runs in the first inning off four hits. The Spartans got on the board in the third inning with the help of two doubles. The first double came off the bat of Jared Koutnik (Jr., Milwaukee, Wis.), who later scored on a double by Rick Court (Sr., Grosse Pointe), making the score 3-1.

Michigan State scored another run in the fourth when leftfielder David Miller (Fr., Whitehall) hit a solo home run to right field to bring the Spartans within one run, 3-2. The Spartans tied the game in the fifth as Kyle Geswein (Jr., Dayton, Ohio) drove in Bob Malek (So., Canton). Malek reached base on a single, extending his hitting streak to eight games. In the sixth inning, Brett Wattles (So., Rochester) broke the tie with a two-run homer to put the Spartans up, 5-3.

Monmouth answered in the seventh inning, with two runs on four hits to tie the game at five. The Spartans got two runs of the their own in the bottom of the seventh, as Court hit his second double of the game and Geswein walked, Brady Burrill (Jr., Newhall, Calif.) hit a two-RBI double to give the Spartans the lead for good, 7-5. MSU added two more runs in the eighth to make the final score 9-5.

Starting pitcher John Huizinga (Jr., Wayland) pitched 6.2 innings and gave up 12 hits and five runs while striking out four. Bryan Gale (Fr., Decatur) came in the sixth and gave up one hit and struck out two in 1.2 innings of work to earn his first collegiate win. Domanick Squires (Jr., Rochester) pitched the ninth to earn his second save of the year.

SPARTANS AND FLYERS ALSO ONLY ONE MEETING
• Should the schedule change again, allowing Michigan State and Dayton to play, the Spartans and Flyers also only have one previous meeting, playing on May 11, 1995 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit, Mich., with Dayton winning, 4-3.

SPARTAN-BRONCO CONNECTIONS
Friday's match-up has connections galore between Michigan State and Western Michigan:

• Current MSU head coach Jake Boss Jr., WMU head coach Billy Gernon and MSU assistant coach/pitching coach Mark Van Ameyde were together on the Spartans' staff from 2009-10, before Gernon left to become head coach at WMU.

• Current MSU assistant coach Andrew Stone is in his fourth season with the Spartans, but was a four-year letterwinner at Western Michigan (2015-19) ... For his career, Stone finished with a .304 average with a .402 on-base percentage in 155 games played, making 104 starts ... Stone helped WMU to the 2016 MAC Tournament title and helped the Broncos advance to the NCAA Regionals for the first time since 1989 ... Stone was a three-time Academic All-MAC selection and a MAC Distinguished Scholar Athlete ... He earned his bachelor's degree in sports management from Western Michigan in 2018, and his master's degree also in sports management from WMU in 2019 ... Stone's father is Jeff Stone, Western Michigan's former Senior Associate Athletic Director, overseeing academic and compliance services, who retired in 2022.

• Spartan junior pitcher Ryan Szczepaniak will be in a MSU vs WMU match-up as the lone Szczepaniak for the first time in his Spartan career, as his brother, Drew, was a pitcher at WMU ... Both Szczepaniak brothers were the pitchers of record at the same time during the 2022 season's first meeting on April 13, 2022 in East Lansing, with Drew pitching the bottom of the fifth, while Ryan pitched the top of the sixth ... Ryan had a three-up, three-down inning with one strikeout, while Drew faced four Spartan batters without a hit, allowing one walk ... in the second meeting of the season on May 11, 2022 in Kalamazoo, neither Szczepaniak brother saw action, as Ryan pitched the day before at Notre Dame, and Drew pitched three days prior at Central Michigan ... Drew pitched one inning in the 2023 season's first meeting, yielding MSU's go-ahead run and was dealt the tough-luck loss in the 8-3 Victory for MSU on March 22, 2023, and neither Szczepaniak brother pitched in the second meeting of 2023 on March 28, 2023, an 8-6 Spartan triumph.

SPARTAN TRIO TABBED TO B1G BASEBALL PRESEASON PLAYERS TO WATCH LIST
• 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 Wednesday, ahead of Friday's 2025 season-opening action around the league.

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 pitcher Joseph Dzierwa, junior infielder Randy Seymour and sophomore infielder Ryan McKay garnered preseason recognition for the Spartans.

Dzierwa, a Haskins, Ohio native, is a B1G Preseason Player to Watch for the second year in a row. The Spartan southpaw adds to his preseason honors list, which includes being tabbed Baseball America's Big Ten Conference Preseason Pitcher of the Year, as well as being named Perfect Game's Preseason Third-Team All-American and also tabbed to D1Baseball's Top 150 College Draft Prospect list at No. 121.

Dzierwa was second in the B1G in both innings pitched (84.0) and strikeouts (91) last season, along with third in the B1G overall in WHIP (1.19), third in B1G only in IP (48.2), sixth in B1G only in strikeouts (43), eighth overall in K/9 (9.7), ninth in the B1G overall in ERA (4.07) and tied for 14th in the B1G overall in BB/9 (2.9).

In his final outing of the 2024 season, Dzierwa rang up a career-high 11 strikeouts against Nebraska on May 17, topping his previous career-best of nine Ks done four previous times this season, most recently vs Michigan on May 3. Dzierwa was the only Spartan pitcher to chalk up double-digit strikeouts this season and the first since March 11, 2023 when Adam Berghorst rang up 11 Ks vs. Western Carolina at Fluor Field in Greenville, S.C.

Dzierwa's 11 Ks was the first double-digit strikeout outing by a Spartan pitcher at home since April 25, 2021 when Sam Benschoter chalked up 17 strikeouts in 9.1 IP of relief that was also against Nebraska.

With the 91 strikeouts on the season, Dzierwa had a big role in the Spartan pitching staff amassing 420 total strikeouts in 2024, finishing No. 3 on MSU's team strikeouts list and the most since 445 in 2019.

Dzierwa made his mark in MSU's record books, as the 91 strikeouts are No. 8 on MSU's single-season Top 10 strikeouts list, the most by a Spartan pitcher since 2016 when Dakota Mekkes rang up 96.

Entering his junior season in 2025, Dzierwa has 151 career strikeouts, needing just 19 more to crack MSU's career top 10 strikeouts list, as Mick VanVossen (2012-15) and Mickey Sinks (1959-61) are tied for No. 10 with 180 strikeouts.

Seymour, a native of Frankfort, Ill., was one of three Spartans to both start and play in all 51 games, starting all 51 games at shortstop. He posted a .257 average with 46 hits, seven doubles and three HR, with 19 RBI, adding 41 runs scored, 15 walks and nine steals. Along with leading the team in sac bunts (5), Seymour also ranked tied for second on the team in runs scored (41), second in hit by pitch (9), third in stolen bases (9), tied for fifth in doubles (7) and fifth in both hits (46) and at bats (179)

The Spartan infielder logged a season-long six-game hitting streak (Feb. 24-March 8), with a total of 10 hits in the six games, with three hits at Georgia (Feb. 28), along with book-ending streak with two in first game of spurt, vs. Marshall (Feb. 24) and last game, vs. Western Michigan (March 8), adding one hit each vs. Western Michigan (March 2), vs. Florida State (March 2) and vs. Illinois (March 3). Seymour posted 15 multiple hit games, with two hits in 13 contests while knocking a career-high three hits in two games, first in the Victory for MSU at Georgia (Feb. 28), going 3-for-4, and then at Minnesota (May 12), going 3-for-6 with two RBI and a run scored. He also scored a career-high four runs in game at Georgia, part of 11 multiple-run outings

In the field, Seymour led the Spartan defense with 146 assists and added 70 putouts, highlighted by career-high eight assists vs. Western Michigan (April 17) and career-high four putouts vs. Ball State (Feb. 17) at Charleston, S.C., and was part of 28 fielding double plays, which ranked tied for second on the team.

McKay, a Clarkston, Mich. native, played in 47 games last year, making 46 starts, all at second base. He was second in the B1G and 13th in the NCAA in toughest to strikeout (13.5), with just 14 strikeouts in 189 at bats. McKay hit .302 with a .381 slugging percentage and .348 on-base percentage, logging seven doubles, one triple and two home runs, adding 31 RBI, along with 12 walks and four stolen bases.

He was third on team in RBI, tied for fourth in RBI and fourth in stolen bases, also ranking fourth in total bases (72). McKay also had the longest hitting streak on team at 16 games (April 14 - May 14), part of at least one hit in 17 of final 19 games of season, also bursting onto the scene with a seven-game hitting streak (Feb. 17-March 3) in first seven games, finishing the season with at least one hit in 36 of 47 games played.

McKay belted the first home run of collegiate career on May 10 at Minnesota and added his second homer two days later (May 12), both going to right center at Minnesota's Siebert Field, and both bouncing over the scoreboard at the softball field beyond the wall.

One of McKay's other highlights from his first as a Spartan was knocking an RBI walk-off single in the bottom of the ninth against Rutgers to drive in teammate Nick Williams for the 3-2 Victory for MSU on March 31 and clinch the series for Michigan State.

In the field, McKay led the Spartan defense in being a part of team-high 29 double plays, including a pair of double plays in six games, while making 117 assists and 86 putouts.

UP NEXT
• Michigan State heads to Corpus Christi, Texas for the Texas A&M-Corpus Christ Kleberg Bank College Classic at Whataburger Field. MSU will play Washington State on Friday, Feb. 21 at 3 p.m. ET/2 p.m. CT, before facing the host Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Saturday, Feb. 22 at 7 p.m. ET/6 p.m. CT. The Spartans then wrap up the weekend by taking on new fellow B1G team UCLA in a non-conference game on Sunday, Feb. 23 at 11:30 a.m. ET/10:30 am CT.

Spartans Open 2025 Season In Cary, NC Facing Western Michigan And Monmouth

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Players Mentioned

Joseph Dzierwa

Ryan McKay

Randy Seymour

Ryan Szczepaniak

Nick Williams