MSU Heads To Corpus Christi, Texas For The 2025 Kleberg Bank College Classic At Whataburger Field

Leading Off... MSU Heads To Corpus Christi, Texas For The 2025 Kleberg Bank College Classic At Whataburger Field
Spartans take their receiving votes ranking and 4-0 ledger on the road.

• Michigan State baseball went 4-0 in the opening weekend of the 2025 season and the Spartans were rewarded for their opening weekend success by being among others receiving votes in this week's National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) Top 25 Poll for Week 1 of the 2025 season.

Michigan State has won five in a row overall dating back to last season, after winning its 2024 regular-season finale. The Spartans' five-game win streak overlapping the 2024 and 2025 seasons is the third-longest active streak in Division I, behind Hawai'i with a nine-game win streak and UCLA with a seven-game win streak dating back to 2024.

The Spartans will take their unbeaten mark in tow this weekend, hitting the road to head to Corpus Christi, Texas, for the 2025 Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Kleberg Bank College Classic at Whataburger Field, home of the Corpus Christi Hooks, Double-A affiliate of the Houston Astros.

The Kleberg Bank College Classic field includes fellow Big Ten Conference team, along with hot streak and receiving votes list member, UCLA, in addition to Washington State and host Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.

MSU will play Washington State on Friday, Feb. 21 at 1 p.m. ET/12 p.m. CT, in a game time that was moved up two hours from its originally scheduled time, due to inclement weather in the Corpus Christi area forecast.

Michigan State is slated to face 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' 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.

SPARTANS ARE FIRST TASTE OF B1G BASEBALL FOR BRUINS
• Along with being fellow members both the hot streak and receiving votes list, Michigan State and UCLA also have the distinction of being the first match-up of Big Ten Conference teams, giving the first-year league member Bruins their first taste of B1G baseball, even if Sunday's game won't count in the conference standings as a league contest ... neither USC, Oregon or Washington have played any other B1G foes this season.

BOSS IN 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 entered 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
• Michigan State beat Western Michigan, 2-0, in the season-opener on Feb. 14, marking the second time in three seasons that the Spartans opened the season against an in-state foe in a neutral site game ... the season-opener Victory for MSU was the Spartans' third in a row and have won six of their last seven season openers ... MSU improved to 14-3 in the 17 season-openers under Coach Boss, only losing in 2013 vs. Furman, 2018 at Fresno State and 2022 at UNLV.

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 entered 2025 with an all-time record of 2,475-2,196-30 (.530) in 4,701 games played.

PROFESSIONAL STADIUM EXPERIENCE
• This weekend's Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Kleberg Bank College Classic is being played at at Whataburger Field, home of the Corpus Christi Hooks, Double-A affiliate of the Houston Astros.

This is the first of three-straight weekends that the Spartans will play in professional stadiums.

It is also the first three of 17 total games and one exhibition contests in four different professional stadiums.

• The Spartans also play eight games at their home-away-from-home, Fluor Field, in Greenville, S.C., home of the Greenville Drive, the high-A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox. Fluor Field nearly replicates the dimensions of Fenway Park, home of the Red Sox. The Greenville ballpark has its own "Green Monster" replica, a 30-foot high wall in left field as opposed to the 37-foot one found at Fenway, and contains a manual scoreboard. Every other dimension is to the same specifications as Fenway Park, including "Pesky's Pole" in right field.

MSU hosts Harvard in a three-game series, Friday-Sunday, Feb. 28-March 2, then play Western Carolina on Wednesday, March 5 in a single midweek contest. The Spartans then host the First Pitch Invitational on Friday-Sunday, March 7-9, tangling with Cornell and UAB on March 7, then Winthrop on March 8 and UAB again on March 9.

• Michigan State will tangle with the Lansing Lugnuts, the High-A affiliate of the Oakland A's, in the 2025 Crosstown Showdown on Tuesday, April 1 at Jackson® Field™ in the annual exhibition game.

• MSU also plays a three-game Big Ten Conference series at Penn State, Friday-Sunday, March 21-23. The Nittany Lions' home field is Medlar Field at Lubrano Park, home of the MLB Draft League's State College Spikes.

• Additionally, the Spartans also play a three-game conference series at B1G newcomer USC, Friday-Sunday, March 9-11, which plays a majority of its home games at Orange County Great Park in Irvine, Calif., while construction continues on the Trojans' home, on-campus Dedeaux Field.

TEXAS ON MY MIND
• Michigan State is paying homage to Texas country singer Pat F. Green this weekend in playing games for "Three Days in Texas," as the Spartans are the "Lucky Ones" for playing baseball "Somewhere Between Texas & Mexico" while "Songs About Texas" are playing on the speakers of Whataburger Field rolling like a "Wave on Wave."

This weekend marks Michigan State's first "When Winter Comes To Town" visit to Texas since the 2022 season, when the Spartans said, "Here We Go," and took a "West Texas Holiday" to Abilene, Texas for a three-game series at Abilene Christian, also playing at ACU in 2017.

While the Spartans will have a "Long Way to Go" in their travels from the Mitten State to Texas, they will not be going on "Southbound 35," this weekend as they're off again to the rodeo for a long road trip of weekend "#2" of road travel for the second.

However, they have played in Corpus Christi before, as they had "John Wayne and Jesus" on their side in 2016, when "Me and Billy the Kid" went 3-0 in their three games in the Kleberg Bank College Classic on Feb. 26-28, 2016.

The Spartans were a "Nightmare" to the opposition, beating Texas State, 3-2 on Feb. 26; then topping Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, 9-3 on Feb. 27; and closed out the weekend by taking UCF "Down To the River" for a 6-2 win on Feb. 28 and fulfilled a "Dancehall Dreamer" of going undefeated on the weekend and returned home before "All the Good Things Fade Away."

DZIERWA COLLECTS B1G PITCHER OF THE WEEK ACCOLADES
• Michigan State baseball's junior pitcher Joseph Dzierwa was named the Big Ten Pitcher of the Week for the opening week of the season, announced Monday evening by the conference office.

This is Dzierwa's first career Big Ten weekly accolade, but his fourth overall league recognition. He was a 2024 All-Big Ten Second Team selection, as well as a two-time B1G Preseason Player to Watch List member (2024 and 2025).

Dzierwa is the first Michigan State pitcher to earn B1G Pitcher of the Week honors since May 1, 2023 when former teammate Harrison Cook earned the accolade.

The Spartan southpaw burst out of the gates in Friday's 2025 season-opener in Cary, N.C., against Western Michigan, tying a career-high by firing 11 strikeouts in 6.0 IP, good for a 1.8 K/inning and a 16.5 K/9 average). Dzierwa opened the game with seven straight strikeouts in the first seven batters faced, and did not allow a run of any kind in holding Western Michigan to just one hit.

Dzierwa, a native of Haskins, Ohio, was named one of D1Baseball.com's Friday standouts and his photo was the lead for the Friday's standouts, as the 11 Ks was second-most by a D1 pitcher on Friday. His D1Baseball.com game score of 80 was the highest in the B1G and second in the NCAA for Friday's games, and also tops in the B1G and holding at second overall for both Friday and Saturday's games.

The 11 Ks was tied for the most in the B1G in the opening weekend. Dzierwa was one of five pitchers in the conference to post 10 or more strikeouts in the opening weekend, but he was the only pitcher in the B1G that didn't yield a run of any kind, and his 0.33 WHIP was the lowest of any B1G pitcher with 10+ strikeouts.

Dzierwa's 11 strikeouts Friday night tied his career-best punchout total in back-to-back outings, as his previous time with 11 Ks came in his final outing of 2024 against Nebraska on May 17, 2024.

MSU's junior starting pitcher rang up seven-straight Ks to open Friday's game one of the season, striking out the side in the first and second innings and the first batter of the third, on the way to a perfect game through 4.2 IP, retiring his first 14 batters faced.

After a pair of groundouts ended the third, a lineout and another grounder started the fourth, before another strikeout to end the inning. He started the fifth frame with two more Ks before yielding a single to WMU's Chris Akers, but then thwarted any threat the Broncos had with another strikeout, his 11th through 5.0 innings. Dzierwa worked around a two-out walk and a stolen base by inducing a groundout to end the sixth and his day, as the Spartans corralled the Broncos, 2-0, in the 2025 season lid-lifter. MSU won its season-opener for the sixth time in the last seven seasons, as well as improving to 14-3 in the 17 season-openers under head coach Jake Boss Jr.

MORE DZIERWA TIDBITS
• Joseph Dzierwa's 11 strikeouts not only share the B1G lead but also rank tied for fifth in the NCAA.

• The 11 strikeouts was Dzierwa's:
-- 17th career outing with five or more Ks (one in 2025, 10 in 2024, including in first six-straight games, six in 2023).

-- Ninth career outing with seven or more Ks (one in 2025, six in 2024, two in 2023).

-- Second double-digit strikeout total, joining the 11 vs. Nebraska in 2024 season finale (5/17/24).

DZIERWA K-ING WAY INTO RECORD BOOK
• Spartan southpaw Joseph Dzierwa rang up 91 strikeouts in 2024, which were not only the most strikeouts since Dakota Mekkes chalked up 96 Ks in 2016, but Dzierwa's total was good for No. 8 on MSU's single-season strikeout total.

• Dzierwa enters this weekend with 162 career strikeouts, needing just 24 more Ks to crack MSU's career Top 10 list. Mick VanVossen (2012-15) and Mickey Sinks (1959-61) are tied for the No. 11 spot with 180 strikeouts, while Craig Brookes (2004-07) has the No. 10 spot with 186 career punchouts.

MSU'S JACOB ANDERSON NAMED TO LOU GEHRIG COMMUNITY IMPACT TEAM
Lone Big Ten player on list and one of only Power 4 schools.

Michigan State baseball's Jacob Anderson has been named to the 2025 Lou Gehrig Community Impact Team, announced Wednesday, Feb. 19.

A redshirt-junior infielder, Anderson is the only player from the Big Ten Conference on the nine-player list and only of only two players from a Power 4 conference team.

Anderson, a native of Oakland Township, Michigan, has demonstrated remarkable success both on the baseball field and within his community, establishing himself as a dedicated and compassionate leader.

"Jacob Anderson is the consummate student-athlete who represents our athletics department in the most incredible manner on the field, in the classroom, and in the community," said MSU Associate Director of Student-Athlete Support Services Melissa Tallant. "He carries a 3.54 GPA and will graduate with a degree in kinesiology. He has a genuine desire to make his community a better place and consistently puts others ahead of himself while realizing the platform he has to impact those in need."

On the field, Anderson played an important role last season as the fifth infielder, dealing with an early-season injury, finishing with a .255 batting average. This season, he was elected one of two team captains in a vote by his teammates, and he stepped into the starting role at third base, where his skills, leadership, and determination will be vital to the team's success.

Off the field, Anderson's involvement in the community is equally impressive. He serves as the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) Representative for the baseball team, actively participating in various initiatives aimed at giving back to others. Anderson has contributed to events like Teams for Toys, the Student-Athlete Food Drive, and the Student-Athlete Career Mixer, all of which serve to support both the local community and his fellow student-athletes.

Anderson's leadership shines through in his work with organizations that support individuals with special needs. Through the baseball team, he has played a pivotal role in helping out with the Miracle League of Mid-Michigan, where he assists special needs youth as their 'buddy' during games on an adaptive rubberized surface. Additionally, Anderson has been involved with the Beautiful Lives Project, helping host a clinic for special needs youth, and with Team Impact, where the team adopted a six-year-old boy battling cancer, offering him love and support through a difficult journey.

Anderson is also a member of Athletes in Action on campus, participating in their Operation Christmas Child initiative, where he helps pack and send shoeboxes with Christmas gifts to children in need around the world. Looking ahead, Anderson plans to contribute to the City Rescue Mission, where he will assist in feeding and housing homeless individuals in the East Lansing area.

2-0 IN GAME ONE
• Michigan State played a doubleheader on both Friday and Saturday, winning the opener both days by 2-0 scores, needing only three total hits to do so, scoring all four runs on non-hit plays.

In Friday's Victory for MSU, the Spartans scored two runs in the fifth inning on a two-run sac bunt by redshirt-junior infielder Jacob Anderson.

In Saturday's win over Monmouth, Michigan State capitalized on two sacrifice flies a few batters apart in the sixth inning, for the triumph.

SUPER SIXTH STANZA
• MSU scored a combined 14 runs in its four wins over the weekend. Of the 14 runs, the Spartans scored over half of them (64 percent) in the sixth inning, plating nine runs in the sixth stanza, scoring nine runs on just three hits.

The Spartans started off slow in the sixth inning, going scoreless in the frame in the 2-0 Victory for MSU of Friday's season-opener in game one of the doubleheader, the Spartans' only scoreless sixth of the weekend.

In Friday's nightcap, the Green & White rallied from a 3-0 deficit after five frames with a four-run sixth inning on just two hits, and tacked on two more in the top of the ninth for the 6-3 final.

In Saturday's twinbill with Monmouth, MSU scored both of its runs in the 2-0 win in the sixth inning with two RBI sac flies in the sixth inning.

The Spartans broke open a 1-0 lead in the finale with three runs in the sixth inning, loading the bases and then getting an RBI walk by sophomore infielder Ryan McKay, and then graduate designated hitter Will Shannon roped a two-run single for MSU's only hit of the inning.

HEY HEY McKAY WITH THE RBI
• Sophomore infielder Ryan McKay provided what proved to be the game-winning RBIs in two of the four wins, with both coming in the twinbill wins over Monmouth to complete the weekend sweep.

In game one on Saturday, McKay got MSU's scoring going with an RBI sac fly in the sixth, and the Spartans added another run later in the frame for the 2-2 win.

McKay again earned the game-winning RBI, with the Spartans' second run of the game in game two of the day, and the fourth and final game of the weekend, with an RBI bases-loaded walk in the sixth inning for a 2-0 lead as MSU went on to win, 4-1 to finish 4-0 for the first weekend of the season.

ONLY Ks IN HIS NAME
• Despite having a K in his name, sophomore infielder Ryan McKay doesn't register a K in the score book very often, as McKay is tied for the lead in the B1G and NCAA in toughest to strikeout, as he was not retired on strikes in any of his 10 at bats in the opening weekend. McKay is one of three B1G players and one of 155 players who are tied for the national lead for not striking out through the first week.

Last season, McKay was second in the B1G and 13th in the NCAA in toughest to strike out (13.5), with just 14 strikeouts in 189 at bats.

PAIR OF TWO-SAVERS
• MSU had two different closers both pick up two saves in the opening weekend.

Sophomore Logan Pikur picked up the first save of not just the season, but also his career. Graduate transfer Tyler Horvath had a successful Spartan debut weekend, picking up two saves.

In game one on Friday, Pikur came on in the seventh after junior standout starter Joseph Dzierwa stymied the WMU bats to the tune of 11 Ks and one hit in 6.0 IP, then Pikur kept the Broncos at bay with one K, while inducing two groundouts in yielding one hit while facing four batters.

Pikur picked up his second save in as many days on Saturday, again sealing a 2-0 win, this time over Monmouth, with

Friday's night cap saw Horvath came out of the bullpen to open the ninth, making his Spartan debut. He worked around a leadoff double, before settling in and inducing a flyout, then fanning the next two Broncos to slam the door and secure the Victory for MSU and the doubleheader sweep in his Spartan debut

Horvath took over in the seventh inning of Saturday's nine-inning game two, and went 3.0 IP in scattering three hits with one K and one run to pick up save number two of the weekend.

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
• The Spartans will play eight games in 10 days at their home-away-from-home, Fluor Field, in Greenville, S.C., home of the Greenville Drive, the high-A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox, for MSU's Spring Break trip to Greenville, Feb. 31-March 9.

MSU hosts Harvard in a three-game series, Friday-Sunday, Feb. 28-March 2, then play Western Carolina on Wednesday, March 5 in a single midweek contest.

The Spartans then host the First Pitch Invitational on Friday-Sunday, March 7-9, tangling with Cornell and UAB on March 7, then Winthrop on March 8 and UAB again on March 9.

MSU Heads To Corpus Christi, Texas For The 2025 Kleberg Bank College Classic At Whataburger Field

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Players Mentioned

Jacob Anderson

Harrison Cook

Joseph Dzierwa

Tyler Horvath

Ryan McKay

Logan Pikur

Randy Seymour

Will Shannon

Nick Williams