EAST LANSING- The Michigan State Spartans baseball team closes out their regular season this weekend in a pivotal matchup against their in conference rival the Nebraska Cornhuskers, in a series that will decide Sparty’s postseason fate at McLane Stadium.
Michigan State enters the matchup coming off a 9-8 win against Eastern Michigan in a non-conference game, gaining confidence back in Michigan State fashion after dropping two out of three in Minnesota last weekend and losing Sunday’s game in heartbreaking walk-off fashion.
Nebraska enters the weekend hot, having won their last four Big Ten series, including taking two out of three from Indiana at home last weekend. They’ve only lost one Big Ten series all season long.
Some players to watch for this weekend for MSU include freshman Ryan McKay, who followed up with Big Ten Freshman of the week honors last week, with two home runs in Minneapolis this past weekend, the first two of his collegiate career. McKay added another hit and RBI on Tuesday in the Spartans win over EMU.
Dillon Kark stepped up big time in the mid-week matchup as well, picking up two hits and driving in three runs, in what would prove to be a pivotal one-run victory for MSU. Kark has picked up at least one hit in 13 of his last 16 games, and will need to be a key contributor for the Spartans if they want to pick up the series win.
Some players to watch-out for in Nebraska’s batting order include Junior catcher Josh Caron, who is pacing the Cornhuskers in home runs, RBIs, runs, hits, slugging percentage, and runs scored. Caron has picked up multi-hit games in seven of his last eleven starts, and will look to continue to do damage against Michigan State.
Case Sanderson is another star to watch in the Cornhusker lineup, as he paces the team in batting average, walks, and on base percentage. The freshman infielder has provided consistency for Nebraska at the top of their lineup all season long, hoping to keep it going against the Spartans.
With the series starting Thursday instead of the usual Friday, Joseph Dzierwa and Nick Powers will make the starts in the second and third game of this series to keep them on their regular schedules. Senior Harrison Cook will get the nod for Jake Boss Jr on Thursday night, in what is likely to be a game where he relies heavily on his bullpen, and usual Sunday starter Nick Ferazzi.
The probables for Nebraska go as follows, the ace, Brett Sears will make the start Thursday, sophomore Mason McConnaughey on Friday, and the southpaw, Jackson Brockett will take the mound in the series finale on Saturday.
These two teams last met in the Big Ten Tournament last season. A complete-game four-hit shutout in a 4-0 win for the huskers knocked MSU out. Nebraska made its most recent trip to East Lansing since the 2021 campaign, where the Big Red took two of three games over the Spartans. MSU also lost two out of three in Lincoln back in 2022, making Michigan State just 2-5 (regular season and postseason) against Nebraska in the last three seasons.
With this being the regular season finale for both teams, there are a lot of stakes riding on this weekend in the Big Ten standings, especially for Michigan State. Nebraska is locked into the tournament, currently in second. MSU is tied at seventh through Ninth with Maryland and Ohio State, with all three teams sharing a record of 10-11 in Big Ten play. Penn State and Minnesota trail closely at 9-12, with Ohio State playing Rutgers this weekend, and Maryland taking on the Nittany Lions.
Michigan State may not have control of its destiny this weekend, but what is apparent is the Spartans need to win as many games as possible to secure a top 8 spot in the standings and make it to the Big Ten tournament.
First pitch on Thursday is scheduled for 6:05 p.m., with Friday’s game scheduled for 5 p.m. and Saturday’s game scheduled to start at noon. All games will be played at McLane Stadium in East Lansing, and all start times provided are Eastern Standard Time.
