EAST LANSING- No. 23 ranked Michigan State baseball stays in Greenville, South Carolina over the spring break for a midweek matchup against Western Carolina. Michigan State is 9-1 to start the season, it’s best start in nearly a decade.
The Spartans are coming off an impressive weekend sweep of Harvard, with MSU winning 14-1, 11-1, and 13-3 in all three contests.
Michigan State is looking to keep up its dominance against Western Carolina on Wednesday, with the bats and arms coming alive to start the season.
The Spartan offense this season has been led by sophomore second baseman Ryan McKay, who has continued to put the ball in play all season, having a batting average of .346 and is tied for 3rd in the nation with 18 walks.
Transfer sophomore right fielder Parker Picot has been an excellent addition to MSU head coach Jake Boss Jr’s squad as Picot leads the team in total bases with 17 and has also maintained a batting average of .286.
The real story of the Spartan season has been the pitching staff, which is led by junior southpaw Joseph Dzierwa, who is 2nd in the country in strikeouts with 33 and currently holds a 0.47 ERA in his three starts.
Other Spartan starters over the weekend in Aidan Donavon and Nolan Higgins have been lights out, only giving up a combined four runs on 23.2 innings pitched in the six games they have appeared in this season.
Switching over to Western Carolina, where the Catamounts are 5-7 on the season, and last series was a split against Rider University, with each team taking two wins out of four.
The bats come from several places for WCU, with five players batting over a .375 average, junior outfielder Hayden Friese leading the group batting an impressive .426 average and leading the team in hits with 20.
Senior two-way player Mason Holton leads the team with 20 runs and 33 total bases and another outstanding batting average of .396.
The Catamounts’ pitching staff is led by junior right hander Dusty Revis with a 3.95 ERA and a team high of 13.2 innings pitched. Western Carolina will be looking for a better performance from their pitching staff as they have given up 135 runs already on the season.
Michigan State and Western Carolina are set for first pitch at 6:30 p.m. from Fluor Field in Greenville, South Carolina on Wednesday.
