This weekend the MSU Baseball program took a major hit not from losses, but from two snow cancellations on Saturday and Sunday in their three-game series against the visiting University of Oregon Ducks. 

Getting snow in April shouldn’t be shocking considering Michigan’s track record, but why must the weather gods (or baseball gods) punish the Spartans by cancelling such a monumental series?

Oregon is a member of one of the biggest college baseball conferences in the country and has made the NCAA tournament every year since 2012. To get a team like this to come to East Lansing is an awesome job on the athletic department’s part.  High profile games are important to the Michigan State program and its success going forward. MSU’s rankings already suffer due to the Big Ten,  it is crucial to build a resume with wins over a Pac 12 team for national recognition. It is saddening to see flurries at a time when most thought winter was done. It is even more saddening to cancel two games that can’t be made up easily. It’s not under the same conditions as teams in Michigan where they are just up the road. To reschedule games with Oregon, teams have to fly across the country.

But maybe this is just a harsh reality that northern baseball won’t be where it wants to be. Snow ruining an April series, having to start the season on the road, unable to practice outside year round. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that all eight teams that made the college World Series were from down south or out west.

Hats off to MSU for grabbing a win on Friday, but I’m sure both sides would want nothing other than to be able to play those two remaining games. Now fans and the team just hope this doesn’t deter any other big name programs from coming to East Lansing in the future.