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- Spartan Brew 5/24: Down To The Wire
Spartan Brew 5/24: Down To The Wire
Today, we're celebrating a heckuva run by the Spartans.
Good morning! Michigan State baseball put up a heckuva fight, but their season has come to an end after a loss in the Big Ten Baseball Tournament last night, but not before Nick Powers could have one last dominant performance—going 7.1 innings, earning a season-high tying six strikeouts, and allowing just three runs on five hits.
What else are we serving in to today's Brew?
⚾ Down to the wire
👟 Track & Field ready for postseason action
⚔️ And much, much more
📈 STOCK UP
🔼 Pitched Battle. Eighth-seeded Michigan State pushed top-seeded Maryland to the limits, before the Terrapins scored the go-ahead run in the eighth inning, and the Spartans were topped 3-2 in the opening round of the Big Ten Baseball Tournament.
The loss snuffed out a tremendous effort from junior starting pitcher Nick Powers, who stymied the Terps' bats to just five hits—tying their season-low—along with only one walk, also a season low, as Maryland entered the game No. 1 in the B1G and No. 2 in the NCAA in home runs, along with tops in the B1G and second in the NCAA in slugging percentage and first in the league and third in the nation in scoring, in addition to among the B1G and NCAA leaders in several other categories.
Just how impressive was the Spartan ace last night? He posted four three-up, three-down frames (like this beauty here) doing so in the second, fourth, fifth and seventh stanzas.
Michigan State blew the game wide open right away and scored a run in the first frame, but Maryland plated a pair in the home half of the first to take a 2-1 lead, and that stayed the scored until the seventh, when the Spartans tied it up at 2-2 on an RBI single from junior infielder Brock Vradenburg, driving in junior outfielder Greg Ziegler, who tripled to lead off the inning. But the Terps scored their go-ahead run in the bottom of the eighth.
🔼 Back On Track. Michigan State track & field heads to the Sunshine State this week to compete in the NCAA East Preliminary Round. Held on the campus of the University of North Florida at Hodges Stadium in Jacksonville, Florida—12 Spartans will look to punch their tickets to next month's NCAA Outdoor Championships.
A total of seven Spartans will make their first NCAA East Preliminary Round appearance, while five (including two true freshmen) will make their first appearances. Graduate student Trevor Stephenson will look to qualify for his third-straight NCAA Outdoor Championships in the pole vault, while graduate student John Petruno is looking to make his second-straight trip in the 1500m.
The remaining 10 Spartans will look to qualify for their first NCAA Division I Outdoor Championships, as graduate student CarLee Stimpfel was a seven-time DII All-American at Saginaw Valley State. Senior decathletes Heath Baldwin and Ryan Talbot have punched their tickets to the NCAA Championships as two of the top 24 performers in the NCAA in the event.
The meet will run today through this weekend with a stream of each day available on ESPN+ and live results available on MSUSpartans.com.
🤔 SPARTAN TRIVIA
He’s number one. Michigan State men's golfer Troy Taylor II finished this season ranked No. 1 among all players in the Advocate Professional Golf Association Collegiate Rankings—thanks in part to a sensational outing at last week’s NCAA Bath Regional where he shot a career-best in the opening round.
Our question today is pretty straight-forward—what do you think was his career-best round of collegiate golf was?
Think you got it? Scroll down to the bottom of this email for the answer!
⚔️ ONE BIG THING
Well, make that six big things. Six Michigan State baseball players garnered Big Ten Conference accolades as the conference office announced the league's postseason awards.
Junior infielder Brock Vradenburg collected First Team All-Big Ten honors, while senior relief pitcher Wyatt Rush, junior infielder Trent Farquhar and redshirt-sophomore catcher Bryan Broecker were named to Second Team All-Big Ten. Junior infielder Mitch Jebb was tabbed to the Third Team All-Big Ten list, while pitcher Joseph Dzierwa was named to the Big Ten All-Freshman Team.
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📅 THE DAY AHEAD
Wednesday 5/24
👟 Track & Field @ NCAA East Preliminary on ESPN+ | Live Video
⛳ Women’s Golf @ NCAA Championships
🎉 TRIVIA ANSWER
Answer: 6-under par 66
The fifth-year golfer fired a career-best 6-under par 66 in the opening round and tied for 25th place overall at 2-under par 214 (66-71-77).
Have a great Wednesday, everyone.