MSU Baseball Extends Season, Heading to Omaha

Michigan State had to wait to see if it had been enough to extend its season, as the Spartans still needed UCLA to win its season finale against Northwestern. The Bruins would do so, and poetically, Michigan State learned its fate during its postgame senior banquet.

The Spartans had an up-and-down year in the conference, finishing the regular season with a 13-17 record against conference opponents.

A shot at the conference tournament seemed out of reach when Michigan State was swept by bitter rival Michigan last month, but star junior ace Joseph Dzierwa would spark some life in the Spartans' campaign with his complete shutout against Oregon, which just won a share of the conference with UCLA.

From there, Michigan State did drop its next two games against the Ducks before splitting a two-game slate with non-conference meetings with Eastern Michigan and Western Michigan.

Once again, postseason hopes were unlikely as the Spartans prepared to head to the West Coast to take on a ranked USC team. But Michigan State stunned the Trojans, taking the first two games of the series, a shutout followed by a 15-5 run-rule win.

In another anticlimactic series of events, the Spartans returned home after dropping the finale and would fall to the Gophers in the first two games of the series. A win on Saturday was a must for what was a desperate Michigan State team. And it answered, needing every inning to do it.

The Big Ten Tournament will kick off on Tuesday at Charles Schwab Field and will conclude a week from Sunday.

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