Spartans continue residency at home-away-from-home Fluor Field.
• Michigan State baseball will continue its residency in Greenville, South Carolina at the Spartans' home-away-from-home, Fluor Field, taking on Western Carolina on Wednesday, March 5. First pitch is slated for 6:30 p.m. Wednesday is the fourth of an eight-game, 10-day residency at the home of the Greenville Drive, the high-A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox.
The Spartans then host the First Pitch Invitational on Friday-Sunday, March 7-9, tangling with Cornell and UAB on Friday, March 7 at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., respectively, then Winthrop on Saturday, March 8 at 4 p.m. and UAB again on March 9 at 12 p.m.
The 2025 Spartans are 9-1, opening with six-straight wins before being dealt their first defeat of the season on Feb. 23 by new Big Ten foe UCLA in a non-conference meeting on the final day of action at the Kleberg Bank College Classic in Corpus Christi, Texas.
MSU swept a three-game series with Harvard to open the Spartans' Greenville residency, scoring 10+ runs in all three games and winning all three in seven innings via the run-rule.
Michigan State was ranked in the Feb. 24 rankings of the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCWBA) Top 25 Poll, but slipped out of this week's rankings and are among others receiving votes.
Prior to last week's ranking, the last time that MSU was ranked was No. 23 in the Baseball America Top 25 Poll and No. 30 in the NCBWA Poll on May 2, 2016. The Spartans made their season debut in the rankings that season at No. 25 in the March 14 ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll.
Oregon is the only Big Ten Conference poll ranked this week, as high as No. 20 in the D1Baseball Poll, as well as No. 13 in the USA Today Coaches Poll, No. 14 in both the NCBWA and Perfect Game polls, and No. 15 in Baseball America Poll.
In this week's NCWBA Poll, Michigan State is one of six Big Ten Conference teams among others receiving votes, joined by Michigan, Nebraska, Purdue, UCLA and USC.
Despite MSU's lone loss on Feb. 23 denied Michigan State of its first 7-0 start to a season since 1964, the Spartans' 9-1 start is the best since 2016 when MSU also was dealt defeat in game number seven after a 6-0 start, before bouncing back and opening with a 14-1 mark before a loss in game 16 of the 2016 season.
Overall, the 2025 season's 9-1 start is MSU's second 6-1 start under head coach Jake Boss Jr., joining the 2016 Spartans.
• The Spartans' schedule is subject to change, stay tuned to MSUSpartans.com and @MSUBaseball on X/Twitter for schedule updates.
• Fans can follow this week's action with "Watch Live," and "Live Stats" links, where available, at MSUSpartans.com.
BOSS IN 17th SEASON WITH SPARTANS
• Head coach Jake Boss Jr. is in his 17th year at Michigan State and 18th overall as a collegiate head coach ... Boss entered the 2025 season at No. 3 on MSU's longest coaching list behind John H. Kobs (1935-63), the namesake for Kobs Field, location of McLane Stadium, with 39 seasons, and legendary head coach Denny Litwhiler (1964-82) with 19 seasons ... With 440 wins entering the 2025 season, Boss is also No. 3 on the Spartan head coach list for wins and games coached, also behind Kobs with 576 wins in 969 games, and Litwhiler with 489 wins in 859 games.
SEASON-OPENING SUCCESS
• Michigan State beat Western Michigan, 2-0, in the season-opener on Feb. 14, marking the second time in three seasons that the Spartans opened the season against an in-state foe in a neutral site game ... the season-opener Victory for MSU was the Spartans' third in a row and have won six of their last seven season openers ... MSU improved to 14-3 in the 17 season-openers under Coach Boss, only losing in 2013 vs. Furman, 2018 at Fresno State and 2022 at UNLV.
141ST SEASON OF MICHIGAN STATE BASEBALL
Michigan State is playing its 141st season of baseball in 2025. Baseball was the first organized varsity sport on campus with the first season of Spartan baseball in 1884, going 4-2 in the six-game schedule, and baseball has been played every season since, with only no varsity in 1944 due to World War II. MSU entered 2025 with an all-time record of 2,475-2,196-30 (.530) in 4,701 games played.
MICHIGAN STATE BASEBALL AMONG OTHERS RECEIVING VOTES IN NCBWA TOP-25 POLL
• For the first time since 2016, Michigan State baseball was ranked the national Top 25 Poll, as the Spartans were No. 23 in last week's National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCWBA) Top 25 Poll on Feb. 24, but slipped out of this week's rankings and are among others receiving votes.
Prior to last week's ranking, the last time that MSU was ranked was No. 23 in the Baseball America Top 25 Poll and No. 30 in the NCWBA Poll on May 2, 2016. The Spartans made their season debut in the rankings that season at No. 25 in the March 14 ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll.
Oregon is the only Big Ten Conference poll ranked this week, as high as No. 20 in the D1Baseball Poll, as well as No. 13 in the USA Today Coaches Poll, No. 14 in both the NCBWA and Perfect Game polls, and No. 15 in Baseball America Poll.
In this week's NCWBA Poll, Michigan State is one of six Big Ten Conference teams among others receiving votes, joined by Michigan, Nebraska, Purdue, UCLA and USC.
Two of this weekend's opponents, UAB and Winthrop, were both among others receiving votes in the Feb. 24 poll, but weren't in the list in the March 3 poll.
PROFESSIONAL STADIUM EXPERIENCE
• This weekend's games at Fluor Field, home of the Greenville Drive, the high-A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox are the third of three-straight played in professional stadiums.
MSU played in the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Kleberg Bank College Classic on the weekend of weekend Feb. 21-23 that was played at Whataburger Field, home of the Corpus Christi Hooks, Double-A affiliate of the Houston Astros.
Michigan State is slated for 17 total games and one exhibition contests in four different professional stadiums.
• The Spartans also play eight games at their home-away-from-home, Fluor Field, in Greenville, S.C., home of the Greenville Drive, the high-A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox. Fluor Field nearly replicates the dimensions of Fenway Park, home of the Red Sox. The Greenville ballpark has its own "Green Monster" replica, a 30-foot high wall in left field as opposed to the 37-foot one found at Fenway, and contains a manual scoreboard. Every other dimension is to the same specifications as Fenway Park, including "Pesky's Pole" in right field.
MSU hosted Harvard in a three-game series last weekend, Friday-Sunday, Feb. 28-March 2. The Spartans played Western Carolina on Wednesday, March 5 in a single midweek contest, before hosting the First Pitch Invitational on Friday-Sunday, March 7-9, tangling with Cornell and UAB on March 7, then Winthrop on March 8 and UAB again on March 9.
• Michigan State will tangle with the Lansing Lugnuts, the High-A affiliate of the Oakland A's, in the 2025 Crosstown Showdown on Tuesday, April 1 at Jackson® Field™ in the annual exhibition game.
• MSU also plays a three-game Big Ten Conference series at Penn State, Friday-Sunday, March 21-23. The Nittany Lions' home field is Medlar Field at Lubrano Park, home of the MLB Draft League's State College Spikes.
• Additionally, the Spartans also play a three-game conference series at B1G newcomer USC, Friday-Sunday, March 9-11, which plays a majority of its home games at Orange County Great Park in Irvine, Calif., while construction continues on the Trojans' home, on-campus Dedeaux Field.
ABOUT FLUOR FIELD
• Opened in 2006, Fluor Field is a 5,700-seat stadium, home of the Greenville Drive, the A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox.
• Fluor Field nearly replicates the dimensions of Fenway Park, home of the Red Sox.
• The ballpark has its own "Green Monster" replica, a 30-foot high wall in left field as opposed to the 37-foot one found at Fenway, and contains a manual scoreboard.
• Every other dimension is to the same specifications as Fenway Park, including "Pesky's Pole" in right field.
• Other than the tribute to Fenway, Fluor Field also pays tribute to the Greenville area as the ballpark's nostalgic look utilizes reclaimed bricks from local mills.
GREENVILLE / SPARTAN CONNECTIONS
• Owner/President of the Greenville Drive is MSU alum Craig Brown, who was the 2016 Alumnus of the Year at the Michigan State First Pitch Dinner ... In the winter of 2017, Craig and his wife, Vicki (Huber) Brown, were named the Michigan State University Alumni Association's Philanthropists of the Year ... Craig Brown earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in the Eli Broad College of Business, majoring in accounting, in 1973 ... Vicki Brown earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in the College of Education, majoring in special education, in 1975.
As President of the Greenville Drive, Mr. Brown focuses on the activities that result in the Drive being part of the fabric of the community ... Fluor Field, which just celebrated its 10th anniversary season, is one of a handful of privately owned stadiums in America and was named Ballpark of the Year upon its debut in 2006 ... Mr. Brown is also the CEO of Keelers Ridge Associates (KRA), an investment and consulting firm that is engaged in entrepreneurial activities involving sports, technology, and marketing, Mr. and Mrs. Brown actively support academic and athletic programs at Michigan State ... Mr. Brown also serves on the Athletic Director's Advisory Council and chairs Spartan Innovations ... Formerly, he oversaw the MSU Foundation Board ... In recognition of their generosity, an area of the Spartan Stadium North End Zone bears their names, as does the women's basketball head coach's office ... The Browns also belong to MSU's Empower Extraordinary President's Capital Campaign Cabinet.
• 1967 Michigan State baseball alum Bill Wooley, who was the 2020 Alumnus of the Year at the MSU Baseball First Pitch Dinner, and his wife, Mary, live in nearby Greer, South Carolina, and were in attendance at MSU's games in the Spartanburg area on Friday at USC Upstate and Sunday at Presbyterian.
Wooley was a four-year letterwinner for the Spartan baseball team from 1964-67. He was utility infielder on the freshman team in 1964 for head coach Tom Smith, before moving up to varsity and was utility infielder and team manager from 1965-67 for head coach Danny Litwhiler.
A native of Detroit, Mich., Wooley graduated from Michigan State University College of Business in 1967 with a bachelor's of business administration (BBA) with general business and marketing emphasis. Wooley began his business career in July 1967 with the Dupont Corporation, in the textile fibers division in New York City, where he worked for nine years until 1976. He joined Johnson & Johnson in the healthcare industry in 1976 with a career track in sales, product management, where he was General Manager/ Vice President for 22 years before retiring in 1998. Wooley was Chairman of the Board for NICORE, Inc. (1999-2006) and was president of the private startup company with products to treat congestive heart problems, before retiring in 2006.
Wooley was also an assistant baseball coach at Eastlake High School in Tarpon Springs, Florida for 12 years, where he coached approximately 10 players who made it to Major League Baseball, most notably utility player Chris Coghlan, who was in the Majors for 10 years, winning the Rookie of the Year Award in 2009 with the Florida Marlins, also playing for the Chicago Cubs and Chicago White Sox.
Wooley and his wife, Mary (Bigelow), who is a 1967 MSU alum with her education degree, met at MSU in the fall term of their freshman year and dated all through college, and have been married 52 years. They have three children, twins Daniel and Deborah, and daughter Alicia, and four grandchildren.
FROM PALADIN TO SPARTAN
• Michigan State senior pitcher Dominic Pianto is in his fifth and final season at Michigan State, after playing one season at Furman in 2020, then transferred to MSU from Furman prior to the fall of 2020, after Furman announced that it had discontinued baseball in May of 2020.
During his one season at Furman, Pianto made five relief appearances, tallying five strikeouts in 5.0 IP.
CAROLINA IN MY MIND AND TRAVEL ITINERARY
• Once again as in seasons past, MSU's travel theme music for the first few weeks of the season is James Taylor's "Carolina In My Mind" as this weekend's action are the second and third weekends out of the first four weekends that the Spartans will be playing in a Carolina.
MSU played in Cary, North Carolina in the opening weekend of the season against Western Michigan on Friday and Monmouth on Saturday in doubleheaders both days.
Michigan State was in Corpus Christi, Texas on Feb. 21-23 for the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Kleberg Bank College Classic at Whataburger Field. MSU opened with a 9-2 win over Washington State in the opening game on Friday, Feb. 21. The Spartans then took down host Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Saturday, Feb. 22, 8-3, before falling 15-9 to fellow B1G team UCLA in a non-conference game on Sunday, Feb. 23.
The Spartans are returning to their home-away-from-home, Fluor Field in Greenville, S.C., sweeping Harvard in a three-game series, Friday-Sunday, Feb. 28-March 2. MSU is meeting Western Carolina on Wednesday, March 5 at Fluor Field.
Michigan State will then host the First Pitch Invitational Friday-Sunday, March 7-9, clashing with Cornell on Friday, March 7 at 10 a.m. then returning to the diamond to meet UAB at 2 p.m. On Saturday, March 8, the Spartans face Winthrop at 4 p.m., before wrapping up the weekend and the Carolina swing for Spring Break on Sunday, March 9 against UAB at 12 p.m.
SERIES HISTORY NOTES VS. THIS WEEK'S OPPONENTS
• Michigan State has played all of this week's opponents at least once before and as many as eight previous times. Here's a closer look at the series histories:
MSU vs. Western Carolina: MSU leads, 6-2
Streak: WCU W1
Series Notes: Fifth meeting in last four years ... Spartans had won previous four meetings before WCU won last year, 9-5 ... MSU swept 2023's two meetings, 6-5, on Dillon Kark's walk-off inside-the-park HR, then won second game, 7-2 ... WCU jumped out to 9-2 lead last year, before Spartans closed to 9-5 in ninth and had bases loaded with 0 outs, before rally and the game came to an end.
MSU vs. Cornell: MSU leads, 4-2
Streak: COR W1
Series Notes: Last met in 2017 ... the first-ever meeting in 1936 was only campus game, played at Cornell in Ithaca, N.Y., while the other five have been neutral fields, playing in Coral Cables, Fla., in both 1971 and 1973, with two games each year ... the Spartans and Big Red last met in 2017 in Richmond, Va., with Cornell collecting a 2-1 win.
MSU vs. UAB: MSU leads, 1-0
Streak: MSU W1
Series Notes: The only other meeting was in 1994 at Birmingham, with a 13-8 Victory for MSU.
MSU vs. Winthrop: WU leads, 3-1
Streak: UW W1
Series Notes: Saturday is the first meeting since 1996 in four-game series at the Eagles' home field at Rock Hill playing a pair of DHs on March 16 and 17, 1996 ... three of the four games were 1-run ballgames, with Winthrop winning 6-2 and 2-1 on the first day, before Michigan State won game three, 7-6, but the Eagles bounced back with a 3-2 win in the finale.
BIG NUMBERS FOR WEEKEND
Michigan State put up big numbers in the three games vs. Harvard:
• .358 average for the weekend was a season-high
• 38 runs in three games were highest
• 29 hits were second-highest behind 32 hits in Corpus Christi
• Mashed nine HR in the three games after entering weekend with just one home run in first seven games, including no home runs in the first six games, before Sam Busch hit a HR on Feb. 23 in weekend finale at Corpus Christi.
• Averaged 12.7 runs per game, which was 4.0 runs higher than previous weekend, and the runs per game average was nearly the same as the runs total for the first three games of the season, with 14 runs in the first weekend.
• Posted 10+ runs in each of the three games, the first time scoring double-figure runs in three-straight games since April 14-15, 2023 vs. Western Illinois, when MSU won, 10-9, 12-2 and 11-1.
UP NEXT
• The Spartans then host the First Pitch Invitational Friday-Sunday, March 7-9, clashing with Cornell on Friday, March 7 at 10 a.m. then returning to the diamond to meet UAB at 2 p.m. On Saturday, March 8, MSU will face Winthrop at 4 p.m., before wrapping up the weekend and the Carolina swing for Spring Break on Sunday, March 9 against UAB at 12 p.m.
MSU then returns home to East Lansing and the Spartans are scheduled to host in-state rival Michigan on Wednesday, March 12 at 4:05 p.m. at Jeff Ishbia Field at McLane Stadium, in a non-conference contest.
Preview courtesy of MSU Athletics.
