"If there is ever a year we should compete in the top half of the Big Ten, this is the year," Mahan said.

Of course, Mahan, a soft-spoken 47-year-old who is in his 13th year overall with MSU baseball, has facts to back up his statement:

The Spartans play 18 conference home games this season, compared to 14 away contests. So far, in five home games this year, MSU is 5-0.

"We'd like to have been above .500 at this point, but we've played the toughest schedule in our conference - there's no doubt in my mind," Mahan said, pointing to MSU playing Florida State, UNLV and Kansas State, typical Top 25 teams. "There's no better pitchers we've seen that we're going to see all year. We're prepared."

Another plus to this year's schedule is the lack of Minnesota, a perennial powerhouse team that hasn't finished lower than third in the conference since 1997. That eliminates four games the Spartans would go up against the Golden Gophers, who have a Chicago Cubs-esque starting pitching staff, according to a Major League Baseball scout Mahan talked with.

"When I saw that schedule two years ago, it brought a smile to my face," Mahan said.

Despite starting a handful of freshmen through the early part of the season, MSU has six seniors and plenty of depth. Once some of the anticipated starters heal from small injuries, Mahan said only a couple of freshmen will see spots in the day-to-day starting lineup.

The Big Ten isn't known for its baseball. And aside from Minnesota and Ohio State, which typically are found at the top of the league, it's not uncommon to see teams shifting from top to bottom and bottom to top each year. In the 10-team league (Wisconsin does not have a baseball team), only two teams are above .500 heading into conference play.

The players are optimistic too, mostly because of the team's confidence at the moment.

After finishing a rough road nonconference schedule that was close in comparison to that of the MSU men's basketball team, the Spartans returned home with a 4-10 record. Five games later, MSU is one game under .500 at 9-10.

"Baseball, like most sports, is a confidence game," said senior right-handed pitcher Bryan Gale, the team's ace. "Everyone plays a lot better when they're confident."

Gale, who is 1-1 with a 3.00 ERA and 33 strikeouts in 33 innings, will be looked to carry the team from the mound standpoint. Aside from Gale, only four other pitchers have started games this year: freshman right-hander Craig Brookes (1-2, 7.24 ERA), sophomore right-hander Jeff Gerbe (1-1, 7.66 ERA), senior right-hander Scott Koerber (1-3, 11.08 ERA) and freshman left-hander Spencer Hahn (0-1, 13.00 ERA).

With the lack of experience on the mound, Gale realizes he can't afford to have many, if any, bad outings.

"I pitch the first game of every Big Ten series," Gale said, pointing to today as the first of many conference starts for him. "A lot of the series is dictated by how you do in the first game. If we win a lot more of the first games than we lose, we're definitely going to have a lot of success."

That puts a lot of pressure on Gale, who can break a pair of MSU career records this weekend by striking out seven batters and lasting eight and two-thirds innings.

Some of his fellow seniors, senior third baseman James Moreno and Koerber, said they are hoping to take away that pressure. Koerber admittedly has struggled on mound, but he struck out a career-high seven batters in a scoreless five innings of work in his last start.

Koerber, however, has done the most damage to opponents with his bat. He's hitting a team-high .407, with 24 hits and with a team-leading 15 RBI.

"In certain situations when we have to put the ball in play - that's what I thrive on, and I hope it rubs off on the rest of the guys," Koerber said, adding that he can't help but think this season could end up like that of the 2002 Spartans.

That year, the sophomore season of this year's seniors, MSU finished 38-19 and seemed to turn the tides on baseball in East Lansing.

"We've talked about that a lot - how much fun we had, how competitive it is," Koerber said. "It's where you want to be. You want to be winning when it comes May."

But Koerber and the rest of the seniors realize the key to this season might not be their contributions, but the freshman ingredient.

"It's kind of hit-or-miss with freshmen sometimes," Gale said. "They can have great years and we'll make a run at a Big Ten Championship, but if they struggle, we're going to struggle as a team because a lot of them play key roles.

"They're going to have to step up and play ahead of their time."

Mahan feels the freshmen can add sparks to ignite the rest of the team, but he said the experienced guys have to be the engine that runs the squad - or else.

"We hope by Friday to have only two in the lineup," Mahan said Wednesday of the freshmen. "We can live with that. It would be tough in our conference if we have to play four or five freshmen every day. Plus, we're going to pitch a lot of freshmen.

"We need the experience out there."

Spartan surprise?

MSU manager Ted Mahan said this year is one during which he feels the Spartans should compete in the top half of the Big Ten. Only once in the last eight seasons, however, has MSU finished in the top three. MSU hopes to buck the trend this year and surprise the league. Here are MSU's finishes under Mahan:

Source: MSU Sports Information