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Column: Veterans hold key to Big Ten Title repeat

April 23, 2012

Jeremy Warnemuende

Looking to repeat as Big Ten champions this season, MSU baseball head coach Jake Boss Jr. knew he would be relying on a relatively youthful roster to do so.

With four incoming freshman turning down opportunities to play professionally, many of the young Spartans have been expected to contribute since day one, and they have done just that all year.

As the regular season enters its final month now, those freshmen and other young players will be called on and asked to do more and more. But if the Spartans (26-13 overall, 7-5 Big Ten) are to catch red-hot Purdue (31-6, 12-3) in the conference standings, it likely will be thanks to the wily veterans on the MSU roster, not the unproven youngsters.

All seasonlong, Boss has been looking for a more consistent approach from his batters. The Spartans are near the top of the conference in batting average (.298), but the problem has been finding hits when they’re really needed.

Part of the issue is the number of inexperienced hitters often stepping to the plate for the Spartans. Boss has inserted as many as four freshman into the lineup this season, and although they’ve played well at times, the consistency isn’t there yet.

Right fielder Jimmy Pickens was one of the most praised freshman coming to East Lansing this season, and he has responded by leading the team in home runs (5). However, he has also struck out more times (33) than any of his teammates, and only fellow freshman Ryan Krill has hit into more double plays (7).

It’s not to say they aren’t good baseball players; they obviously are very talented. Pickens has been crucial for the Spartans this year, and Krill recently has worked his way into the fourth spot in the lineup.

But as the season winds down and clutch hits are needed, guys such as second baseman Ryan Jones, third baseman Torsten Boss and outfielder Jordan Keur — all juniors hitting at the top of the lineup — likely will be the ones to deliver.

Because after years in the program, very few things are new to players like them.

“I’ve been here three years,” Jones said. “I know how college pitchers pitch me and how they pitch at the college level. You just need to know the situation and know what to expect in certain (at-bats).”

For freshman hitters, it’s hard enough knowing what your own approach should be, let alone what the opposing pitcher’s approach is as well. And that’s where the Joneses, Bosses and Keurs of the world have an advantage.

Although MSU locked up a series win against Minnesota on Sunday, the Spartans spent much of the weekend trying to figure out Minnesota’s pitching. Jones, though, went 6-for-10 with six walks in three games.

And after wasting two chances with bases loaded and no outs on Sunday, it was Torsten Boss who came through with the game winning hit in the bottom of the 10th with the bases juiced.

Coincidentally, Pickens opened the inning with a triple and ran across home plate for the winning run.

And that’s what it will take this final month. For MSU to be in contention for a second-straight Big Ten title heading into the last series of the season in mid-May, the Spartans’ youngsters will have to help carry the team.

But in the end, it will be the veterans who bring them home.

Jeremy Warnemuende is a State News sports reporter. He can be reached at warnemu3@msu.edu.

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