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Baseball finishes regular season stronger than last year's

May 19, 2015
<p>Senior first baseman Ryan Krill stands at first base April 14, 2015, during the game against Michigan at Comerica Park in Detroit. The Spartans defeated the Wolverines, 4-2. Allyson Telgenhof/The State News.</p>

Senior first baseman Ryan Krill stands at first base April 14, 2015, during the game against Michigan at Comerica Park in Detroit. The Spartans defeated the Wolverines, 4-2. Allyson Telgenhof/The State News.

The team finished in a three-way tie for third place in the conference with Michigan and Maryland.

“I think if you told us at the beginning of the year that we would finish third in the conference, knowing how good Illinois was and understanding how good this league is, finishing third with 33 wins and a chance to earn an at-large bid (in the NCAA tournament) the guys would have been satisfied with that,” head coach Jake Boss Jr. said.

Boss believes the competition in the Big Ten is tough and there is not much of a difference in talent between the No. 2 and No. 8 seeds in the tournament.

“Whether we’re the No. 2 seed, the No. 5 seed or the No. 7 seed it doesn’t really matter,” Boss said. ” We just need to go out and play good baseball and play the way we’re capable of playing.”

The coach is confident that his team will not shrink on the big stage as they prepare for the Big Ten Tournament which will be held at Target Field, the home of the Minnesota twins. Boss believes his teams experience playing at Comerica Park and playing against the Lansing Lugnuts have helped prepare them for this moment.

“The guys are used to playing in great atmospheres,” Boss said. “They’re used to this kind of stuff, that’s why you come to play baseball at Michigan State so you can play in that kind of atmosphere.”

The Spartans will open the tournament against Maryland on Wednesday in what will be the first ever meeting between the two teams. In their inaugural season in the Big Ten, the Terrapins went 36-20 overall with a 14-10 conference record.

"(The guys) are excited to play, they’re excited about the next phase of our season and we’ll be ready to go on Wednesday,” Boss said.

Should MSU win, the team would take on the winner of the Illinois (45-6-1 overall, 21-1 Big Ten) vs Nebraska (34-21 overall, 9-14 Big Ten) game. A loss would see the team square off against the loser. Illinois’ only loss in the Big Ten this season came at the hands of the Spartans.

MSU will look to play mistake free baseball as the team is 31-13 this season when committing one error or less.

“It’s the same as all year, we need to play fundamentally sound baseball, we need to put together a good approach to the plate,” Boss said “We need to play solid defense and throw strikes early in the count and we’ll have a pretty good chance (in the tournament).”

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