The MSU softball team's mental outlook all season long has been not placing any more or any less importance on one game.

With that in mind, although the Spartans face intrastate rival Michigan at 6 p.m. today in Ann Arbor, no one is admitting this game means more than its game against Eastern Michigan on Wednesday - or the contest April 25, against Indiana, even though the Wolverines comfortably sit atop the Big Ten with 15 conference victories.

The series swings back to East Lansing for a 1 p.m. matchup Saturday at Old College Field.

"We'll just do what we do instead of saying, 'Oh my gosh they're Michigan, or they're in first," sophomore catcher Elizabeth Peterson said.

The Wolverines are coming off a doubleheader sweep against Wisconsin in which junior pitcher Nicole Motycka broke a school record of shutouts for the season, with 25.

"(Michigan's) good right now because they make you beat them - they don't beat themselves," head coach Jacquie Joseph said. "They make few mistakes and hang around and hang around and they make good things happen for themselves."

The key to this series will be the team that commits the least amount of mistakes and capitalizes on solid pitching and balanced hitting, Joseph said.

U-M's conference-leading team ERA (.57) certainly will battle MSU's conference-leading batting average (.279).

On the flip side, MSU's last-place conference pitching (4.86) will go up against U-M's third-place conference batting (.274).

The Spartans (27-21, 6-10 Big Ten) narrowly swept all outings against the Wolverines (44-7, 15-1 Big Ten) last season by scores of 2-0, 2-1 and 2-0.