It's the top of the first inning of the MSU baseball team's game against Grand Valley State on Wednesday and sophomore rightfielder Tony Clausen is settling into the batter's box.
Lakers pitcher Grant Payton steps on the mound, then glances over his shoulder at MSU junior shortstop Troy Krider, who's on first base after leading off the inning with a line-drive single to right.
Krider leads a few feet off the base, leaning away from it like he's being pulled by an invisible magnet. After eyeing Krider for several seconds, Payton steps off the rubber and throws over to first to force him back. Krider dives in safely, dusts himself off and resumes his lead-off position.
During the course of the at-bat, Payton repeatedly looks over at Krider and throws over twice more. Krider never does attempt a steal, but his presence disrupts Payton so much that he ends up walking Clausen.
Payton, who will eventually allow three runs to score in the inning, must have taken note of the biggest change to the Spartans this season — they're stealing bases at a rate that would land most people a misdemeanor.
Almost twice as much as they have been, to be precise. In 18 games this season, the Spartans have already swiped 39 bases, compared to 61 in 53 games all of last season.
And it's not a coincidence — it's one of the top priorities head coach David Grewe had coming into his first season.
"I'm just a very aggressive guy," Grewe said. "I like to put pressure on people, I like to be aggressive, and you do that by hit-and-running and stealing bases and all of that.
"We're trying to take (the opponent's) focus away from the hitter and onto the base runner."
The biggest benefactor of the shift in philosophy has been Krider, who's leading the team with nine stolen bases — one fewer than he had as a full-time starter the last two seasons.
"Coach gives me the green light pretty much every time I'm on base," said Krider, who has yet to be caught stealing this season. "I like it a lot because it just gives you a lot of freedom. If you get a good jump, you can go."
This increased aggressiveness hasn't come with a big price tag — MSU has been successful on 76 percent (39-of-51) of its steal attempts this season, which is actually an improvement from last season.
"We're going to get guys thrown out, we're going to get guys picked off, but that's all part of it," Grewe said.
And that's a risk the Spartans are willing to take if it means the stolen base continues to contribute as much to their offense as it has been. When the Spartans steal at least two bases in a game this season, they're 7-4. When they don't, they're 2-5.
"It gives the guys at the plate a lot of confidence," senior third baseman Oliver Wolcott said, "because all of a sudden you've got guys in scoring position and it kind of takes the pressure off you from trying to hit a triple or a double."
