Grewe
When the MSU baseball team and Michigan meet for four games this weekend, they’ll travel a short distance to each other’s home fields, but MSU coach David Grewe won’t refer to the cross-state showdown as a “rivalry.”
“There is no rivalry because a rivalry has got to exist amongst two teams where one wins, the other wins, one wins, the other wins,” he said.
“We haven’t been good enough over the last two years to have a rivalry. I hope within the next five years we can make it a rivalry, but right now? No, it’s not that.”
MSU (13-17 overall, 4-7 Big Ten) first travels to Ann Arbor today (6:35 p.m. first pitch) before the two teams head back to East Lansing for a doubleheader at Kobs Field on Saturday (first game at 1:05 p.m. and second game at 4:05 p.m.).
The fourth game will take place again at 1 p.m. Sunday in Ann Arbor.
“Our mentality is just to play our best and to square up balls,” junior catcher Eric Roof said. “We need good pitching, good hitting and good defense to beat a good team like Michigan and we’re going to need all we’ve got for it.”
The Wolverines (24-8, 11-1) had one of the the best overall season of the Big Ten schools last season, finishing with an overall record of 42-19 and 21-7 in the Big Ten, good for a first place finish. They lost in the national Super Regionals, though, to eventual national champion Oregon State.
?They return 22 letterwinners from last year’s squad, losing five.
Grewe said senior Mike Monterey would start Friday’s contest, with junior Mark Sorenson, senior Chris Cullen and freshman A.J. Achter finishing out the other three games on the mound.
Sophomore second baseman Chris Roberts has been heating up for the Green and White, batting .381 during a span of six games, while Cullen was named Big Ten Co-Pitcher of the Week last week after his shutout win against Ohio State.
The Wolverines, the first-place team in the Big Ten, are fourth in the conference for team batting average (.306) and third in team ERA (4.47). The Spartans (.264) are seven places below U-M in batting and one spot below in pitching (4.65).
But Grewe said the games that separate the two teams are minimal. MSU has lost four one-run games, while U-M has won four one-run contests. Also, the Wolverines have won three two-run contests, while the Spartans have dropped two.
“It’s just going to be a matter of us turning it up a notch this weekend,” senior outfielder Justin Potes said. “We’ve been getting outstanding starting pitching out of our guys on the weekend. I don’t think we’re going to have any problems getting up for Michigan.”
MSU leads the all-time series 447-256-1. U-M won all four meetings last season.
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