With an 8-0 record at home (at McLane Baseball Stadium and Oldsmobile Park in Lansing) and a 3-17 record at neutral and road sites, the Spartans will take it on the road going into today’s game at Western Michigan.

They’ll follow that game with a three-game series at Ohio State.

“The dimensions of the baseball field are the same regardless of where you’re playing and it’s not like we’re playing in the stadium filled with 15 or 20,000 people, so the home field advantage when we go on the road is pretty minimal as far as I’m concerned,” MSU head baseball coach Jake Boss Jr. said.

“But again, I think it all speaks to the really important factor of being consistent and making plays when we have the opportunity to do that.”

The games at Ohio State give the Spartans — who dropped their first three conference games before bouncing back with a sweep against Northwestern this weekend — a chance to separate themselves from the Big Ten pack. At 3-3 in the league, MSU was one of seven teams with three wins going into today.

“The next three weekends are going to be really big for us, and we have a chance to put ourselves in a good position to make the playoffs. And it starts this weekend with Ohio State,” Boss said.

“Then we go to Iowa, then we have Michigan home-and-home and it’s going to be a big three weeks for us and we can put ourselves in a good place if we play well. But, you try not to get ahead of yourself. We have a tough enough task with Ohio State ahead, so we’re going to have to play well down there to win.”

After a 20-3 drubbing of nonconference foe Central Michigan last weekend, senior pitcher Nolan Moody nearly single-handedly got the Spartans back on track with a no-hitter in the opening game at McLane. It was the first Spartans no-hitter since 1993.

“If I had to pick a day to throw a no-hitter, I guess it would be that one — opening a new stadium and starting it off with a bang,” he said. “It was a great day.”

The feat — combined with a 2.94 season ERA and four wins on the year — earned Moody the Big Ten Pitcher of the Week award.

“It’s a great honor,” he said. “It’s something that was a personal goal of mine and I’m just glad I was able to fulfill it.”

Offensively, the Spartans’ bats have come alive in the last few games and the team now has four everyday players batting above .300 — junior outfielders Eli Boike and Chris Roberts, senior outfielder Johnny Lee and senior infielder Eric Roof.

MSU pitchers have surrendered 25 runs in six conference games and Lee said the key to maintaining the team’s winning streak will ride on those pitchers.

“We’re just going to have to go out there and try to have the same approach we’ve been playing with,” he said. “Pitchers have to get ahead and throw strikes, and we’ve got to make plays behind the pitchers. As far as hitters go, you’ve got to try to be aggressive early and try to get a good pitch to hit.”

The team has put together a string of wins, inching its way toward finding a consistent rhythm. This week will test whether it has enough to put it together away from East Lansing.

“We’ve figured out how to win at home and now we have to figure out how to win on the road,” Moody said.

“That’s a different beast and we have to figure out how to beat it.”