“It’s not a make or break weekend yet, but they’re all big right now,” said MSU head coach Jake Boss Jr. who is trying to keep the pressure off his team with 12 conference games left on the schedule.

Eight teams are within first place in the Big Ten, and to try and distance themselves, the Spartans will send senior pitcher Kurt Wunderlich (7-1) to the mound hoping he can come away with a win.

Wunderlich is second in the league with 50 strikeouts and the seventh-best earned run average at 3.00.

“Friday’s always the biggest game of the series I feel like,” Wunderlich said. “You always got to get it started off on the right foot, get that first win and keep it rolling from there.”

Behind Wunderlich is the best fielding team in the Big Ten at this point in the season. The Spartans’ 97.3 fielding percentage is the top in the conference. Having a defense that always makes plays behind him allows him to be confident attacking batters, he said.

And that’s the strategy the pitching staff will use this weekend.

“You’re not careful with anybody,” Wunderlich said. “You’re just going right at them. If you get careful, you’re pitching scared and it just doesn’t work out. They got some spots I think we can exploit.”

The Nittany Lions have two batters, Jordan Steranka and Mario Eramo, who are tied with the Spartans’ own Jeff Holm atop the conference leaderboard in home runs.

With 20 total home runs, Boss recognizes the Nittany Lions are a team loaded with powerful hitters.

“Penn State is going to take some big swings and sometimes it’s an all or nothing approach,” Boss said. “And they’ve had some success with it so we’re going to have to execute.”

The head coach stressed how important execution will be. Last season, the Spartans were swept by Penn State, and Boss cited the lack of execution as the reason why.

Boss said last year’s series was “over before it started” and that his players have a chip on their shoulder this season because of it.

“Guys haven’t forgotten that,” Boss said. “You know they just beat us last year, and they beat us handily, and that still leaves a sour taste in guys mouths.”

It will be junior righthander Tony Bucciferro taking the mound Saturday in the second game of the series and sophomore Andrew Waszak in the series finale.

“Our pitchers kind of struggled the past couple games but I think they’ll get back on track,” sophomore infielder Torsten Boss said. “This is a huge series for us so I think they’ll be ready.”

Penn State’s John Walter and Steven Hill are two of the top pitchers in the Big Ten, with the second and third lowest earned run averages – 2.26 for Walter and 2.65 for Hill. The head coach said this could very well be a pitching series.

“Runs could be at a premium,” Boss said. “So we’re going to have to take advantage of the opportunities when we’re given them”