Opposing catchers may joke about his size when he steps up to the plate, but the jokes stop once he swings the bat.Despite his 5-foot-9, 155-pound frame, Spartan second baseman Charlie Braun has become a dynamic player, helping MSU (27-9 overall, 9-6 Big Ten) stay among the Big Ten’s elite.“He’s being the player that is a thorn in the other team’s side,” Spartan hitting coach Cory Mee said.
In the midst of a 12-game road trip, the Lansing Lugnuts have had a wild ride thus far. Lansing (9-10) is 0-2 to start the trip, with two games remaining with the Michigan Battle Cats, four games with the Dayton Dragons and four with the West Michigan Whitecaps. The optimism that was created with a franchise-best 5-2 start is now gone. In the first game of the road trip, the Lugnuts pitched well enough to win, but the bats never showed up.
The MSU men’s golf team’s home schedule is wholly contained in this weekend. Yep.
Members of the women’s track and field team will compete in Philadelphia this weekend, while others will compete in Hillsdale. Five Spartans are headed to Philadelphia for the Penn Relay Carnival, which started Thursday and finishes Saturday. Sophomores Jamie Krzyminski and Michelle Carson lead the group in Philadelphia.
Coming off a strong showing in Ohio last weekend, the women’s golf team starts its run at back-to-back Big Ten titles today in Urbana, Ill.For the first time in 19 years, the Spartans are the defending conference champions heading into the league championships.
The list of MSU football players that will be attending NFL training camps has grown to nine.Former tight end/defensive end Ivory McCoy said he will sign a free-agent contract today with the Philadelphia Eagles.
You have to love the NBA Playoffs. Right off the bat, you get two weeks worth of five-game first-round matchups, full of 83-63 nail-biters.
Lansing - Playing under the lights at Oldsmobile Park for the first time this season, the MSU baseball team defeated Central Michigan 14-4 on Wednesday night. The Spartans (27-9 overall, 9-6 Big Ten) used a five-run first inning to jump ahead early.
With one scholarship to fill for next year’s team, the MSU men’s basketball team is looking abroad to snag their last recruit. Last week, staff from MSU made a trip to Europe to look at 6-foot-10 center Erazem Lorbek.
Earvin “Magic” Johnson changed the way professional basketball is played and he is now almost guaranteed a place in basketball’s hallowed walls. Johnson, who played 13 years with the Los Angeles Lakers, was one of 14 players, coaches and teams nominated Wednesday for induction into the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass. During his two-year career at MSU, Johnson put up record numbers.
The MSU baseball team will have revenge on the mind tonight at Oldsmobile Park.The Spartans (26-9 overall, 9-6 Big Ten) will travel to Lansing for the first time this season to host Central Michigan, which defeated MSU both times the two teams faced off last season.
Just a week after one piece of the Spartan men’s basketball coaching staff decided to stay put, another assistant soon might be leaving the MSU sidelines.MSU assistant coach Mike Garland will interview for the head coaching job at Wisconsin-Green Bay today, Wisconsin-Green Bay Sports Information Director Brian Nicol said.Garland, a teammate of MSU head coach Tom Izzo at Northern Michigan, has spent six seasons as an assistant on the Spartan bench.
MSU volleyball standout Erin Hartley experienced firsthand the attention that comes with achieving a lifelong dream.Sporting the red, white and blue of the U.S.
Overpowering and intimidating are frequently used when describing a strikeout pitcher.But even as senior pitcher Becky Gray continues to climb MSU’s all-time career strikeouts list, none of the usual terms apply.“I wouldn’t say I’m an overpowering pitcher,” Gray said.
As the MSU baseball team enters the second half of the Big Ten season, one of its most productive weapons is battling an injury.Junior catcher Brady Burrill, who leads the Spartans with a .444 batting average, took a foul ball off his left hand in Friday’s 11-0 win against Michigan.Burrill was forced to watch the remaining three games of the series from the bench, with his catching hand wrapped in ice.“We’re definitely better with Brady catching, from a leadership and experience standpoint,” Spartan manager Ted Mahan said.
A day after not being picked in the 2002 NFL Draft, middle linebacker Josh Thornhill was given another chance.The third-team All-American and team MVP was invited to workout at the Detroit Lions mini-camp Thursday through Sunday at its Allen Park practice facility.
MSU women’s basketball assistant coach Felisha Legette-Jack accepted the head coaching job at Hofstra, the New York university announced last week.
Lansing - While family, friends and reporters waited for T.J. Duckett to make a statement at Trippers on Saturday, his aunt June Smith asked, “Anyone like Georgia peaches?” A short time earlier, Duckett was with friends and family at the Frandor Shopping Center sports bar when the Atlanta Falcons notified him that he was their selection in the first round of the NFL Draft.
Spartan receiver Charles Rogers will become part of an elite class of athletes when he is pictured in the October 2002 issue of Playboy Magazine. Rogers will not be baring all, he will join 25 others as members of the 2002 Preseason Playboy All-American team. Gil Brandt, an analyst for NFL.com said Thursday that Rogers would be part of the 2002 Playboy All-American team. “He’s a great player and can he return kicks,” Brandt said. Brandt has helped Gary Cole, photography director and sports editor of Playboy Magazine, select the team in the past. Last season, Rogers caught 67 passes for 1,470 yards in 12 games.
Senior decathlete Paul Terek automatically qualified for this year’s NCAA Championships by winning the decathlon at the Mount San Antonio College Relays in California on Friday. Terek’s 7,926 points were good for the third-best score in the NCAA this season. Sophomore Steve Manz competed in the discus throw and shot put at the prestigious Mount SAC event, while seniors Matt Deering (pole vault) and Jeff Kus (high jump) also participated in the meet. Meanwhile, the rest of the Spartan track team was in Kalamazoo for the Western Michigan Quadrangular this weekend.