Editor’s note: This is the first of a three-part mock draft. For Detroit Lions fans, this is the time of year our hopes are lifted and smashed all in the same weekend. Thanks to the NFL’s own version of the welfare state, the Lions consistently are awarded a top draft pick for being the league’s only professional Pop Warner squad.
Senior right fielder Eli Boike and junior first baseman Jeff Holm are responsible both crushed long home runs over the fence and near the banks of the river in right field on Sunday to help propel MSU to a 14-7 victory over Ohio State.
After getting pounded 12-3 Saturday and losing 7-3 Sunday, the Spartans (18-21 overall, 4-6 Big Ten) know they have a lot to improve upon to become a conference contender.
As a change of pace from a typical day of practice, the MSU football team played its second controlled scrimmage of the spring Saturday at Spartan Stadium, where the Spartans’ offense beat the defense 101-88.
When All-Big Ten linebacker Greg Jones announced in January he was returning for his senior season, the linebacking corps instantly became one of the MSU football team’s most talented positions.
After coming up shy in the final rounds in each of its last two tournament matches, the MSU men’s golf team is looking to maintain the intensity for the final round as it prepares for this weekend’s Western Intercollegiate.
MSU athletics director Mark Hollis found exactly what he was looking for. Year in and year out, it seemed as though the MSU baseball team couldn’t take the next step.
Once upon a time, if you wanted to go to an MSU baseball game, you had to weigh it against a sore back and fiberglass in the seat of your pants from a pathetic excuse for stadium seating. There was no regional Big Ten Network exposure, the media accommodations were akin to Marshall Mathers’ first trailer park home and player introduction music came from what sounded more like an iHome than a PA system. Nobody in the MSU baseball community longs for those days of yore.
The MSU football team has to wait until the annual Spring Game on April 24 to show Spartans fans what its been working on this spring. If MSU head coach Mark Dantonio’s reaction to his team’s first spring scrimmage is any indication, MSU fans should like what they see.
Western Michigan right fielder Tim Cross hit a game-winning double in the bottom of the ninth to break a 10-10 tie, giving the Broncos a 11-10 win and the MSU baseball team its first two-game losing of the season.
The MSU women’s golf team hope to ride its success into this weekend’s Buckeye Invitational, the final tournament of the regular season and last tune-up before Big Ten Championships.
MSU football head coach Mark Dantonio said Tuesday that junior wide receiver Fred Smith has been reinstated to the team while defensive tackle Oren Wilson, who would have been a senior, is in the process of transferring.
MSU women’s basketball head coach Suzy Merchant specifically is looking toward juniors Kalisha Keane, Brittney Thomas and Cetera Washington, along with sophomore Lykendra Johnson, to step in and become the new generation of leaders.
For years, the MSU baseball team has been near or below .500 entering Big Ten play, needing a miracle run in the conference to qualify for the NCAA Tournament. But with a 22-6 record for one of the best starts in school history, every win counts toward a possible at-large bid to the tournament in June.
Looking at the MSU softball team’s roster, there’s one thing that sticks out: There only is one senior on the 17-member team.
MSU women’s basketball head coach Suzy Merchant was surprised when senior center Allyssa DeHaan wasn’t selected in the 2010 WNBA Draft last week.
Last season, the MSU football team often lacked the strong running game typically needed for Big Ten success. This spring, head coach Mark Dantonio said a duo of talented sophomores are working on solving that problem.
Early last week, Jacquie Joseph sat in Jenison Field House looking out her office window. Joseph, 47 years old and now in her 17th year as MSU’s softball coach, has won more than 500 games at MSU and, presumably, can stay at the helm for as long as she wants.
Right-handed starter Tony Bucciferro was excellent on the hill for the Spartans through six innings, but racked up five earned runs combined in the seventh and eighth innings as the Spartans lost a late 3-2 lead.
The MSU gymnastics team fell shy of an automatic bid to the NCAA Championships on Saturday, finishing sixth at the NCAA Regionals in Lexington, Ky., but senior Nicole Curler qualified individually for the NCAA Championships on April 22-24 in Gainesville, Fla.