For MSU pitcher Mike Theodore, Sunday was a welcomed change-up. After starting the first four games of his Spartan career on the road, the sophomore right-hander — who transferred from Tennessee — made his first appearance at Kobs Field at McLane Baseball Stadium on Sunday against Oakland.
For the second time this season, the MSU gymnastics team left Iowa City, Iowa, empty-handed. After falling to the Hawkeyes 193.225-190.175 on Jan. 13, the Spartans returned to Carver-Hawkeye Arena to compete in the Big Ten Championships on Saturday.
As the lone MSU swimmer competing at the NCAA Championships in Federal Way, Wash., this weekend, junior Jacob Jarzen held his own.
In its Big Ten opener, the MSU softball team suffered a 2-0 loss to Purdue on Sunday, bringing a close to its three-game weekend series in West Lafayette, Ind.
Junior defenseman Torey Krug has announced he will forgo his senior season and sign with the NHL’s Boston Bruins. The 2012 CCHA Player of the Year and two-time CCHA Best Offensive Defenseman, Krug leaves the Spartans just two days after the MSU hockey team was eliminated from the NCAA Tournament by Union.
Jake Boss Jr. is an offensive minded baseball coach. The fifth year MSU head coach isn’t all about home runs and power hitting, necessarily, but he loves when his team can go out and produce runs in various situations. That’s why Boss left the field after Saturday’s 11-2 win over Oakland at Kobs Field at McLane Baseball Stadium with a bigger smile on his face than after Friday’s 2-1 nailbiter. “If we execute, good things are going to happen,” Boss said.
Bridgeport, Conn. – This wasn’t the way it was supposed to happen. When Tom Anastos was hired a year ago in front of a skeptical group of fans and media, nobody expected this.
Bridgeport, Conn. – The No. 1-seed Union hockey team has the second highest ranked scoring defense in the country and they more than lived up to that ranking Friday, beating the No. 4-seed MSU, 3-1, at Webster Bank Arena in Bridgeport, Conn. When MSU found out it was going to be playing against Union in the East Regional NCAA Tournament game, it understood it had a defensive game waiting for them, head coach Tom Anastos said.
Tony Wieber has been doing a little bit of everything for the MSU baseball for awhile now. In the Spartans’ home opener Friday at Kobs Field at McLane Baseball Stadium, the junior utility player put his versatility on display. With the game knotted at one in the bottom of the eighth, Wieber hit a triple to left center field to bring home junior left fielder Jordan Keur all the way from first.
Bridgeport, Conn. – Exactly a year ago Friday, Tom Anastos stood behind a podium following his introduction as the next head coach of MSU hockey – a program he knew well from his days as a player and assistant coach. Fast forward a year, and Anastos is still behind a podium.
Bridgeport, Conn. – The No. 1-seed Union hockey team proved to be too much for No. 4-seed MSU to handle.
Eventually, the game had to make sense. At some point, Louisville had to stop hitting 3-pointers at a rate so much better than its regular season numbers would indicate, you’d think head coach Rick Pitino spoke to some sort of magician before the game.
Phoenix — The No. 1-seed MSU men’s basketball team ran into a match-up they hadn’t faced all season in a schedule that seemed to have every style of team.
Bridgeport, Conn. — Torey Krug has been through a lot of changes in three years. From bursting on the scene as a talented All-CCHA player as a freshman to being elected a team captain as a sophomore to seeing a coaching change and a shift in the direction of the MSU hockey program, Krug quickly embraced his role as a leader and has found success as the CCHA’s most offensive defenseman in more than two decades.
Despite earning a program-building victory against then-No. 11 St. John’s in its first official game of the season on the road, there’s nothing like a little home cooking for Ryan Jones and the MSU baseball team. Following an opening stretch of 17 games on the road, the Spartans (10-7) return to McLane Baseball Stadium at Kobs Field for the first time in the young season this weekend for a three-game set with Oakland (3-12), starting at 3:05 p.m.
As the fans start to funnel into US Airways Arena in for the Sweet 16 matchup between No. 1-seed MSU and No. 1-seed MSU and No. 4-seed Louisville, the colors are dominated by green and white.
When junior Jacob Jarzen hits the water for each of his swimming races, he said he is in the zone. For the third year in a row, Jarzen has qualified for the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships. He is the only swimmer representing the Spartans this weekend — competing Thursday through Saturday — at Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatic Center in Seattle, a feat head coach Matt Gianiodis said should not go unnoticed.
A week removed from a strong showing at the Hoosier Classic, the MSU softball team is ready to open the Big Ten season with a three-game weekend series against Purdue in West Lafayette, Ind.
After falling to No. 31 in the regional qualifying score, or RQS, rankings, the MSU gymnasts should be on their heels as they head into the Big Ten Championship in Iowa City, Iowa on Saturday. The Spartans (7-3-1) are coming off a tough 196.025-192.700 road loss to No. 21 Michigan, and their score of 192.700 allowed a couple of teams to jump ahead of them in the rankings, dropping three spots from No. 28 and potentially putting them in the hot seat to be one of the teams left out of the top 36 that qualify for regionals.
Brett Perlini and Tanner Sorenson are at the opposite ends of their career at MSU. Both forwards for the Spartan hockey program, one’s a senior, one’s a freshman. One is headed to the NHL after this season, the other more than likely back to his dorm room. One represents the wave of the past, one is a major part of the arc of the future.