Jake Boss Jr. gets 450th win as Michigan State baseball continues to roll

With a 5-2 win over UAB last week, Michigan State baseball coach Jake Boss Jr. made history with being only the third manager in program history to reach 450 wins. It took a sweep in both games in order to finally achieve this win total and it’s possible because of this team’s start to this year. Michigan State is off to a 12-3 start, the best since 2016 and there are several reasons why this start as possible and it starts with pitching and key situational hitting.

In the two games against UAB, Michigan State pitching — especially starting pitchers — stepped up and gave this team a chance to win.

In Game 1, Nolan Higgins started and gave the team almost six innings with only giving up two earned runs and five strikeouts. Those two runs would be good enough to give Michigan State baseball a chance to have a walk-off opportunity and Randy Semyour took advantage. The walk-off wasn’t possible if it was not for a Nick Williams inside-the-park home run to tie the game in the fourth inning. After that, Cornell and Michigan State did not score a single run even if there were runners in scoring position until the ninth inning.

When it came down to it, Randy Semour singled to right field scoring Parker Picot and giving Michigan State the win in Game 1.

Game 2 was no different when it comes to Joseph Dzierwa and what he has done in his first four starts. In his start, Joseph Dzierwa went almost seven innings with one earned run and eight strikeouts. In each of his four starts, Dzierwa has gone over six innings and has had at least eight strikeouts — this game was the lowest strikeout total he had this year. When you have a guy like him on the mound that gives you 6.2 innings of one-run baseball, you are going to win a lot of games and thats exactly what they did here.

With a two-home run game from Sam Busch and Caleb Berry adding another one, this team got enough runs that when it was turned over to the bullpen, Michigan State never let the lead go. Even with the 5-2 win, UAB did threaten in the ninth inning but that ended after only scoring one run. This was a very nice win for Michigan State and it was due to the pitching and the timely hitting.

Michigan State will return to East Lansing to play Michigan after this 3-1 showing at the FPI. While the weather might not be great, if the team continues to win, fans should give this team a chance as they have some really fun pitchers to watch and the have some hitters that are playing extremely well right now.