The Michigan State baseball program needs drastic changes

The Michigan State baseball program hasn’t been relevant in years and it’s time for Alan Haller to step in and make a change.

A prestigious school like Michigan State needs to be competitive in all sports. While basketball and football are the main revenue sports that people follow, others like hockey, gymnastics, soccer, tennis, and baseball also need some love. Alan Haller has done a great job returning most of these programs to relevance, but the Michigan State baseball program continues to lag behind.

And after another weekend of embarrassment on the diamond, it’s time to make changes.

Jake Boss has been the head coach since 2009 and the magic he had early on has seemingly disappeared. He tied for first place in the Big Ten back in 2011 and made the NCAA Tournament in 2012. Eight of his first nine seasons saw Michigan State finish with a record above .500. But since 2017, Michigan State has finished above .500 just twice and one of those was the 2020 season in which it played just 15 games (it went 9-6).

Outside of those two winning seasons (really just one), Michigan State baseball has had embarrassing campaigns of 20-32, 20-34, 17-27, and 24-30. The Spartans have also won fewer than 10 Big Ten games twice in that span.

Like the women’s basketball, hockey, and tennis programs, Spartan baseball needs changes.

Haller has already knocked some hires out of the park with football, women’s basketball, women’s soccer, men’s tennis, and hockey. He needs to step in and make a move with the baseball program, especially after an embarrassment of a weekend series against Purdue.

In case you didn’t see it, Michigan State lost 21-1 to Purdue on Sunday just one day after falling 14-0 to the Boilermakers. Earlier in the week, the Spartans lost 10-0 to Central Michigan. Over the past four games, Michigan State is 0-4 and has been out-scored 52-3.

Unacceptable.

The Spartans are now just 14-19 on the season and will miss the Big Ten Tournament for the fourth time in the past five seasons (not including the COVID year) and the NCAA Tournament for the 11th straight year.

While Michigan State baseball hasn’t been consistently good since the 1970s, it’s time to fix that and actually show that we care about one of the major sports falling into “embarrassment” territory.