Michigan baseball looks to get back on track with home series against Michigan State

The Michigan Wolverines baseball team has a huge home series against Michigan State this weekend. After a hot start to conference play, the Wolverines — 19-17 (7-5) — have cooled off a bit and lost its last two series, as well as a mid-week single-game contest to Toledo on Wednesday.

It’s time for Michigan to hit the reset button and get back on track against the Spartans.

MSU is normally not a huge threat in the Big Ten, but this year is different. The Spartans are third in the conference with an overall record of 23-11 (6-3). However, they scheduled a very easy non-conference schedule, so take the 23-11 record with a grain of salt. Regardless, the Spartans are very talented this season.

Both teams have also already played this season in the MLB Desert Invitational back in February, with the Spartans winning, 15-8.

Before Wednesday, the Spartans were scorching hot, having won six games in a row including a blowout against Ohio State by 13 runs, but a loss against Purdue Fort-Wayne ended that streak. However, teams don’t worry too much about the out of conference games as the Big Ten season means more, so Michigan State is definitely coming into this series hot.

On offense, the Spartans have been really good. The worst average in the lineup is .260 and six players are above .300, with Brock Vradenburg hitting .418. The team is also averaging a little under eight runs per game, so they are certainly a dangerous offensive team.

Expect Michigan to see Andrew Carson (3.26 ERA), Joseph Dzierwa (4.40 ERA) and Harrison Cook (5.06 ERA) start on the rubber for the Spartans this weekend. Michigan State on average gives up a little under six runs per game.

This will definitely be a difficult series for Michigan to win, but it is a crucial one. Michigan State is good, but the Wolverines certainly are capable of getting the series victory, which would give this team a lot of momentum going into the back half of the season.

Game 1 is on Friday at 4 p.m. and is a Maize Out at Ray Fisher Stadium. Game 2 is Saturday at 2 p.m. and the series finale is Sunday at 1 p.m.