STAT E NE WS.CO M | T HE STAT E N EWS | F RIDAY, A PRIL 12, 2013 |
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SPORTS EDITOR Kyle Campbell, sports@statenews.com PHONE (517) 432-3070 FAX (517) 432-3075
BASEBALL
SOFTBALL
Spartans face off against No. 12 Indiana By Robert Bondy bondyrob@msu.edu THE STATE NEWS ■■
The MSU baseball team not only will have to battle poor weather conditions this weekend, but it also will have to find a way to cool off a red-hot Indiana Hoosier team. MSU (18-11 overall, 2-4 Big Ten) will host Big Ten-leading Indiana (26-4 overall, 8-1 Big Ten) for a three-game weekend series that kicks off at 3:05 p.m. Friday, with games at 1:05 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. All games will be played at McLane Baseball Stadium at Old College Field. The Hoosiers enter the weekend series winning 19 of the past 20 games, while the Spartans are coming off a stretch where they dropped three straight games against Michigan last weekend, before an easy 10-1 win against Western Michigan on Tuesday. The Spartans were on a hot streak of their own before the U-M series, winning 11 of the previous 12 games. Head coach Jake Boss Jr. is optimistic, saying his team has forgotten about last weekend’s disappointing efforts against U-M and is focused on the task at hand. “We’ve moved on,” Boss said. “We have to understand that we have a lot of baseball left to play. If confidence was an issue, we probably wouldn’t have scored 10 runs on Tuesday and given up only three hits.” Indiana boasts some of the best offensive numbers in the Big Ten, ranking first in batting average, slugging percentage, on-base percentage, hits, runs batted in and runs scored in the conference. The Hoosiers also have a strong pitching staff, ranking second in the Big Ten in ERA at 2.40, according to the Big Ten athletics website. While Boss recognizes Indiana has a complete lineup that gives MSU “no room to relax,” he is confident his pitchers can compete with any team in the conference. “Our pitching staff matches up with anybody,” Boss said about his staff, which holds a 3.33 ERA. “When our guys throw to their capacities, we can throw with
JUSTIN WAN/THE STATE NEWS
Junior outfielder Dana Briggs scores as she runs into a Penn State player April 3 at Secchia Stadium at Old College Field. MSU defeated the Nittany Lions, 7-1.
MSU TO PLAY IN-STATE RIVAL U-M IN THREE-GAME SERIES JUSTIN WAN/THE STATE NEWS
Spartan baseball players from left, sophomore catcher Blaise Salter, and right-handed pitcher Zak Wilkerson, rest by the dugout before the game April 5 at McLane Stadium at Old College Field. MSU fell to Michigan in the first of the three-game series, 6-3.
“Our pitching staff matches up with anybody. When our guys throw to their capacities, we can throw with anybody.” Jake Boss Jr., head coach
anybody. The pitching is what’s kept us in ball games and why we have beaten some good ball clubs.” Boss said the team will not look to make any dramatic changes to its strategy. MSU plans on playing to its strengths, competing during all nine innings and, hopefully, waiting for the right pitches. With a Big Ten championship in mind, Boss said the goal is to win every series without stressing about falling out of the race, with plenty of games still on tap in conference play. “They are all critical. In order to win a championship, you need to win series,” he said. “At the same time we have only played six conference games so we have 18 more to go, we are certainly in a spot where there is a lot of baseball to play. We’ve got some work to do to catch those guys.”
DANYELLE MORROW/THE STATE NEWS
Junior right-handed pitcher Chase Rihtarchik pitches the ball Tuesday at McLane Baseball Stadium at Old College Field. The Spartans defeated Western Michigan 10-1, with Rihtarchik’s record now at 4-0.
By Stephen Brooks brook198@msu.edu THE STATE NEWS ■■
MSU softball coach Jacquie Joseph wants to downplay the excitement of this weekend’s rivalry series with No. 12 Michigan as much as possible, but she knows that can’t happen. The second-place Spartans (2114 overall, 7-1 Big Ten) will meet the Big Ten-leading Wolverines (32-7, 9-0) at 4 p.m. today in Ann Arbor, before returning home for 1 p.m. games on Saturday and Sunday. “One of the reasons we’ve had some success lately is we’re not playing the jersey,” Joseph said, according to audio provided by the athletic department. “And I think it’ll be real, real important for us to not get caught up in the hype of Michigan-Michigan State. I mean, it is a great rivalry. It is why kids choose Michigan or Michigan State for a sense, in terms of the excitement of that rivalry.” Junior pitcher Kelly Smith, who has been instrumental in the program’s turnaround this season, while emerging as one of the conference’s best, will battle a dangerous batting order for the Maize and Blue. The Wolverines lead the Big Ten in team batting with a collective .341 average. Three Michigan batters are among the top-
15 hitters in the conference, while eight players are batting north of .300. Led by the pitching duo of Haylie Wagner and Sara Driesenga, who combine for a 31-6 record so far this season, the Wolverines are ranked third in the Big Ten in team pitching. “They have just an outstanding ball club,” Joseph said. “… Maybe the most impressive is their hitting lineup, they’ve got a real murderer’s row. Whereas, in the past, the other teams have had one, maybe two hitters we had to stay away from, Michigan sends up seven, eight, nine hitters, and we’ve gotta be on our toes for every hitter. There’s not any lulls in the lineup, if you will.” The Spartans will take the field for the first time since going 2-1 last weekend in a series with Purdue. MSU’s games against Central Michigan and Western Michigan cancelled because of weather on Tuesday and Wednesday. “I feel good about where we are,” Joseph said. “I’m a little disappointed in that the weather hasn’t been great this week for us to get out and get to some things that I would like to get at. “But all in all, we could not be in a better place in terms of momentum and team chemistry. And I think the players are really doing a great job of staying dialed in and focused on what we need to do.”
Athletes in Action arrange to build shelter for trafficked women By Holly Baranowski barano10@msu.edu THE STATE NEWS ■■
There currently are as many as 27 million slaves in the world, more than any other time in recorded history, according to the International Labour Organization. Of this 27 million, about 17,500 people are trafficked into the U.S. each year. A group of student-athletes from MSU has decided to do something to help victims half a world away. Last month, MSU Athletes in Action, or AIA, a interdenominational Christian fellowship for college athletes, launched a
campaign to assist victims of sex slavery and trafficking. AIA set a goal to raise $5,000 to build a safe house for pregnant girls and young women who have been rescued from sex trafficking. The girls are between the ages of 12 and 19, and a house, or houses, will be built in Thailand or Cambodia. Journalism sophomore and former track athlete Derek Kim, MSU football intern Joel Kuntzman, senior quarterback Andrew Maxwell and former MSU linebacker Chris Norman started the fundraiser with the intent of contributing the money to the End It Movement, an organization dedicated to bringing awareness to
and ending slavery. More than 60 people were involved with the fundraising. “I believe it’s part of our responsibility to do something with what we’ve been blessed with,” Kim said. “My advice to students is simply to bring awareness, stop it, get the word out (and) be a voice for the voices who don’t have enough strength to be a voice for themselves.” E.J. Swanson, a nationally recognized speaker and pastor, spoke at AIA’s weekly meeting Tuesday and matched the students’ donation. Swanson founded the I Won’t Watch organization, a group
that sells watches to raise money for different projects around the world. I Won’t Watch donated $6.5 million to similar projects last year. “Typically, within that movement and hardship, when girls become pregnant, they kick them out on the streets,” Swanson said. “This home will encompass them and give them a place to live through the duration of their pregnancy.” So far, 19 pregnant girls and young women have been identified in Cambodia, Swanson said. The money was matched by several other donors and was celebrated at AIA’s meeting,
totaling about $35,000, with more donations still coming in. The students raised more than anticipated, clocking in close to $7,500. Having raised more money than expected, there is the possibility of being able to build two homes for girls rescued from slavery, Swanson said. “Because we’re student athletes, we have a lot of influence on the campus,” said Zion Keck, an interdisciplinary humanities freshman and member of the women’s rowing team. “… If we can take something that is as critical as sex trafficking or sex slavery and make it clear that we’re putting up an effort to
Michigan State University Chapter of
congratulates the 2013 initiates, who will be inducted into the Society at a banquet being given in their honor on Saturday, April 13th. Undergraduate Initiates Andrew Albert Kevin Andreassi Jennifer Andrews Benjamin Arnosti Alyse Bedell Alex Bissell Matthew Blevins Jennifer Bonamici Jenna Bumstead Robert Busley Keely Chandler Brenna Cleary Abagael Craft Taylor Dehnke Sara Denbo Alexander Dietrich Silke Harmon Marianne Harris Phillip Hernandez Timothy Johnson Neil Joshi Jennifer Kolakowski Michaelyn Lux Justine Markey Lisa McDiarmid Dylan Miller James Miller
Chanel O’Brien Megan O’Donovan Huixian Pan Christiana Park Kelli Pecora Stephen Peltier Humphrey Petersen-Jones Colton Rose Christopher Ruemenapp Sydney Ruhala Lauren Sabatowski Michael Sadler Lauren Smith Steven Stanwick Erin Sterk Thomas Turkette Maria Unuvar Lindsey Vincent Gregory Vranish Rong Wang Zhi Wang Jessica Westmoreland James Winters Amanda Young Yang Zhang
Graduate Initiates Daniel Beck Erica Donerson Carlie Ferschneider Angela Kolonich Fadel Matta Tressa Mattioli-Lewis Bradley Miller Kathleen Noble Kelly O’Brien Rene Rodriguez Carl Sahi Deanna Sakamoto Emily Sutton-Smith Luis Zaman
Award Recipients Excellence Award in Interdisciplinary Scholarship ArtSmarts Among Innovators in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Chapter Fellowship Nominee Yang Zhang Study Abroad Grant Clara Balliet
Faculty Initiates Raymond Brock Frederick Morgeson Robert Root-Bernstein
Founded in 1897, the primary objective of the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi is the recognition and encouragement of superior scholarship in all academic disciplines. The Society believes that by recognizing and honoring those persons of good character, who have excelled in scholarship, that others will be stimulated to similar goals of excellence.
Friday April 12, 2013 MSU Union 9am - 5pm UNIVERSITY UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH AND ARTS FORUM Faculty, students, family, and friends are welcome to attend urca.msu.edu/uuraf
stop it, than we can set a positive example and just really capture attention so we’re really able to use our gifts to give back.”
LANSING RALLY SAT. 11:00 AM CAPITOL STEPS
STOP GUN
VIOLENCE