For the first time since Kirk Gibson roamed the Spartan Stadium sidelines and the dugouts at Kobs Field, the Michigan State Spartans have
advanced to the NCAA championship baseball tourney!
The first game in the Stanford Regional is tomorrow, Friday, June 1, at 4 pm ET (1 pm PDT), where #3 seed MSU (37-21) will play #2 seed Pepperdine Waves (34-21) at Stanford Stadium. Will ES roving reporter Chock, or the ES' pal Smig, make it from their homestead around San Francisco down to Silicon Valley to make the game?
Although baseball is boring to watch, it would be great if in the area to go down the road to catch the Spartans making the rare appearance (more rare than a football Rose Bowl appearance) in the NCAA tourney.
According to MSUSpartans.com, on Saturday and Sunday, game times are also scheduled for 1 p.m. and 6 p.m., and if necessary, Monday at 6 p.m. All of the games will be broadcast on ESPN3.com, while audio of Michigan State's games will be available on SpartanSportsNetwork.com and the Spartan Sports Network mobile app. The ES will tune into ESPN3 at home, fer sure... Stanford is the No. 1 seed in the regional with a 38-16 record and will play No. 4 Fresno State (30-26) at 9 p.m. EDT (6 p.m. PDT). Throughout its 128-year program history, Michigan State has never played either school. The only other Big Ten team to make the Field is Purdue, which is No. 1 in the Gary Regional. Check out the Bracket
here.
Interesting note on
Spartan baseball -- "Former Spartan Kirk Gibson launched the longest ball ever hit out of Kobs Field in 1978 when he smacked a 550-foot blast that cleared the trees in right-center and landed on Adams Field".
