Michigan State wraps up season with 11-6 win over Nebraska on Senior Day
EAST LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) – The Michigan State baseball team ended the 2024 season on a positive note Saturday afternoon, defeating Nebraska 11-6 on Senior Day at McLane Stadium.
The Spartans honored six seniors — pitchers Nick Powers and Harrison Cook and position players Dillon Kark, Sam Thompson, Jack Frank and Greg Ziegler — in a pregame ceremony. The seniors’ fathers threw out ceremonial first pitches to their sons and the group of six seniors also kissed the Spartan logo out in centerfield after the game.
Frank, Kark and Ziegler were the first three hitters in the Spartan lineup, and they wasted no time setting the tone for the afternoon.
In the bottom of the first inning, Frank led off with a double to left field. Kark was then hit by a pitch, setting the table for a two-run double off the bat of Ziegler to give the Spartans the early 2-0 lead. MSU never looked back.
In his final Spartan start, Powers allowed four runs but struck out six Cornhuskers in six innings of work and earned the win.
Frank put a bow on a terrific individual season by going 4-for-5 with three RBI and two runs scored. He finished the season with a .383 batting average and a 1.089 OPS.
“It’s been the best five years that I could possibly ask for,” Frank said. “I’ll try not to get emotional again but you know, I told the guys earlier there’s nothing I would change about it. I had the best time here. I loved playing baseball here. I loved representing Michigan State so it was a lot of fun. It’s good to see some of the guys I’ve been with forever, the other fifth years and the other seniors just play well, do well like I always see them do. It’s just good to go out on a win.”
Michigan State finishes the 2024 season with a record of 24-27. Head coach Jake Boss Jr. acknowledged the team’s record is not where they wanted it to be but said he feels this senior class elevated the program’s culture.
“I think if you measure our year by wins and losses it’s a disappointing year,” he said. “Obviously we want to play in the [Big Ten] tournament. You look at some games that we lost that we feel like we should’ve won and you miss the tournament by one game, there’s a lot of frustrations there. But at the same time, if you look at the totality of our program, the leadership that our seniors have given us this year, the atmosphere, the culture of our program is much better now than I think when they were here as freshman, and that’s a lot of credit to them.”
“We wanted to change the culture for the future,” added Powers. “So we took a big step this year in kind of making rules for the team to keep everyone in line and in check. I feel like that was for the better of the team. Everyone bought into it and because of it we’re all closer now. There are not individual groups like there have been in the past and everyone is playing for each other.”
Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WLNS 6 News.
