May 7, 2008

PDF of Complete Game Notes and Stats

EAST LANSING, Mich. - Michigan State softball finished the 2008 regular season with a 26-28 overall mark and an 8-12 Big Ten record to tie for sixth with Illinois in the league's final standings. Entering this weekend's tournament, the Spartans are the seventh seed - losing the tiebreaker with the Fighting Illini - and will take on second-seeded Michigan on Thurday, May 8, at 3 p.m. ET at Northwestern's Sharon J. Drysdale Field in Evanston, Ill. The game will be audio broadcast live by Scott Moore at www.msuspartans.com.

With a win, the Spartans would advance to play either third-seeded Iowa or sixth-seeded Illinois on Friday, May 9 at 3 p.m. on the Big Ten Network. The Iowa-Illinois match-up will be played Friday at 10 a.m.

Links for live online stats and audio vs. Michigan:
GameTracker vs. Michigan
Live Audio vs. Michigan

Official Big Ten Tournament Page

THIS YEAR AGAINST THE WOLVERINES
The Wolverines claimed both games in the 2008 home-and-home series, tallying 10-0 and 11-3 five-inning wins on April 25 and 26. Highlighting the Spartans' effort, Bianca Mejia cranked out her ninth home run of the year, a two-run bomb across center field in the bottom of game two's third inning against UM's Jordan Taylor.

MSU-UM SERIES
• Overall, Michigan leads the all-time series 68-24, and has won the last three meetings.

• MSU is 2-2 against Michigan in postseason action; all four games were in conference tournaments. The Spartans defeated the Wolverines in 2003 (Iowa City, Iowa) and 2004 (Ann Arbor, Mich.), while UM claimed victories in 1997 (Iowa City, Iowa) and 2006 (Evanston, Ill.).

• In neutral site games, Michigan leads the series 3-2. In addition to their two Big Ten Tournament wins, the Wolverines also defeated MSU in Tampa, Fla., in the 1997 Speedline Invitational.

SPARTANS' CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT QUICK HITTERS
• This is the sixth straight year that Michigan State has qualified for the conference tournament. Overall, MSU is 6-10 in tournament games.

• Last year, MSU took on Northwestern in a seventh-seed versus second-seed conest, but fell in the first round, 4-0, in Columbus, Ohio.

• The Spartans last claimed the league title in 2004, when they entered the tournament as the seventh seed with an 8-12 regular season Big Ten record. MSU defeated Michigan and Northwestern in the early rounds before claiming the title with a 7-5 win over Illinois in Iowa City, Iowa. Michigan State went on to receive a bid to the Fresno, Calif., NCAA Regional, where the Green and White went 2-2, dropping its final game to Georgia.