Spartans Start Spring Break at UC Riverside

**2020 Softball Week Four- Spartans at Amy S Harrison Invitational**
Dates	Friday-Sunday, February 28-March 1, 2020
Location	Riverside, Calif. \| A my S. Harrison Field \| T ickets
Spartan Schedule
Fri., 5 pm ET/2 pm PT	vs. Nebraska-Omaha Live Stats
Sat., 2:30 ET/11:30 am PT	vs. Montana Live Stats
Sun., 12 pm ET/9am PT	vs. Nebraska-Omaha Live Stats
Sun., 5 pm ET/2 pm PT	vs. UC-Riverside Live Stats
Game Notes	Michigan State \| UC Riverside \| Nebraska-Omaha \| Montana
Social Media	Facebook Twitter Instagram

THE WEEKEND AHEAD
• Michigan State heads to the left coast for nine games over its spring break. MSU will play six games at UC-Riverside (four as part of the Amy S. Harrison Tournament) and three more at Cal Baptist. MSU will play the host schools twice, and also has games against Nebraska-Omaha (2), Montana, Cal State Bakersfield, and Southern Utah.

LOGISTICS
• Links for live statistics can be found on MSUSpartans.com on the Spartan schedule page.

• There will be no webstreams available of this weekend's games.

THE MATCHUPS
• Amanda Eberhart is in her second season as the head coach at Nebraska-Omaha, and has guided her team to a 7-7 overall record to start the 2020 season. MSU has played the Mavericks four times, all between 1973-1983. MSU lost the first matchup but has won three in a row.

• The 2020 season is Melanie Meuchel's third year as the head softball coach at Montana after three years as an assistant in the program. The Griz are 6-9 on the season, and Saturday's game will serve as the first-ever meeting between the two teams.

• First weekend host UC Riverside is 6-9 on the year, and has dropped six games in a row. Nikki Palmer is in her fourth year as the head coach of the Highlanders. The last meeting for MSU with the Highlanders was on their field in 2015, a 9-2 UCR victory.

TEAM NOTES
• The Spartans have five California natives on the 2020 roster: Brooke Snyder (Westlake Village), Erica Holt (Newport Beach), Mackenzie Meech (Riverside) and Caitie and Sarah Ladd (Los Alamitos).

• The Spartans have a very youthful look in 2020, with six juniors and six freshmen, four sophomores, and just one senior (Katelyn Hendershott).

• MSU is 3-10 after two wins in five games at the FGCU Spring Break Invite last week. The Spartans earned wins over Harvard (5-3) and the host Eagles (5-0), with one-run losses to UMass-Lowell and Southern Illinois by identical 2-1 scores, and a 3-1 loss to Fordham.

• The Spartans opened the 2020 season with eight straight games against Power Five conference schools (Cal x2, Syracuse, Penn State, Pitt x2, Clemson x2). Only Liberty University has played more consecutive games against P5 competition to start the season - 13 games.

• MSU has struggled to put offensive pressure on opponents - hitting .240 last weekend (scoring a combined three runs in its three losses) and hitting a combined .233 on the year. The Spartans have scored 21 runs in its three wins - and an also 21 in the 10 losses.

• While MSU is still looking to improve its team's batting average, the Spartans have consistently produced some quality at-bats. MSU ranks third in the league in walks (46), and is 10th of 14 in the Big Ten in strikeouts, with 65 in 376 plate appearances.

• MSU's pitching staff has shown vast growth and improvement from its returning players and gotten a boost from a talented freshman. The staff boasts a 2.20 ERA (third, B1G) and has allowed just 26 earned runs in 82.2 innings pitched. The staff is averaging 0.77 K's per inning in 2020 compared to 0.45 in 2019. Also, the staff issued 0.46 walks per inning in 2019, compared to 0.34 through the first 13 games this season.

• The Spartans will play 28 games away from East Lansing before their scheduled home opener on March 25. MSU plays its first two B1G series - against Northwestern and Iowa - on the road. MSU has 16 games scheduled in the month of April, with 12 of those at Secchia Stadium, before wrapping up the B1G slate at Maryland May 1-3.

• Spartan head coach Jacquie Joseph is in her 27th season at the helm of the Spartan softball program, and is the longest-tenured coach in program history, along with being the second-longest-tenured head coach in MSU's athletics department. She earned her 700th victory as the Spartan mentor on March 8, 2019 vs. Mercer, and she owns 844 wins overall.

• Joseph is the third-longest tenured head coach in the Big Ten Conference, behind Carol Hutchins (Michigan, 35th season) and Rhonda Revelle (Nebraska, 27th.)

• Joseph's staff consists of pitching coach Ben Sorden, hitting coach Corrie Hill, and volunteer Erin Pond. Sorden begins his third season with the Spartan pitchers, while Hill joined the staff in the fall of 2018. Sorden and Pond both have previous Big Ten experience - Sorden was on staff at Indiana before coming to MSU, and Pond was a Penn State letterwinner. Hill spent 16 seasons as the hitting coach at Texas after serving as the head coach at UTSA from 1998-2005.

PLAYER NOTES - PITCHERS
• MSU posted a team ERA of 1.70 last weekend at FGCU. Alli Walker tossed 11 innings with 10 K's and a 1.27 ERA, while Sarah Ladd went 22 innings, struck out 22, and had an ERA of 1.91 despite a 1-3 record.

• Walker boasts a season ERA of 1.83 (seventh, B1G), is second in the league in relief appearances (6), and has eight overall appearances. She had two starts at FGCU, earning a shutout win over the host school.

• Ladd started three of the five games at FGCU, earning the win in relief against Harvard. She ranks 11th in the Big Ten overall in ERA (2.10), ninth in innings pitched (43.1), and sixth in appearances (10).

PLAYER NOTES - FIELD PLAYERS
• Caitie Ladd had six base hits, four walks, and a pair of doubles at FGCU, hitting .429. She leads the Spartans with a .351 average on the season, boasting a .500 on-base percentage (sixth, B1G) and leads the B1G in walks (11).

• Mackenzie Meech hit .429 at FGCU with three doubles, and has improved her season average to .265. She leads the team in RBI (7) and doubles (4).

• Joanna Bartz hit .364 at FGCU, drawing a team-high six walks. She's second on the team with a .286 average.

• Katie Quinlan ranks third on the team with a .279 average with a team-best five stolen bases and five RBI. She had a triple among her five base hits at FGCU, and a team-best three RBI on the weekend.

• Camryn Wincher has started the last nine games at shortstop, and is getting quality at-bats - she hit .308 with her first career homer at FGCU, with four base hits and two RBI. She's now hitting .214 on the year.

• Shae Schreckengost had a pair of base hits (including a double) at FGCU, and has six base hits on the season, surpassing her total of four in 2019. She has a pair of RBI and has drawn three walks.

• Erica Holt cooled off a bit at the plate last weekend, but is still hitting .250 on the year with seven base hits (one triple) with a pair of RBI and four walks.

• Sophomore Courtney Callahan is the only player to start every game of the season at the same position (left field). She's hitting .194 with two doubles, five RBI and five walks.

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Players Mentioned

Joanna Bartz

Courtney Callahan

Katelyn Hendershott

Erica Holt

Caitie Ladd

Sarah Ladd

Mackenzie Meech

Katie Quinlan

Shae Schreckengost

Brooke Snyder

Alli Walker

Camryn Wincher