Spartans Battle Boilermakers Tuesday Morning In Big Ten Tournament Opener

2025 MSU Baseball Team during the National Anthem before 2025 Big Ten Tournament game in Omaha.

Photo by: Steve Branscombe

Spartans Battle Boilermakers Tuesday Morning In Big Ten Tournament Opener

5/18/2026 4:35:00 PM | Baseball

MSU BSB Notes - 2026 B1G TOURN vs Purdue

12th-seeded MSU meets 5th-seeded Purdue in opening game of tourney.

• Michigan State baseball is making its 17th all-time appearance in the Big Ten Tournament when the 12th-seeded Spartans take on No. 5 seed Purdue in the opening 2026 Big Ten Conference Baseball Tournament, Presented by IFS.ai, at 10 a.m. ET / 9 a.m. CT ... the 44th B1G Baseball Tournament runs Tuesday-Sunday, May 19-24, at Charles Schwab Field Omaha in Omaha, Nebraska, site of the NCAA Men's College World Series.

• The first three days of the tournament will feature double-elimination brackets, pairing eight teams seeded No. 5-12. Four games will be held on Tuesday, May 19, and Wednesday, May 20, and two games contested on Thursday, May 21, to produce four qualifiers.

• The four advancing teams will face seeds No. 1-4 in single-elimination quarterfinals on Friday, May 22. Semifinals take place Saturday, May 23, followed by the championship game on Sunday, May 24.

• MSU's schedule is subject to change, stay tuned to MSUSpartans.com and @MSUBaseball on X/Twitter for schedule updates.

• Tuesday's MSU game and all of the 2026 B1G Baseball Tournament will be televised on Big Ten
Network, and games will also be available on the FOX Sports App through the "Watch Live" link, and "Live Stats" will be available on MSUSpartans.com.

• MSU's games will not be on the Spartan Media Network, so there will be no "Listen Live" link available.

• Fans can follow the action with "Watch Live," "Live Stats" and "Listen Live" links, available at MSUSpartans.com.

• Michigan State finished regular-season action 23-30 overall and 11-19 in B1G action, making it to the B1G Tournament for the second-straight season and the third time in the last four years (2026, 2025, 2023).

• The Spartans were also the No. 12 seed last season and were the No. 8 seed in 2023 when it was an eight-team tournament ... Overall this is Michigan State's 17th all-time appearance and 10th under head coach Jake Boss Jr. in his 18th season at the helm of the Spartans.

• MSU drew its bye in the Big Ten Conference schedule on the final weekend, and hosted ISU from the Missouri Valley Conference over the weekend, as the Redbirds also had a bye in their league schedule, this weekend in a three-game weekend series, taking the series with wins on Thursday and Saturday.

• With Saturday's Victory for MSU, head coach Jake Boss Jr. passed legendary head coach Danny Litwhiler for number two on the Michigan State Baseball Coaches All-Time Wins List with his 490th win at MSU.

• Michigan State and Purdue played a three-game weekend series this season on March 27-29 in East Lansing, with the Spartans winning the series opener, 4-3, before the Boilermakers steamed back to win game two, 16-13, then won the rubber match, 11-4.

• The Spartans are 1-2 all-time vs. the Boilermakers in the Big Ten Tournament, but haven't faced each other since 2011 ... MSU lost to Purdue in 2004 and 2009, before winning in 2011, in the Spartans' tournament opening round win on the way to the 2011 B1G Tournament championship game.

• The winner of the game between MSU and Purdue will face the winner of game two between No. 8 seed Iowa and No. 9 seed Illinois, on Wednesday at 6 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. CT, while the MSU-PUR loser faces the Iowa-ILL loser Wednesday morning at 10 a.m. ET / 9 a.m. CT.

MICHIGAN STATE ATHLETICS ANNOUNCES JAKE BOSS JR. CONTRACT EXTENSION
• Michigan State athletics announced a contract extension for head baseball coach Jake Boss Jr. on Thursday, Feb. 12 on the eve of Opening Day ... With the extension, Boss' contract now runs through 2029.

• Boss is in his 18th year at Michigan State and 19th overall as a collegiate head coach ... Boss entered the 2026 season at No. 3 on MSU's longest coaching list behind John H. Kobs (1935-63), the namesake for Kobs Field, location of McLane Stadium, with 39 seasons, and legendary head coach Denny Litwhiler (1964-82) with 19 seasons.

BOSS PASSES LITWHILER FOR NO. 2 ON MSU TOTAL WINS LIST
• Coach Boss passed Litwhiler for No. 2 on MSU's Head Coaches Wins List, tying him on Thursday with win No. 489, then passed him with the in on Saturday in the regular-season finale to add to the Spartan Senior Celebrations Day festivities.

Boss is also No. 3 on the Spartan head coach list for wins and games coached, just behind Litwhiler with 489 wins in 859 games and also behind Kobs with 576 wins in 969 games.

BOSS 500 CAREER WINS
• MSU head coach Jake Boss Jr. won his 500th career win on March 21 vs. Iowa, with a 15-5 8-inning run-rule Victory for MSU, and the Spartans' win at CMU on March 24 was number 501 for Coach Boss ... he now has 513 career wins in his 19th overall season with 487 wins in 18+ seasons at Michigan State (2009-pres.), and 25 wins in one season at Eastern Michigan (2008).

SEASON 142 OF SPARTAN BASEBALL
• Michigan State is in its 142nd season of baseball in 2026 and won its 2,500th all-time Victory for MSU vs. Eastern Michigan on May 6, 2025 ... Baseball was the first organized varsity sport on campus with the first season of Spartan baseball in 1884, winning its first recorded game on May 19, 1884, 20-9 over Olivet, going 4-2 in the six-game schedule, and baseball has been played every season since, with only no varsity in 1944 due to World War II.

100 YEARS OF SPARTANS
• One hundred years ago, on April 2, 1926, the name "Spartans" was first identified with Michigan State. "Spartans" initially appeared in a Lansing State Journal story about the baseball team, when LSJ editor George Alderton decided the established "Aggies" nickname no longer fit the recently renamed Michigan State College ... Other publications would soon follow in utilizing the nickname, and eventually it was officially adopted by Michigan State ... In the hundred years which have followed, "Spartans" has become more than just a moniker, it's an identity for decades of alumni, representing our uncommon will ... Here's to another century of Spartans!

48 AND FABULOUS
• Michigan State baseball played its 4,800th game in school history on Sunday, May 3, now with an all-time record of 2,527-2,254-30 (.529) in 4,809 games.

BACK TO OMAHA
• This is MSU's second-straight and third berth in the B1G Tournament in the last four seasons, as the Spartans made it to Omaha in 2023 as the No. 8 seed and in 2025 also as the No. 12 seed ... The 2023 visit was MSU's first berth in the B1G Tournament since 2018.

HIGGINS AND SEYMOUR MAKING THIRD TRIPS TO OMAHA WITH SPARTANS
• The Spartan senior duo of pitcher Nolan Higgins and infielder Randy Seymour are also making their third trip to Omaha with the Spartans, coming to Omaha in 2023 and 2025 ... Higgins made one appearance in 2023, pitching 1.1 IP with 1 K, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB vs. Nebraska on May 26, 202 in 4-0 MSU's 4-0 loss to the Huskers loss in an elimination game ... Seymour didn't see any action in the B1G Tournament.

SPARTAN PLAYERS NOT AT FIRST RODEO IN OMAHA
• In 2023, no Spartan player on the roster had played in the conference tourney prior the first-round game ... Last season, MSU came to Omaha with 11 players that were on the Spartans' roster in 2023, while this season, the Spartans have eight players on the roster that played in the 2025 B1G Tournament, in addition to six other Spartans that were on the roster and in the MSU dugout in 2025, but didn't not see any action:

1          Ryan McKay    INF       JR         Clarkston, MI / Orchard Lake St. Mary's HS
3          Dayton Murphy          INF       SO        Crystal Lake, IL / Crystal Lake South HS
10        Nick Williams OF        RS-SR   Racine, WI / Union Grove HS / Wabash Valley CC
11        Parker Picot    OF        JR         Rochester Hills, MI / Rochester Adams HS / Alabama
18        Noah Bright    C          GR       Macomb, MI / Henry Ford II HS / Lansing CC
28        Aidan Donovan           RHP     SO        Commerce, MI / Orchard Lake St. Mary's HS
35        Randy Seymour          INF       SR        Frankfort, IL / Lincoln-Way East HS
41        Nolan Higgins RHP     SR        Wixom, MI / Orchard Lake St. Mary's HS

On Roster But Didn't Play In 2025:
8          Isaac Sturgess OF        SO        Davison, MI / Powers Catholic HS
14        Tommy Szczepanski   RHP     SR        Bay City, MI / Garber HS / Virginia Tech
15        Gannon Grundman    LHP      JR         Howell, MI / Hartland HS
19        Adam Broski   C          RS-SO Harrison Twp, MI / Warren De La Salle HS
20        Josh Klug         RHP     JR         Traverse City, MI / Traverse City Central HS / Louisville
21        Khamaree Thomas     OF        SO        Chicago, IL / Kenwood Academy

• Also on MSU's 2026 roster is junior infielder Jasen Oliver, who was on Indiana's 2024 and 2025 B1G Tournament rosters before transferring to Michigan State ... Oliver is currently out for the season with an injury.

MSU B1G TOURNAMENT HISTORY
• MSU is making its 17th overall appearance in the B1G Tournament, including the 10th under head coach Jake Boss Jr., now with a 10-18 ledger in the conference tourney under Coach Boss, winning at least one game in six of the previous nine visits as well as winning two games in four of the previous eight tournaments.

SPARTANS IN OMAHAAAAA, SOMEWHERE IN MIDDLE AMERICA
• MSU is making its sixth trip to an Omaha-hosted B1G Tournament, making the conference postseason tournament in 2014, 2016, 2018, 2023 and 2025 hosted by Omaha ... MSU is now 5-9 in the B1G Tourney in Omaha.

• In 2014, the No. 6 seed Spartans went 2-2, beating third-seeded Illinois in the opening round, 2-1, before losing to No. 2 Nebraska, 3-2, but bouncing back to beat Illinois again, 11-2, before falling to No. 1 seed Indiana, 7-4, as the Hoosiers advanced to the title game and won the conference crown.

• The 2016 B1G Tournament saw the seventh-seeded Spartans upset No. 2 seed Nebraska, 5-1, and No. 6 seed Maryland, 4-3, before falling to No. 4 seed Ohio State twice, 3-2 in 10 innings, and 7-3, as OSU also advanced to the championship game and won the title.

• In 2018, the No. 8 seed Spartans lost to No. 1 seed Minnesota, 3-2, in the opener, before being eliminated by fifth-seeded Indiana, in a heart-breaking 6-5 loss in 10 innings.

• The 2023 Spartans were the No. 8 seed in the B1G Tournament, losing to No. 1 seed Maryland, 3-2, before bouncing back to beat No. 5 seed Rutgers, 6-4, eliminating the Scarlet Knight, but then losing to No. 4 seed Nebraska, 4-0.

• In 2025, the 12th-seeded Spartans had a rematch with Nebraska, the No. 8 seed, and were topped, 5-4 in 10-innings ... MSU then lost to No. 1 seed Oregon, 4-2.

MITTEN STATERS
• Michigan State has 21 players on its 2026 roster from the state of Michigan ... Purdue has two Michiganders on its 2026 roster, and they're in consecutive numerical order on the Boilermakers' roster, in No. 28, freshman left-handed pitcher, Tro Fellings, who is from Kalamazoo (Kalamazoo Central HS), and No. 29, senior right-handed pitcher Gavin Beurter, who is from Three Rivers (IMC Academy/Kellogg JC).

19TH STATE NATIVES
• The Spartans do not have any players on their roster from the state of Indiana, while the Boilermakers have five players from Indiana.

LET'S SEY-MOUR HOMERS AS SEYMOUR CLIMBS HR LIST, TIES GIBBY
• Senior infielder Randy Seymour smacked his 16th home run of the season on Saturday, one of the three Spartan seniors to homer on Spartan Senior Celebrations Day ... to add to the excitement, Seymour also tied Spartan great Kirk Gibson with 16 in 1978, along with Matt Riggins (1996) and Bob Malek (2002), for No. 2 on the list ... Mike Eddington is MSU's single-season HR king with 20 homers in 1984.

Seymour's teammate Parker Picot is also climbing the list, now part of a six-way tie for the No. 10 spot.

MSU SINGLE-SEASON INDIVIDUAL Home Runs
1.         Mike Eddington          20        1984
2.         Kirk Gibson     16        1978
            Matt Riggins   16        1996
            Bob Malek      16        2002
5.         Randy Seymour          15        2026
            Sam Busch      15        2025
            Chris McCuiston         15        2002
8.         Rob Ellis          14        1971
            Kyle Geswein 14        2002
10.       Parker Picot    13        2026
            Brock Vradenburg      13        2023
            Ryan Krill         13        2015
            Travis Gulick   13        2003
            Jim Sepanek    13        1985
            Scott Ayotte    13        1995
--          CJ Deckinga    6          2026