Michigan State baseball opens 2026 season with a series win over No. 8 Louisville

Following Thursday's news of a contract extension through 2029 for skipper Jake Boss Jr., the Michigan State baseball team got off to a hot start to begin the 2026 season. The Spartans defeated the No. 8-ranked Louisville Cardinals in two out of three games to win the opening weekend series. 

In the first game of the series, the Spartans came out victorious over the Cardinals by a final score of 4-3, after a solid outing by sophomore pitcher Aidan Donovan. Donovan went five innings with only one earned run. Three RBIs from senior infielder Randy Seymour also helped MSU earn its first top-10 win of the year. 

In game two against Louisville, MSU had a massive 13-4, thanks in large part to eight RBIs from junior outfielder Parker Picot. The Alabama transfer is the first Spartan to record eight RBIs in a game since Bob Malek in 2000. Picot's day included a grand slam and a three-run home-run. Meanwhile, redshirt freshman pitcher Brady Chambers shut the door out of the bullpen for the win, and additional help on offense came from Seymour, who added another three runs batted in. Seymour and Picot each slugged two home runs in the series to overpower nationally renowned Cardinal pitchers Jake Bean and Jake Schweitzer. This was the Spartans’ highest-ranked series win in Boss’ 18 years at the helm, showing a promising start to the young season. 

Louisville managed to take the third game of the series. After an offensive explosion of 13 runs on 14 hits on Saturday, the Spartans' bats went cold on Sunday, managing only four hits. Meanwhile, the Cardinals stayed hot, racking up 13 hits and jumping out to an early lead with five runs across the first two innings. Louisville won the final game of the series by a final score of 9-1.

“Obviously, we’re disappointed in the result today," Boss said on Sunday. "I think Louisville is a very good ball club and they did a nice job of taking advantage of momentum early and we had a hard time slowing them down, so that was a little disappointing. Their guy on the mound did a nice job of throwing a lot of strikes and getting ahead in the count, and we didn’t really do enough to control the game or control the pace of the game, so that was disappointing today.

“I’m proud of our guys for the effort today. We didn’t pack it in today after we got down big early and guys kept playing hard. There’s a long way to go and I think we have plenty to work on, and today kind of solidified some of that. It’s good to have those kind of days where people can identify things to work on, and take care of them during the week, and get ready for a really good Texas team next weekend.”

This matchup marked a return to traditional scheduling for Michigan State, representing its first true season-opening series since the four-game set at UNLV in 2022. Despite the Sunday loss, the Spartans secured the overall series win, extending a remarkable run of opening-weekend dominance. This was the fourth consecutive opening series MSU has won (Morehead State in 2020, Maryland in 2021 and UNLV in 2022.)

Next up, the Spartans head to Austin to take on the third-ranked Texas Longhorns in a weekend series from Feb. 20 through Feb. 22. Texas swept UC Davis in its opening weekend, and face Lamar on Tuesday before hosting MSU this weekend.

Agains the Longhorns — unless Boss looks to put some different arms to start — fans will likely see the same weekend rotation of Donovan, Carter Monke and Logan Pikur. Those pitchers combined for 12 innings pitched, eight strikeouts and only five walks against Louisville's bats. 

At Disch-Falk Field in Austin, the Spartans are likely to face Ruger Riojas, Luke Harrison and Dylan Volantis, a fiercely competitive rotation who are all being scouted to go in the top rounds of the MLB Draft. This will be a tougher test for the MSU lineup compared to the Louisville arms to open the 2026 campaign. It is possible fans see more appearances out of the MSU bullpen from Nolan Higgins, Brady Chambers and Tommy Szczepanski this weekend, where there will no doubt be tight situations against a strong Longhorn lineup.  

Other Big Ten results from around the country over the weekend included Michigan defeating Oregon State, Arizona, and Stanford. Minnesota swept Stetson, St. John’s, and Ball State. Purdue won its series against Portland, while Illinois lost its series to USF. Meanwhile, Rutgers took down Charleston. Penn State beat Grand Canyon, but lost to Air Force and Kansas State. Northwestern lost a series to Rice, while Iowa beat Northeastern and Air Force, but lost to Kansas State. Oregon swept George Mason, UCLA won its series against UCSD, and USC swept Pepperdine. Washington had a rough opening weekend, losing to Boston College, North Carolina State, Wake Forest, and Houston. Lastly, Nebraska took down UConn, Grand Canyon, and Northeastern. 

This coming weekend in Austin will be another test for the Spartans, but no matter the result, it will be a positive for the program to face off against All-American caliber arms and bats before the schedule becomes more favorable in terms of Michigan State's Midwestern style of play as the 2026 season progresses on.