Michigan State pitcher Joseph Dzierwa is making headlines in his junior season for Spartans baseball. Dzierwa was named the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) Dick Howser Trophy National Pitcher of the Week.
This honor speaks volumes to the player Dzierwa is, marking Michigan State’s first National Player of the Week recognition since April 2023 (Bryan Broecker).
For Dzierwa, this award is just the latest he has added to his collection of accolades.
On Monday afternoon, Dzierwa was labeled Big Ten Conference Pitcher of the Week, Just Baseball and On The Clock Pitcher of the Week, D1Baseball.com’s Friday Standouts, and D1Baseball’s Big Ten Loud Performance of the Day. Not stopping there, Dzierwa also made the Baseball American NCAA Ace Report and cracked the top 10 D1 Pitchers of the Week by 64Analytics.
Dzierwa’s awards are well deserved after a performance on Friday, May 2 that put him in the national spotlight, pitching a complete-game to lead the Spartans to their biggest upset since 2014, shutting out the Oregon Ducks. Dzierwa had 11 strikeouts and was able to hold Oregon bats to just three hits and didn’t allow for a single walk.
This game marked only the second time Oregon had been shut out all season, with the only other team to do so being Rutgers who needed four pitchers to pull it off, while Dzierwa did it single-handedly. This was also the first complete game of the season for any Spartan pitcher as Dzierwa played all 9 innings, which he gives credit to the team and dugout for keeping energy high through this.
“Not even (just) the guys on the field,” Dzierwa said. “I think you give a lot of credit to the guys in the dugout. I mean our entire team is pretty cool. I mean great energy today and the guys made plays behind me too.”
This shutout marked his fourth game with double-digit strikeouts of the season, first since February 28th, and his 11 strikeouts bring his season total to 86 Ks. This tally placed Dzierwa just three strikeouts short of moving into MSU’s top single-season list and five away from matching his season total of 91 last season.
Despite having a record-breaking pitching game on Friday, Dzierwa remains humble and is ready to keep charging through the rest of the season with determination and strength.
“It’s good, but I think you got to flush it,” Dzierwa said. “We can celebrate this at the end of the year, but we (have upcoming games), so I think we have to focus on that.”
Dzierwa now has a career total of 236 strikeouts and is number four on Michigan State’s career strikeout list, just seven shy from matching the number three spot held by Mason Erla. Friday’s win also marked Dzierwa’s 19th career win, tying him up with former teammate Nick Powers for ninth on MSU’s careers win list.
In addition to making headlines with all of these awards and accolades, Dzierwa is making program history for the Spartans as this was his third Big Ten Pitcher of the Week Award this season, his first two coming in back-to-back weeks, marking the first Spartan player to win back-to-back Big Ten Weekly Awards of any kind. Dzierwa was also the first Spartan to earn any Big Ten Weekly honor three times in a season.
With his incredible performance, he joins other MSU pitchers in the spotlight for collecting at least three Big Ten Pitcher of the Week Honors in their career. Dzierwa joins Bryan Gale with five (2001-04), Kurt Wunderlich with three (2010-11), Tony Bucciferro with three (2011-12), and Andrew Waszak with three (2012-13).
Despite all the awards, success, and attention Dzierwa has received from his success this season, there is a deeper impact of what Dzierwa’s success has done for some people, including 6-year-old Luca Wright from Lapeer, Michigan.
Luca is suffering from B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia and has been connected with the MSU baseball team this year, from Team IMPACT, which matches kids facing illnesses with college sports teams.
Joseph Dzierwa announced early in the season that with each strikeout he makes this season, he will donate to Charitable Gift America’s “Caught Looking for Luca” fund. CGA has promised to match all contributions to get the fund up to $10,000. The fund has currently received $1,940 and with CGA matching, it is at $3,880 so far, in addition to Dzierwa’s donations for each of his 86 strikeouts. The pitching prospect is continuing to dominate on the field, but his impacts are going far beyond just baseball.
With his impact showing both on and off the mound, Dzierwa and the Spartans turn their attention to their challenging schedule ahead.
MSU is just coming off another successful win against Eastern Michigan where they picked up thier 2,500th program win. They stayed local and played a 12-inning battle against Western Michigan the next day where they fell short 6-5 on a walk-off. They will now travel to Los Angeles to take on the No. 25 USC Trojans in a weekend series from May 9 to May 11.
The Spartans will wrap up their regular-season play in a series against Minnesota from May 15 to May 17, where they will celebrate MSU’s seniors.
With momentum on his side, eyes will be on Dzierwa to see if he can continue his historic run and lead the Spartans to a strong season finish.
Don't miss out on any of our exclusive football, basketball, hockey, and recruiting coverage, not to mention our non-revenue sports coverage and subscriber exclusive forum. Sign up with Spartans Illustrated now!
- QB
- TE
- OT
- TE
