The Michigan State baseball team had an eventful weekend in its season opening trip to Phoenix. Of the four teams Michigan State faced in Arizona this past weekend, three of them made it to the NCAA Tournament last season, which is no small feat. MSU head coach Jake Boss made sure to challenge his team and the Spartans responded about as well as you can for an opening weekend, going 3-1 to begin the campaign.

Of course, Michigan State's season began following the mass shooting that took place on MSU's campus on Feb. 13. Michigan State head coach Jake Boss Jr. was proud of his team following the tragic events.

“I’m really proud of our guys," MSU head coach Jake Boss Jr. said. "After an emotionally tough week at home, it was good to get out on the road, and be together, and they really represented Michigan State in an unbelievable way. A huge thank you to the people of not only Grand Canyon University, but really everybody that we played this weekend for their hospitality and their thoughts and prayers for Michigan State.”

The Spartans opened up the 2023 season against their bitter in-state rivals from Ann Arbor, the Michigan Wolverines. Junior left-handed pitcher Nick Powers got the start on the mound for the Spartans, and he was opposed by Chase Allen for the Wolverines.

The Spartans and Wolverines turned this contest into a high-scoring affair early, with seven combined runs scored within the first three innings of the game. With Michigan leading 5-2 after three innings of play, Michigan State had some work to do if the Spartans were going to come back and defeat their rivals. Right fielder Jack Frank got the comeback started with an RBI single to score a run in the fifth inning. Shortstop Mitch Jebb tripled an inning later to score another run, which cut Michigan's lead down to one, followed by another RBI single from Frank to tie the game up at five.

The big shot to give the Spartans full control of the game came from third baseman Dillon Kark, as he sent a towering shot to left field for a three-run home run, to give the Spartans an 8-5 lead in the bottom of the sixth inning. The Spartans would never look back from that point, cruising to a 15-8 win over the Wolverines to begin the season 1-0.

Michigan would go 2-2 over the weekend.

Michigan State was looking to start off 2-0 in its 2023 campaign, but again the Spartans got down early to the opponent, this time against the Bulldogs of Fresno State. Former Michigan State football player Adam Berghorst took the mound for the Spartans against the Bulldogs in his first start since the 2021 season due to injury, which kept him out of the 2022 season.

Fresno State plated two early runs in the first inning and led 2-0 in total after the first two innings. Dominic Pianto relieved Berghorst after a shaky start and was flawless. Pianto dominated the Bulldog lineup, going 8.1 innings, striking out four batters, and only allowing one earned run. He would just need the Spartan offense to capture some of the magic MSU had in the first game against Michigan, and of course the Spartans did just that.

MSU scored the next five runs in the game, to take a 5-2 lead in the fifth inning and never relinquished the lead after that, which led to a 7-4 Spartan win to advance to 2-0 on the season.

Fresno State played three games over the weekend and went 1-2.

The third game of the season was a tough one for the Green and White as the Spartans again were on the other end of an early game deficit. This game against Arizona was part of a doubleheader on Sunday following the win over Fresno State.

The Wildcats took a 2-0 lead with a two-run shot from Chase Davis in the third inning. Davis would prove to have his way against Spartan pitching in this one as he went yard again later in the game and had four RBIs in total.

Unlike the first two games, the Spartan bats could not heat up against the stingy Wildcat pitching staff. The Spartans only mustered up five hits for the game and plated a single run in the third inning. Led by Davis and the Arizona pitching staff, the Wildcats took this game 7-1 against the Spartans, dropping the Michigan State record to 2-1 on the season.

Arizona has started the 2023 season at 3-1, with its only loss coming against Fresno State.

The fourth and final game of the season opening trip came against Grand Canyon on Monday, which started 2-0 in its first two games, with one of those victories coming against No. 2 Tennessee — of note, the Volunteers are considered as one of the favorites to win the College World Series this season.

The Spartans made sure to flip the script in this one by never trailing in this contest. The Spartan bats heated up again for the finale, as six Spartans had multiple hits in this one. Not to be overlooked is Andrew Carson, the starting pitcher for MSU in this contest.

Carson went six strong innings, only allowing three hits and not giving up an earned run. Michigan State went on to close out a successful trip out west with a 7-1 victory over Grand Canyon to improve to 3-1 on the 2023 season. Grand Canyon would finish the opening weekend at 2-2.

Michigan State will next travel to South Carolina to take on USC Upstate on Friday (3 p.m. Eastern time), followed by a matchup in North Carolina with Gardner-Webb on Saturday (2 p.m. Eastern Time), and then back to South Carolina for a game against Presbyterian on Sunday (1 p.m. Eastern Time).