Michigan State continues its Big Ten schedule with a trip to Piscataway, New Jersey to take on the Rutgers Scarlet Knights in a three-game series starting at 3 p.m. Eastern time on Friday.

Michigan State comes into this weekend's series with a record of 14-8, winning nine of its last 10 games, and starting 2-1 in Big Ten Conference play. Rutgers comes in with a record of 13-11, winning its latest contest against NJIT, 9-7.

This will be the conference opening series for the Scarlet Knights, who post a 4-0 home record so far during the 2023 season. The Spartans enter the series with a 6-4 record on the road.

The hot Michigan State bats have carried the Spartans to the 14-8 start, and have labeled MSU as one of the most dangerous teams in the Big Ten. The Spartans have four hitters with a batting average of .330 or better, with Brock Vradenburg leading the team and Big Ten with a .451 average.

Michigan State enters this weekend second in the Big Ten in team batting average, with a .314 average. Rutgers comes into the weekend with a .308 team batting average, which ranks third in the conference, right behind the Spartans.

Rutgers has four guys with batting averages of .300 or better, led by outfielder Evan Sleight, who has an average of .389.

The Michigan State and Rutgers pitching staffs are not exactly your prime Atlanta Braves, as both teams have a team ERA soaring over five.

Michigan State has figured out its bullpen just a bit, with Wyatt Rush becoming the full-time closer. Rutgers will have two guys close games, Ben Gorski and Joe Mazza.

Rush, Gorski, and Mazza all enter this weekend's series with ERAs all below 3.5. Gorski and Rush have been strikeout specialists for their respective teams. Gorski has struck out 23 batters in 15 innings of work, and Rush has struck out 22 batters in 15.2 innings.

Expect the starting pitchers to give up a few runs to these potent offenses and the back end of each team's bullpen to be the saving grace for each team.

Michigan State and Rutgers faced off in game one of a three game series on Friday and the Spartans came away with the victory by a score of 3-2.

Michigan State sent Joseph Dzierwa to the bump to make his seventh start this season, while Rutgers countered with Drew Conover. Unlike the description of this series in the preview, runs were hard to come by on Friday for the Spartans and Scarlet Knights. While both teams came in as top-three offenses in the Big Ten, the pitching is what impressed most.

The first runs of the game were not scored until the fourth inning, when Conover walked Trent Farquhar and Mitch Jebb with the bases loaded to give Michigan State a 2-0 lead, but Conover would limit the Spartans to just two runs after all of the traffic on the bases in the fourth inning.

Rutgers would answer Michigan State's fourth inning with a run of its own in the sixth inning, by way of a double play turned by the Spartans, and after six innings, Michigan State led 2-1. In the seventh inning, Michigan State scored a crucial insurance run with a Jack Frank RBI-single, which extended the Spartan lead to 3-1. The Spartans gave that run right back in the eighth inning when Spartan reliever, Andrew Carson delivered a wild pitch with a runner on third base.

Michigan State would go scoreless in the top of the ninth inning, leaving closer Wyatt Rush with just a one-run lead. Rush who had come into this game with five saves on the season, did what he has shown everybody this year and closed out the Scarlet Knights to give Michigan State a 3-2 win, improving their record to 15-8 and extending their winning streak to four games in a row.

Michigan State and Rutgers faced off on Saturday for game two of this weekend's three-game series. Michigan State woke the bats up and came away with an emphatic 10-4 win.

The starting pitchers for Saturday's matchup was Ryan Szczepaniak for the Spartans against Christian Coppola, who was representing the Scarlet Knights. Friday's contest was a fantastic pitcher's duel with minimal runs, but Saturday was anything but. Both teams plated runs in the first inning with Michigan State scoring in the top of the first on a Jack Frank RBI-single and Rutgers answering with a Ryan Lasko big fly to notch the game up at one.

Lasko followed up his act in the second inning by driving in another run for the Scarlet Knights to take a 2-1 lead after two innings of play. Michigan State put some pressure on Rutgers in the fourth inning by loading up the bases and eventually scoring on a passed ball, but unfortunately for the Spartans, the Scarlet Knights would take the lead right back in the ensuing half-inning on an Evan Sleight RBI to make the score 3-2 Rutgers after four innings of play. That would be the last time the the Scarlet Knight held a lead in this game, however.

The Spartan bats would heat up against the Scarlet Knight bullpen by scoring four runs in the fifth inning, thanks to a Bryan Broecker grand slam. The Spartans would add four more to their total over the final four innings to bury the Scarlet Knights by a final score of 10-4, improving Michigan State's record to 16-8 overall and 4-1 in the Big Ten.

Michigan State and Rutgers met on Sunday for the last matchup in the three-game series, with the Spartans hoping to sweep the Scarlet Knights, but Rutgers had other ideas and salvaged a win against the Spartans, 10-5.

The Spartans sent Nick Powers to the mound, while the Scarlet Knights started Jake Marshall. Rutgers began the game determined to salvage one game in this series by scoring early in the second inning on Hugh Pinkney RBI-double to take a 1-0 lead after two innings.

Michigan State, like the Spartans have done all year responded to the early deficit by tying the score up with a Sam Busch solo home run in the third inning to tie the game at one, but the ensuing half-inning is when Rutgers would answer with a solo shot of their own by Jordan Sweeney. Trent Farquhar singled in a run for the Spartans to tie the game up a two through four innings of play.

The Scarlet Knights would go on to take the game over after the fifth inning on Sunday, plating a total of six runs in the sixth and seventh innings to take an insurmountable 8-2 lead, which stood strong until the end and ultimately led Rutgers to a 10-5 victory, taking one of the three games against the Spartans.

Rutgers improved its record to 14-13 and 1-2 in the Big Ten, while the Spartans fell to 16-9 overall and 4-2 in the Big Ten.