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Published May 23, 2023
Michigan State Baseball: Several Spartans earn All-Big Ten honors
Ryan O'Bleness  •  Spartans Illustrated
Managing Editor
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@ryanobleness

The Big Ten Conference announced its 2023 baseball individual award winners, All-Big Ten teams and All-Freshman team on Tuesday. Several Michigan State Spartans were honored.

Michigan State had one player earn first-team honors, two players get second-team recognition, one player receive third-team accolades, one player make the Big Ten All-Freshman team and one Sportsmanship Award honoree.

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Unsurprisingly, junior infielder Brock Vradenburg was Michigan State's lone first-team All-Big Ten honoree. He was a unanimous selection. Vradenburg, a semifinalist for the USA Baseball Golden Spikes Award, currently ranks second in the Big Ten in bating average (.397) and sixth in the conference in total hits (81). He also ranks fourth in the Big Ten in on-base percentage (.488). Additionally, Vradenburg has hit 13 home runs and 66 RBIs (which ranks third in the conference).

Senior relief pitcher Wyatt Rush, junior infielder Trent Farquhar and redshirt sophomore catcher Bryan Broecker all earned second-team all-conference nods. Rush was also Michigan State's representive of for the Sportsmanship Award.

Rush currently ranks third in the Big Ten and is tied for 15th in the NCAA in saves with 10. Rush is just the fourth Spartan reliever with double-digit saves in a season. He also has 12 career saves, which ties him for fifth on MSU's career saves list.

Farquhar does not strikeout much. He ranks seventh in the Big Ten in strikeouts to at-bat ratio (8.9 at-bats per strikeout), with just 23 strikeouts in 204 total at-bats. Additionally, his 19 doubles are tied for the fourth-most in the Big Ten. Farquhar also ranks in the top-10 in the conference in batting average (.353), hits (72) and runs (58).

Broecker leads the Big Ten in the "caught stealing by" statistic, and it's not particularly close, as he also thrown out 19 runners this season (the next closest is Indiana's Peter Serruto with 12). As a batter, Broecker ranks 14th in on-base percentage (.448), 21st in on-base plus slugging percentage (OPS) at .995 and tied for 23rd in slugging percentage (.547). He has also recorded eight home runs.

Junior infielder Mitch Jebb was the sole third-team All-Big Ten selection for the Spartans. It is the third-straight year Jebb has earned all-conference accolades after receiving third-team All-Big Ten honors in 2022 and being named to Big Ten All-Freshman team in 2021. He leads the Big Ten and ranks fourth nationally in triples with seven. Jebb has also stolen 13 bases (ranking 16th on the conference) and has a batting average of .335 (tied for 13th in the Big Ten).

Starting pitcher Joseph Dzierwa made the Big Ten All-Freshman team. Dzierwa is tied for fourth in the Big Ten in wins (six). He also ranks fourth in the conference in walks allowed per nine innings (2.45), and his strikeout-to-walk ratio (2.84) ranks just outside the top-10 in the conference. Dzierwa has a batting averaging against of .271 and leads the Spartans in strikeouts with 54.

A Michigan State player did not receive an individual award from the Big Ten. Maryland shortstop Matt Shaw won Player of the Year, while Michigan's Connor O’Halloran was named Pitcher of the Year. Indiana's Devin Taylor took home the hardware for Freshman of the Year, and Maryland's Rob Vaughn got the nod for Coach of the Year.

Michigan State will play Maryland on Tuesday at 7 p.m. Eastern Time in Omaha, Nebraska to open up play in the 2023 Big Ten Tournament. It is the first time the Spartans have qualified for the conference tournament since 2018.

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