The Michigan State baseball team continues its spring trip in Greenville, South Carolina this weekend with a four-game set against Western Carolina and Kansas.

Michigan State opens its weekend against Western Carolina on Friday at 2 p.m. Eastern Time and will also play the Catamounts on Saturday at 6 p.m. Eastern Time, with all games this weekend taking place at Flour Field in Greenville, South Carolina.

Both the Spartans and Catamounts enter Friday's bout with losing records: Western Carolina has a record of 5-8 and the Spartans currently sport a 5-7 mark. The Catamounts are playing their best ball of the season so far, however, as they have won three of their last four games, including a three-game sweep against Eastern Kentucky. Michigan State and Western Carolina both have a common opponent this season as both teams have played and lost to Presbyterian.

The two-game set between the Spartans and Catamounts looks to be set for an offensive slugfest as both teams are averaging over six runs per contest and both teams sport an ERA north of seven. Offensively, the Catamounts are led by junior infielder Pascanel Ferreras. Ferreras boasts a .435 batting average with a 1.164 OPS, and he has recorded two home runs.

Western Carolina has a team batting average of .264, but has hit 18 home runs in 13 games played. The ball should be flying at Flour Field this weekend.

Michigan State and Western Carolina started the weekend in thrilling fashion, with the Spartans defeating the Catamounts 6-5.

The Spartans sent freshman starting pitcher Joseph Dzierwa to the mound Friday afternoon to counterpart the Catamounts’ starter, Kyle Riesselman. Both Dzierwa and Riesselman went six innings and gave up three earned runs, respectively. Michigan State started the scoring in the third inning with a Mitch Jebb RBI-single.

Western Carolina answered in the fourth inning with an RBI-double from Jack Spyke on a 2-0 pitch from Dzierwa. Michigan State took the lead back in the bottom of the fifth with two runs, highlighted by a Dillon Kark RBI-double. Western Carolina came back with two of its own runs in the sixth inning, capped by a Spyke RBI-single. Spyke totaled three hits on the day, coupled with two RBIs.

The Catamounts would put up two more runs in the seventh inning to take a 5-3 lead against the Spartans. The cardiac Spartans would not give up, though, as MSU fought back in the bottom of the eighth inning with two runs to tie the game at 5-5. Spartan star Brock Vradenburg knocked in a run with a double to cut the Catamounts’ lead to one run, then Sam Busch knocked in Vradenburg with an RBI-single to tie the game up.

Michigan State reliever Wyatt Rush locked down the ninth inning, giving the Spartans a chance to win the game in the bottom half of the inning with just one run. On the first pitch of the at-bat, Kark sent a ball down the right field line that would get by the right-fielder James Hinson, and Kark would be off to the races, scoring on an inside-the-park home run to give Michigan State a 6-5 walk-off victory. Michigan State improved to 6-7 on the young season with the win, and the Catamounts dropped to 5-9 overall with the loss.

Michigan State faced off against Western Carolina for round two in the second game of the Spartans' Saturday doubleheader and came away with a 7-2 victory.

Michigan State took game one of its doubleheader against Kansas, and started off hot against the Catamounts in game two as well. The Spartans scored the first four runs of the game, capped by another Brock Vradenburg home run to take a 4-0 lead after three innings of play.

Michigan State sent sophomore Adam Berghorst to the bump in game two and he came away with a more than impressive performance. Berghorst pitched six shutout innings, striking out 11 Catamount batters. Michigan State led 4-0 until the seventh inning when the Spartans would add an insurance run from an RBI-single by Trent Farquhar. The Catamounts would not go down without a fight, though, scoring two runs in the eighth inning to cut the Spartans’ lead down to 6-2.

Greg Ziegler, who scored the run for the Spartans in the seventh inning, would go on to single in another run in the eighth inning to extend MSU’s lead to 7-2.

Spartan reliever Wyatt Rush has been a bright spot for the Michigan State bullpen, and on Saturday he closed out the game against Western Carolina with a clean ninth inning to finish off the game and secure the win for the Spartans, 7-2, improving Michigan State’s season record to 8-7.

Michigan State and Kansas will play a two-game set this weekend on Saturday at 2 p.m. Eastern Time and Sunday at noon Eastern Time.

Kansas enters the weekend with a record of 7-4 overall, and won its last contest against Wichita State by a final score of 4-0. The Jayhawks started the season with a 5-1 record with series wins against Valparaiso and Oakland, but Kansas cooled off a bit by dropping its next series against Belmont. Kansas is led by its pitching staff, which has produced a 3.71 team ERA this season.

The Jayhawks have three starting pitchers that have ERAs below 3.70, and starter Collin Baumgartner is currently tied for third in the Big 12 conference in strikeouts with 20. The matchup between the Spartan offense and the Jayhawk pitching staff will be a key one to watch as the KU staff has been excellent to start the season and the Spartan bats have been equally as good.

Offensively, the Jayhawks are led by sophomore's Chase Jans and Jake English. Jans and English have combined for six home runs and 18 RBIs, and both have an OPS north of 1.000.

Overall, the Jayhawks are batting .269 as a team, but have had success with the long ball, hitting 16 homers in 11 games. Against a struggling Spartan pitching staff, the Jayhawks are in a position to boost those numbers and potentially carry some momentum as the Big 12 season nears.

Michigan State and Kansas faced off in game one of the Spartans' doubleheader on Saturday and MSU came out victorious, 10-6, in a slugfest.

The Spartans picked up right where they left off after Friday's walk-off victory against Western Carolina. Michigan State scored five first-inning runs, which included two triples leading to two runs and a two-RBI double. Sam Busch and Bryan Broecker came through with the two triples that plated runs, and Brock Vradenburg kept up his hot streak with an RBI-double. A ground out from Dillon Kark also scored a run in the first. Vradenburg then hit a towering shot in the second inning to extend the Michigan State lead to 6-0.

Kansas answered in the fourth inning with six runs of its own to tie the score at 6-6, capped by a Kodey Shojinaga two-run home run. The scoring halted until the seventh inning, when Michigan State would add three runs to take a 9-6 lead against the Jayhawks.

Spartan reliever Andrew Carson came into the contest after the Jayhawks scored six runs in the fourth inning and would proceed to shut down the Kansas offense, pitching five innings of shutout baseball, and leading Michigan State to a 10-6 victory over Kansas. MSU improved its record to 7-7, and dropped the Jayhawks’ record to 7-6. Following the aforementioned win on Saturday over Western Carolina, the Spartans currently sit at 8-7 overall.

Sunday’s scheduled game against Kansas was canceled due to rain and it will not be made up.

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