Ep. 18 BIG 10 FALL PREVIEW: Michigan State w/Head Coach, Jake Boss Jr.

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Welcome to Baseball This Week, aspotlight production, and here's your host,
Jim Stark. Everyone, Welcome toa special Fall edition of Baseball This Week.
Boston Rob Bennett here with you today. I had a chance to sit
down with Michigan State baseball head coachJake Boss Junior recently chat about last season

(00:26):
the team's recently wrapped up fall sessionsin an early look at the twenty twenty
four season. Coach, thank youfor joining us here today. Really appreciate
the time. Now. Before wetalk about the immediate future of the team,
I really want to take a stepback and look into what I would
say and we'll see if you agreewith me. What was an important last

(00:49):
season for you and the program?Thirty three and twenty two overall, twelve
and twelve in the conference, aseventeen and four home record, a winning
omahan the Big Ten Tournament. Haveyou had time to reflect on the season
a little bit? Yeah, Ithink so. You know, the summer
is always a good time for that, Rob. I think you know,

(01:10):
during the summer, obviously we're onthe road a lot, so it's a
lot of time in the car tothink, but it's also a time to
kind of reflect on what we didwell and what we need to maybe do
differently or keep and do the same, you know, for the fall and
leading up to the next year's team. So you know, thirty three and
twenty two was much better. Youknow, we had struggled in twenty one

(01:32):
and twenty two, and so itwas important for us to have some success
last year. You know, theleague's only getting more more and more difficult,
it's getting deeper and deeper, andso you know, we were pleased
with getting back to the tournament.Certainly not satisfied, you know, because
we want to keep playing well intoJune, and so you know that's a

(01:52):
big part of that. But youknow, more more than anything else,
I think just the group that wehad was just such a tremendous group of
guys. They love each other,They pull for each other, genuinely happy
for each other when things go well, they pick each other up when things
don't go well. Our leadership,I thought was outstanding. You know,
when you get a chance to seefour guys realize their dream of playing pro

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baseball. So a lot of positivesfrom last year, without a doubt,
and you know, we've seen alot of the same. I think this
fall without standing leadership again. Ithink the guys that are our leaders this
year learned a lot from last year'slead leadership group, which has been fun
to watch a lot of new guyson this team, and they're buying in
extremely well. So yeah, Ithink our program is in a good place.

(02:38):
You know, everybody falls the bigpicture results in sports. I feel,
right, wins and losses big timeplaymakers. But I feel in every
season there are small victories or momentswithin those big moments. So take us
inside a little bit. What weresome of those small victories from last season
that maybe not everyone knows about.For you and Michigan State baseball, Yeah,

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you know we had I remember inin early in the season in Greenville,
South Carolina. You know, wedidn't play very well the weekend before
I think we're in Charleston, anduh, you know, we had a
team meeting once we got up toGreenville. You know, I said some
things, the rest of our staffsaid some things that our players chimed in,

(03:21):
uh and really kind of took itand and I feel like that was
that was a big point in theyear. You know, we had had
a couple of discipline issues too thatuh, that we dealt with, and
you know, we put those behindus. UH and the guys that you
know that that maybe missed a fewgames because of that, you know,

(03:42):
really I think realized the impact thatthat had on the team. Uh.
And and moving forward, you know, they made their peace with the rest
of the group, and the restof the group accepted those guys back.
And and uh. I thought thatwas a huge moment, you know,
for our team as well, becauseit really did kind of show a unifi
front, you know. And soI mean that was I think that was

(04:02):
really important. You know, somany things, like you said, Rob,
on the on the field. Youknow, you can point to moments,
some big moments on the field orsome you know, some good wins,
things like that, but the thingsthat nobody else sees, the bus
trips, the times in the hotels, the team meetings, you know,
things of that nature really are kindof what make it happen and what makes
this job so special. I mean, you know, we've had some some

(04:24):
unbelievable teams that unfortunately haven't had somesuccess on the field, but you know,
just great kids that are doing greatthings in the world today in their
communities, and and you know,in their areas of influence. You know,
I obviously wins and losses are important. At the same time, you
know, I got thirty five toforty guys that we're trying to get them

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ready for whatever's next in their life. And and as cliche as that is,
and you know, people get reallydo get hung up on winsors' losses.
And they can trash me on socialmedia as much as you want,
but you know, I think whenwe build into guys you know, like
that and and and they're able toassist them in that process of becoming uh
coming here as a young young manand leaving as a young adult. I

(05:10):
think that's what the job's all about. Just how important was last season for
you and how much pressure did youput on yourself as far as keeping the
standard off the field which has beenamazing two results on the field, because
no matter how much noise is comingfrom the outside, no one puts more
pressure on them than yourself. Wouldyou agree with that? So so yeah,

(05:34):
I mean, you know, again, I don't think anybody puts more
pressure on themselves to win and toget it done than I do, you
know. And at the same time, having done this for a while now,
you know, I think what wedo in the off season, what
we do, and the ownership thatwe give our guys throughout the course of

(05:55):
the year, our quote process,I guess, uh, I think is
really good. And so, youknow, as hard as it is to
kind of trust that, you know, you try to take a step back
and do just that. That's whatI'm you know, telling our guys to
do. And so, you know, I still don't take losses very well.
I feel like I'm getting better.That might be a question more for

(06:18):
my wife and my family than me, but yeah, I think as a
coach you always feel that pressure,you know, to win or lose,
regardless of you know, what youdid the year before. You know,
in twenty eleven, I felt animmense amount of pressure to try to repeat,
you know, in twenty twelve itwas Big ten Champs. In twenty
thirteen, you know, I feltan immense amount of pressure to try to

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get back to the NCAA tournament likewe did in twenty twelve. And so
I think every year is is separatefrom the last. You know, Having
tasted that, albeit a long timeago, you know, I would love
to have another ring you know formy ring box and you know sport that
around time you see similar fall storesports having a lot of access and that's

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awesome and I think that, uh, you know, that kind of fuels
the fire. You know, youwant to be part of that as well.
And so I think it's the sameas every year. And you know,
you want to play, You wantto continue to play in June.
You want to play in the NCAAtournament. You want to get your guys
that experience of doing just that,of having those celebrations and watching the selection

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show and you know, getting ona flight and going somewhere to play,
or hosting a regional here or somethinglike that, something that hasn't been done
since when nineteen eighty. I thinkit is so yeah, I think it's
you know, that pressure, youknow, is no different than any other
year. I'll try to again.I mentioned the outstanding job the program does

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off the field with academics and gettingout to the community and giving time to
others. One thing I do wantto bring up is the Beautiful Lives Project
in the Field of Dreams event thatBaseball and Softball partner up for for a
second year right in a row.Can you just talk about that initiative.
Yeah, so Bryce Wiler is isthe guy that uh you know, kind

(08:03):
of heads up the Beautiful Lives Project, and uh, he is an incredible
individual, incredible young man. He'suh he lost his site at a very
very young age and has gone onto get multiple degrees. Actually does some
play by play uh for basketball,and and uh, you know he's a
he's an incredible advocate for for youknow, for those people with with special

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needs and uh, you know Brycedoesn't take no for an answer and so
which is great. You know,So we were in contact a lot.
He's really was passionate about coming toMichigan State and and and you know,
doing some things with our baseball teamand we you know, we got softballing
on it as well. And it'sreally turned out to be a fun afternoon,

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you know, and it kind ofpiggybacks off of our Miracle Miracle League,
you know project that we do everyyear every fall, in every spring
here in Lansing. And so wesee a lot of those same kids,
a lot of repeat kids, butwhich is fantastic. They come to our
field in and get a chance todo it. So I'm honored to be
able to do it. I'm reallyhappy that you know, uh, coach

(09:15):
Show in softball has uh has beengracious enough to to bring her girls over
to so we can kind of tagteam, you know, the project,
which is a great experience, Ithink for everybody. So and again,
it's just one of those things thatyou know that our guys are going to
remember for a long long time.I'm gonna throw out a couple of names
at you give me the first coupleof things that come to mind. Trent

(09:39):
Farquhar, Uh gamer little you know, a guy that competes his tail off,
extremely hard worker, one of themost impressive young men that I've had
the pleasure of coaching. I've gotan update on him. He's doing great.
Yeah, he was a non draftedfree agent with the with the Phillies
and you know, got called upone level, uh toward the end of

(10:01):
the summer and is uh, youknow, hopefully going to start somewhere in
high A next year. And uh, you know, his journey has begun.
And so he's been back a coupleof different times, you know,
working out, working working hard,and and uh, you know, again
it's fun to watch this guy likeTrent realize his dream. Mitch Jeb,
Miss Jeb. You know, MissJeb's first pro hit was exactly what you

(10:22):
thought it would be. It wasa it was a ground ball up the
middle that the center fielder kind ofsat back on and Mitch stretched it into
a double. And then those hustledoubles are what Mitch does. And so,
you know, excuse me again,another one that's realizing his dream of
playing professional baseball. It's interesting whenthey come back and and tell the stories
of their experience so far in proball. Again, his his journey's just

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begun. Matt Buyers, Yeah,Matt Buyer is very you know, very
sad, tragic, uh, youknow, accident. You know, Matt
was a guy that that played reallyhard. He was a competitor, you
know, to the nth degree.He was a guy that, uh,
you know, didn't really take anythingfrom anybody, you know, as far

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as uh, he didn't take aback seat to anybody for sure, and
uh, you know, it's ait's it's obviously very sad that we lost
Matt, you know, and ouragain, our thoughts and prayers are with
his family. Conference expansion is here. Hello to usc U c l A,
Washington Oregon coming to the Big Ten. From a baseball perspective, some

(11:31):
very successful programs. Biggest plus maybethe biggest minus to all this realignment.
Well, you know, you bringin four powerhouse programs to to the to
our conference, and and our leaguesagain just keeps getting better and better,
you know, And I think,uh, you know, USC has more

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national titles than anybody across the country. U c. L A obviously won
a national championship in the not sodistant uh past. You know, Washington,
Oregon beautiful facilities, programs that areon the cusp of you know,
of Omaha much less win an thennational title. And so you know,
the Talent League is uh, youknow, is off the charts now.

(12:13):
I think it's great for recruiting.I think it's good for you know,
for our guys to to play againstagainst talented teams like that. I think
it makes us better, you know. I think you saw some of the
progression when teams like Nebraska and Maryland, you know, and came into the
league, and how much better theleague got with those two teams. And
it's just gonna, I think,continue to get better and better. And

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uh, you know, everybody talksabout the SEC and and how talented that
that league is. And there's noquestion, but we're getting closer in the
in the Big ten, and Ithink, uh, I think we're going
to continue to open open eyes upacross the country. So I think nationally
that that certainly helps our reputation asa conference. I think it's gonna open
up more eyes, like I said, to what we're doing here. And

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there are a lot more than twoor three very good programs in our conference.
I mean they're Our conference is topto bottom, I think, and
as good a place as it's beensince I've been in it, and I've
been here for sixteen years now.So you know, the the downside of
it is probably just the travel foreverybody. Logistically it's tough. You know,

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it's not tough for us to gowest, it's tough to come back.
You know, you're usually looking ata red eye. You're you know,
you're getting in early. You're gonnahave to change our schedule from you
know, maybe taking taking it easythe week after you come back from a
West coast trip. But you know, that's really the only one that I
can see. It's gonna get expensive, and logistically it's not great you know,

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from a scheduling perspective, because Wisconsindoesn't have baseball, we have seventeen
teams in the league now as opposedto eighteen, So you know, without
divisions, how do you crown atrue conference champion? You know, when
you're only playing I think nine ofthe possible seventeen schools in three game series,
so or maybe ten, I thinkwe might we might bump that up,

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so you're not playing everybody. There'sno divisions conference tournament. Hopefully we'll
expand, but it's not going toinclude everybody, and so there are some
logistical things from a scheduling perspective,I think too that that are going to
need to get worked out. Allright. You just completed fall practice with
the annual Green and White World Series. What did you learn as far as
some of the guys that will havethe opportunity for larger roles this year and

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as far as some of the newfaces getting acclimated in the leadership amongst the
team. Yeah, very pleased withhow the fall went, Robie. It
was you know, like you said, a lot of new faces and a
lot of them got a lot betterin the fall, you know, getting
their feet on the ground. Gettingacclimated to for a lot of them college
baseball, for a couple of themDivision one baseball. We've got a couple

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of transfers that were either junior collegeguys or you know, a couple guys
that transferred from Division three schools,you know, and then the couple guys
that you know, transferred from otherDivision one schools that are you know,
getting their feet on the ground herein East Lansing. And so very pleased
again with how we with how weplayed this fall. You know, we've
got essentially a brand new infield DealanKark will be at third base, but

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you know everybody else across the aroundthe horn there is going to be new,
and so you know a lot ofguys. We had a couple of
freshmen that played well in the infield. Jacob Anderson I think took another step
in the infield. Randy Seymour inthe infield did a nice job. Like
Sam Bush, who dated most ofthe year last year, really got better,
especially defensively. You know, thecatching Sam Thompson is back. But

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uh, you know there's two otherguys too that or three other guys I
guess that are gonna everybody's gonna pusheach other back there, and so that's
exciting. You know, again there'ssome depth on the mound that we feel
really good about with a core groupagain coming back with Joseph Jerua, Nick
Powers, you know, uh,Nolan Higgins and you know a host of

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other guys that really did a nicejob for us last year. So I
think we were little bit better offensivelythen I maybe expected us to be in
the fall. And so we're goingto try to keep you know, riding
that wave moving forward and uh,you know, we'll see. I think
the offense is still a little bitunknown right now, but I do like
where our pitching's at, and Ithink we're going to be much better on

(16:18):
the mound and much deeper. Andso the challenge now, uh, you
know, until we start playing onFebruary sixteenth, is to is to keep
that upward trajectory going. Uh.And so guys, you know, guys,
guys are doing a nice job workinghard. They they they they understand
that they need to get into theweight room. They need to eat right,
they need to get their sleep,they need to hydrate well, you
know, they need to take careof their academics. Uh, you know,

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they need to get in and doyou know, the work on their
own and if if they're going toget better, and this is the time
of year that that that happens.So you tell guys this time of year
that you're gonna have a little bitmore free time, which is true.
But at the same time you havegot you've got more, they've got more
decisions that they have to make asfar as as far as how they're going
to spend that free time. Andso, yeah, you have more free

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time, if you're not using itthe right way, you're not going to
get any better. All right,I'm going to interview a few of the
guys here in just a little bit, so once again, give me the
first couple of things that come tomind for each of them. Jack Frank.
Jack Frank can really hit, youknow, and it's it's been fun
to watch Jack Frank's journey here atMichigan State. He came in as a

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as a very talented outfielder, asa freshman that wasn't very comfortable, you
know, it's he's really watched.It's been fun to watch him grow and
then really kind of take the nextstep this year into more of a leadership
role. He's doing a tremendous jobat it, and it's and again it's
just uh, it's it. Ithink that's what it's all about. Watching

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a guy as a freshman coming herekind of uncertain, maybe lacked a little
confidence, was kind of a rollercoaster ride, uh you know when when
it wasn't going well to where he'sat now, you know, four or
five years later, and he's theguy that's that's really kind of taking the
taking the reins and really leading thegroup. And it's it's been an awesome
transformation. A watch Dylan Carr,you know again, another season veteran.

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Uh you know, he's he's steadieddefensively at at third base. Another guy
that's become more vocal, the guythat I know wants to lead a big
league organization someday, and so reallykind of taking that and uh, you
know and running with it. Hereto another tremendous leader, Nick Powers.
Big Power is the same thing.A lot of experience, you know,
a lot of experience. He's alittle bit more quiet than than probably the

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other two guys are, but uh, you know, he's he's uh,
he's pitching a lot of big spotsfor us and and I think, uh,
you know, lead by example probablyis uh you know, is probably
applies to him. He gets inand gets his work done. He has
a plan of how he's going todo things. Uh. And for our
younger guy's paid attention to how howhe goes about his business, they can

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learn an awful lot. You know. We're rapidly approaching the season of giving
what do you say? Can yougive us a little bit of an update
on the schedule for next season.We're still ironing out a couple of kinks,
but we're going to open up ourseason in Charleston, South Carolina,
UH at in a tournament at ShipyardPark. I think we'll play Merymack,

(19:23):
we'll play Lehigh, we'll play BallState, and one other school that I
can't remember off the top of myhead, I apologize. From there,
we go to Holly Springs, NorthCarolina, and we'll host Northern Kentucky for
three games on the on the frontend of spring break. We'll go from

(19:48):
there down to Athens, Georgia toplay University of Georgia in a midweek game,
and then back up to Greenville,South Carolina for a tournament with Florida
State, Western Michigan U and MichiganState. The next weekend, we're back
in Greenville again, another tournament withIllinois, Western Michigan again and Western Carolina.

(20:11):
And then the home opener is slatedfrom March fifteenth with Evansville. I
believe coming into town. We havegot a you know, crossdown showtown.
We'll play again. I think Aprilthird, we've got Niagar coming in for
a non conference series. During ourbye week, we've got Michigan here at
home. I think we go toOhio State. So, you know,

(20:32):
the regular Big Ten slate I thinkis going to be very competitive, but
I think the schedule is pretty balanced. It sets up for some good RPI
opportunities for us, you know,and we'll be ready for him. So
what would you like to tell allthe Spartan fans out there listening during this
holiday season as we await first Pitchfor the Green and White in twenty twenty

(20:55):
four, First Pitch Dinners coming,Yeah, coming release. They'll be coming
out here pretty soon, so staytuned for that again. Great group of
kids, you know, they worktheir tails off. They've done everything that
we've asked them to do. Ithink they represent Michigan State. University in
an incredible way. Uh, andcome out and support these guys because I
think they deserve it. You know, I think I think you can throw

(21:17):
that around a little bit, youknow, loosely sometimes, but I know
the way that these guys handle handlethemselves, the way they go about their
business. You know, I feelI'm obviously very biased, but I like
to show them off in front ofpeople, you know, and and I
think there have been years maybe whereyou know, you didn't quite feel that
way. But I love showing theseguys off to people. I'm so honored

(21:41):
to be their coach, uh andjust to have a small part in that
maturation process here at Michigan State,both on and off the field. So
yeah, come support our guys.They're they're they're fun to watch. Michigan
State had baseball coach Jake boss Junior. Always a pleasure, my man.
Thank you again for taking time outhere to join us on baseball this week.

(22:03):
You bet all right, everyone,I hope you enjoyed this special sit
down interview with Michigan State baseball headcoach Jake Bosst Junior. Again, want
to thank him for his time andlook forward to be giving you more big
ten baseball previews throughout the winter season. Here as we get closer and closer
to first pitch of twenty twenty four, So until next time, This is

(22:27):
Boston Rob Bennett saying good night everybody,