The Michigan State Spartans will begin play in the 2012 NCAA Baseball Tournament when they take on the Pepperdine Waves in the first round of regional play on Friday afternoon. The game will be the first time in 33 years that the Spartans have participated in an NCAA Tournament game and the club will look to celebrate the appearance accordingly.
Pepperdine will be no easy matchup for MSU, as the Waves are coming off a West Coast Conference championship and a 34-21 overall record this season. The Spartans have played Pepperdine only one other time in it's history, which coincidentally came in the opening round of the school's last appearance in the NCAA Tournament in 1979. Unfortunately, that game did not go well for the Spartans as the team fell to the Waves 15-0 and were the first of three victories that led to a College Word Series berth for Pepperdine.
The projected starters for Friday are Tony Bucciferro (6-3, 2.80 ERA) for Michigan State and Jon Moscot (6-5, 2.97 ERA) for Pepperdine. The game will start at 4 p.m. ET and can be seen on ESPN 3.com.