The Michigan State baseball team qualified for the 2025 Big Ten Tournament with an 11-10 walk-off win over Minnesota on Saturday at McLane Stadium. The game was a must-win for the team after dropping the first two games of the series to the Gophers, 4-3 on Thursday and 11-5 on Friday.
The Spartans will be seeded No. 12 and placed in Pool A with top-seed Oregon and No. 8 seed Nebraska. Michigan State sits at 28-25 on the season, and finished Big Ten play tied for 12th with Northwestern, who lost two of three to conference regular season co-champion UCLA this weekend. Michigan State moves onto the tournament based on winning two of three games over the Wildcats in mid-April.
The new Big Ten Tournament format guarantees all teams two games, one against each other team in their pool, with the top team from each pool advancing to the semifinals. The tournament will once again be held at Charles Schwab Field (formerly TD Ameritrade Park) in Omaha, Neb., and run from May 20-25.
Head coach Jake Boss Jr. will lead Michigan State into the Big Ten Tournament for the ninth time in his 17 seasons in East Lansing. As a program, this will be the Spartans' 16th appearance in the conference tournament since it began in 1981, but the green and white have never come out on top.
Saturday provided plenty of drama, as the Spartans and Gophers entered the ninth inning knotted up at 9-9. With one out in the top of the ninth, Minnesota junior Weber Neels put the visitors ahead with a solo home run to left center. It was Neels' second dinger of the day, and 15th on the season.
With the Spartans down to their final three outs, Noah Bright led off the inning with a single to center field forcing a pitching change for the Gophers. Seth Clausen stepped to the mound for Minnesota and walked Parker Picot on five pitches, then JT Sokolove was hit on the first pitch of his at bat to load the bases with no outs.
Jacob Anderson tied the game at 10-10 with a single to right field, and the bases remained loaded. After a strikeout, junior infielder Randy Seymour lined a 1-1 pitch into right-center to plate Picot and send the Spartans to Omaha.
That's game‼️
— Big Ten Baseball (@B1Gbaseball) May 17, 2025
Randy Seymour walks it off to keep @MSUBaseball's @bigten tourney hopes alive.#B1GBaseball pic.twitter.com/XZ64LindJL
The Spartans' offense started hot on Saturday, scoring nine runs in the first three innings However, Minnesota was able to keep within striking distance early on thanks to the long ball. The Gophers hit four home runs on the day and knotted the game at 9-9 in the top of the sixth before each team was shut out in the seventh and eighth to set up the ninth-inning drama.
Michigan State will open tournament play with Nebraska on Tuesday at approximately 6 p.m. ET, pending completion of the two previous games. After an off day Wednesday, the Spartans will return to action Thursday against top-seeded Oregon, also tentatively scheduled for 6 p.m. All games will be broadcast on the Big Ten Network.