Alright, gear on. Mask down. Squat.
I'm Shay Kowalczyk. I caught softball for 11 years around the Lansing area, which means my knees sound like a bowl of cereal and I can tell you exactly what pitch a defense should've called. I've been in the stands for every Spartan home game this year, and most of the road ones, and I'm here to tell you: we've been close, eh. Painfully, ridiculously close.
Every week I frame the game like a pitch-calling sequence. Last week, we had two strikes on Northwestern. Then we blocked the plate, and the runner slid around us.
Part 1: Northwestern, 24-21, Two Seconds Left
On Saturday, Oct. 17, at Spartan Stadium, Northwestern beat us 24-21 on a 34-yard field goal by Jackson Kleather with two seconds left.
Let me walk you through the count.
First pitch: we went for it on fourth-and-1 in the first quarter, and Alessio Milivojevic ran in a 3-yard touchdown. 7-3 Spartans. Called it, framed it.
Second pitch: just before halftime, Milivojevic found Bryson Williams for a 32-yard touchdown, and we led 14-10 at the half. Early in the fourth quarter, Milivojevic hit Chrishon McCray for a 53-yard score. 21-13. Two strikes, baby.
Then the Wildcats' quarterback, Aidan Chiles, who played for us the last two years, ran in a 1-yard touchdown and threw the two-point conversion to tie it at 21 with 7:24 left. Our kicker, Liam Boyd, lined up a 33-yard field goal to retake the lead, and Northwestern's Matthew Smith blocked it. Chiles drove 64 yards in eight plays, and Kleather made the kick.
Foul tip, caught by nobody. Ball game.
Here's what I'm proud of. According to the AP, we were missing our top three inside linebackers and our top three cornerbacks, and we still had five sacks and 10 tackles for loss. We hadn't had a sack in three games. Ben Roberts had two. Dion Crawford made 14 tackles, and Cam Stodghill made 11. Eli Coenen blocked a Northwestern field goal in the first half. Milivojevic went 19 of 30 for 216 yards and two touchdowns with no interceptions. Rhys Dakin averaged 48 yards a punt with a 58-yarder. Three penalties all day. That's a clean glove.
And that's two straight weeks we lost by a single point or a single kick. The week before, Illinois beat us 38-37 in overtime when our two-point try fell short. Coach Pat Fitzgerald said afterward that his staff has to coach better to get over the hump, and I respect a catcher who says "my fault" when the ball gets by.
The Season So Far
We're 2-5 and 0-4 in the Big Ten. We beat Toledo 30-20 and Eastern Michigan 35-7. Then came Notre Dame (27-10), Nebraska (31-13), Wisconsin (31-3), Illinois (38-37 in overtime), and Northwestern (24-21). Five straight losses, the last two by a combined four points. My knees hurt, and it's not from squatting.
Part 2: Off to Pasadena
Saturday, Oct. 24, we visit No. 9 UCLA at the Rose Bowl. Kickoff is 3:30 p.m. Eastern, 12:30 p.m. out there, and CBS has it.
Respect first, because a good catcher always shakes the umpire's hand. UCLA is 6-0 and 4-0 in the Big Ten under first-year coach Bob Chesney, who, per the AP, is the first UCLA coach to start his tenure with six straight wins. They won just three games last year. They won at Oregon 17-15. Wayne Knight has 571 rushing yards and 11 touchdowns, with a rushing score in every game. Their defense allows 16.2 points a game and ranks third in FBS on third downs. And last Saturday, backup quarterback Ty Dieffenbach threw for 264 yards in his first start as a Bruin in a 17-7 win over Wisconsin, with Nico Iamaleava out with a leg injury. That's a good ballclub.
Now the scouting report they'd rather keep in the dugout. UCLA averages 83.2 penalty yards a game, which ranks 133rd in FBS, according to the AP. We average 36.3, seventh-best in the country. So if this game comes down to who keeps the yellow flags in somebody's back pocket, I like our glove.
And against Wisconsin, the Bruins scored 17 points. They had the ball for 37 minutes and scored 17 points. In softball we call that leaving the bases loaded.
Who to Watch
Alessio Milivojevic, quarterback: 1,263 yards, seven touchdowns, three interceptions. Zero interceptions against Northwestern. Clean glove.
Jaziun Patterson, running back: 327 yards and five touchdowns, including three at Illinois.
Chrishon McCray and Bryson Williams, receivers: touchdown catches of 53 and 32 yards last Saturday.
Jayden Savoury, receiver: our leader with 27 catches.
Devin Vaught, defensive back: 46 tackles, our leader. Eli Coenen: 3.5 sacks and a blocked kick.
Wayne Knight, UCLA running back: a touchdown in every game this season.
Semaj Morgan, UCLA receiver: 24 catches for 313 yards.
History: The Rose Bowl Knows Us
UCLA leads the series 4-3 and has won four straight, including 38-13 in East Lansing last year, according to CollegeFootballDigest. But here's what I love: three of our seven meetings were in the Rose Bowl Game. We beat UCLA there to cap the 1953 season, 28-20, and again in January 1956, 17-14. UCLA beat our unbeaten, No. 1 1965 team there, 14-12. So we know the way to Pasadena. We've just never visited during the regular season.
Two Towns, Called Like a Ball Game
East Lansing. A town of 47,741, home to Michigan State, the first land-grant college in the United States, designated in 1863. And it's home to the MSU Dairy Store in Anthony Hall, where the university makes its own ice cream and cheese, with milk from university cows. There's a flavor called Spartan Swirl, and it's green, and I'll be eating a pint of it either way on Saturday. Our stadium has been around since 1923 and seats 75,005, though it's held more than 80,000. It's right there on campus. Remember that.
And a reminder, because it's my go-to rule of life: Ann Arbor is just a suburb with a stadium.
Westwood and Pasadena. UCLA's campus is in Westwood, a lovely neighborhood next to Westwood Village and its movie theaters. But the Bruins don't play there. They play at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, and according to Wikipedia, the Bruins travel 26 miles from campus for home games and only 14 miles to play at USC. Ladies and gentlemen, UCLA's road game is closer than its home game. In softball, if you had to drive farther to your home field than to your rival's park, somebody would file a grievance.
The Rose Bowl is a National Historic Landmark, opened in 1922, and seats 89,702. Last Saturday, 36,045 people came to watch an unbeaten team play. That's fine. We'll bring the noise. Plenty of open seats for Spartans.
Closing
Here's my call from behind the plate. We're beat up, and we're 2-5. But our last two games came down to a two-point conversion and a field goal with two seconds left. We protect the football, we don't commit penalties, and our pass rush just woke up.
UCLA's good, and they're undefeated for a reason. But we know the road to Pasadena, and we've won there before.
Framed it. Strike three. Go Green.
My call: UCLA Bruins 31, Michigan State Spartans 18.