MSU's Dzierwa is Big Ten's Pitcher of the Year; McKay, Busch also earn league honors
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OMAHA, Neb. — Michigan State's Joseph Dzierwa was named the 2025 Big Ten Conference Pitcher of the Year to lead the Spartans’ All-Big Ten awards announced Tuesday by the conference office.
Dzierwa also garnered First Team All-Big Ten accolades and was the only player in the league that was a unanimous selection to the First Team.
Sophomore infielder Ryan McKay was named Second Team All-Big Ten, while senior Sam Busch was MSU’s Big Ten Sportsmanship Award recipient.
Dzierwa becomes the second Spartan to be named Big Ten Pitcher of the Year, joining Kurt Wunderlich in 2011. He is the sixth Spartan player to earn a major Big Ten player award, joining Player of the Year winners Bob Malek in 2002 and Jeff Holm in 2011, along with Freshman of the Year Ryan Sontag in 2005 and Ryan Jones in 2010. MSU baseball has also won three Coach of the Year Awards with Tom Smith in both 1988 and 1992 and Jake Boss Jr. in 2011.
The Big Ten Pitcher of the Year Award adds to Dzierwa’s growing award collection, which also includes being a semifinalist for both the Golden Spikes Award and the Dick Howser Trophy.
A Haskins, Ohio native, Dzierwa has an 8-3 record with a 2.31 ERA and 98 strikeouts in 85.2 innings pitched in 14 starts with a 0.96 WHIP. He has thrown one complete-game shutout, as part of four combined shutouts, in holding the opposition to a .193 batting average against him. The southpaw is also second in the conference in fewest hits allowed per nine innings (6.41).
Dzierwa continues to establish new program top marks, as he is the first Spartan player in program history to be a four-time Big Ten Pitcher of the Week, doing so in back-to-back weeks twice.
Previously, Dzierwa earned Second Team All-Big Ten accolades as a sophomore in 2024 after earning Big Ten All-Freshman recognition in 2023.
McKay, a native of Clarkston, Michigan, currently leads the Spartans and ranks 24th in the Big Ten with a .322 average, as well as leading MSU and being tied for third in the league with 19 doubles. Additionally, McKay leads the Spartans and is ranked 21st in the league in walks.
Busch, a former East Lansing High School star, leads MSU and is tied for 13th in the Big Ten with 15 home runs, the most by a Spartan since 2002, tying for No. 5 on the Spartans’ single-season home runs list. Busch has also hit 29 career homers, tying for fourth on MSU’s career list.
This is Busch’s third career Big Ten honor, but first on the diamond, as he earned Academic All-Big Ten accolades in both 2023 and 2024, and is on track to earn them again in 2025 when they’re announced this summer.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Michigan State's Joseph Dzierwa is Big Ten's Pitcher of the Year
