Michigan State freshman pitcher Joseph Dzierwa. (MSU Athletics)
EAST LANSING, Mich. — Former Otsego pitcher Joseph Dzierwa made an impact his freshman year on the mound for Michigan State University.
During the Spartans’ season opener, Dzierwa let MSU fans know who he was.
The 6-foot-7, 180-pound southpaw pitched a gem in his collegiate debut during the Desert Invitational at Sloan Park in Mesa, Arizona on February 17.
Dzierwa chalked up five strikeouts in 4.2 innings, holding Big Ten Conference rival Michigan to just three hits without a run, earning his first win. Dzierwa’s shutout innings helped the Spartans climb from a 5-1 deficit and win the season opener, 15-8.
Even Dzierwa never expected to last over four innings during his collegiate debut, especially against Michigan.
“That was really fun,” Dwierwa said. “We went over the scouting report the first game and I figured that one of the lefties would be out of the pen right away because of the numbers and everything.”
Dzierwa, who says his fastball is reaching 88 to 90 miles-per-hour, says he found out quickly what the difference was between high school and college baseball.
“The game is a lot faster but the biggest thing is the mistakes as a pitcher — you can’t miss,” Dzierwa said.
“If you miss in high school, you’ll get away with it most of the time. In the Big Ten, even if you miss a little bit, you are probably going to obviously get in trouble.
“I used my changeup a little more this year than I have in high school. I honestly was a little more a fastball-changeup guy than a fastball-curve ball, unlike high school.”
Big Ten accolades
Dzierwa, a Haskins native, finished the regular season fourth in the Big Ten in wins with six and earned the Big Ten Freshman of the Week Award on April 10.
He was chosen to the Big Ten’s All-Freshman Team, but Dzierwa considers the rewards trivial compared to his desire to win ballgames.
“Honestly, that is not the goal — there are a lot of bigger things than just that,” Dzierwa said.
Dzierwa was also fourth in the the Big Ten in walks allowed per nine innings (2.45), along with just outside the top 10 in the conference in strikeout-to-walk ratio (2.84) and tied for 23rd in batting average allowed (.271).
He was 11th in the league in innings pitched (69.2) and 21st in the conference in strikeouts, leading the Spartan staff with 54.
Including postseason play, Dzierwa finished 6-4 with 60 strikeouts, 22 walks, allowing 81 hits and 47 earned runs through 74.1 innings and a 5.69 ERA. He also had wins over USC Upstate, Rutgers, Ohio State, Northwestern and Indiana.
Shutting down the Buckeyes
The Spartan southpaw went six solid innings, yielding just three hits while allowing just one run, with four walks and four strikeouts to earn the win in Michigan State’s 7-1 triumph over Ohio State at Jackson Field.
With that win, Dzierwa improved to 4-1 on the season, and helped lead the Spartans to coach Jake Boss Jr. to winning his 400th victory for MSU.
Dzierwa was boosted by a pair of three-up, three-down frames, working a non-conventional one-two-three opening inning, yielding a one-out single, before inducing a 5-4-3, two-outs, one-play to end the opening frame.
Dzierwa then book-ended the fourth inning with strikeouts, sandwiched around a flyout to freshman center fielder Jake Dresselhouse, who made a nice running shoe-top catch.
Dzierwa gave way to senior righty Andrew Carson, who threw the final three innings to earn his first save of the season, ringing up four strikeouts and two walks without a hit or run.
“We needed a great effort on the mound tonight from both Joseph and Andrew,” Boss said.
“We had some chances offensively to kind of break it open and we weren’t able to, so credit to Ohio State for making pitches in big spots when they had to. But at the same time, we put up seven runs and found different ways to score.”
Dzierwa even played a role in Michigan State’s final game of the season, a 4-0 loss to Nebraska in the Big Ten Tournament.
Eighth-seeded Michigan State battled fourth-seeded Nebraska and a crowd of over 5,300 mostly red-clad Husker fans, before falling at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha.
Dzierwa started and went 4.2 innings, scattering six hits and yielding just one run and one walk, while striking out six, his most against a Big Ten opponent and second-most of the season overall behind eight strikeouts at Indiana State on March 19 and matching six strikeouts at Charleston on March 3.
Michigan State was making its first appearance in the Big Ten Tournament since 2018, and no player on the Spartans’ roster had previously been to the conference tournament.
Michigan State concluded its 2023 season with a 33-22 record. MSU’s 33 wins are its most since 36 in 2016.
“It was fun. A great group of guys around me, honestly, so that made it the most honestly,” Dzierwa said.
Planning for sophomore season
Even though he is considered Major League Baseball draft material from most major scouting reports, Dzierwa is not playing summer college baseball and plans to return next year to MSU. His nearly 75 innings on the mound played a role in his decision not to play this summer.
“This summer, I’m going to keep working out and training, and then next year, probably do the same as I did this year, just a little bit better, and then keep doing it over and over,” Dzierwa said.
Dzierwa was a four-year letterwinner at Otsego coach Chase Welker, posting a 5-0 record and firing 70 strikeouts in 37.1 innings pitched as a senior, only allowing two earned runs with a minuscule 0.38 ERA, yielding only 14 hits, posting four shutouts and firing five complete games in seven starts …
He collected second-team Ohio High School Baseball Coaches Association’s All-Ohio Division III accolades and wss also an All-Ohio quarterback playing for his father, then-Otsego football coach Matt Dzierwa.
On the baseball field as a junior, Joseph garnered All-Northern Buckeye Conference honors after breaking the Otsego single-season strikeout record with 115. He also broke the Knights’ records for single-game strikeouts with 18 and single-season innings pitched mark with 66.3, and also tied the single-season wins record with seven
( — includes Michigan State University press reports)
