EAST LANSING >> There are dozens of reasons why a star pitcher calls a meeting with his skipper — lobbying for playing time, tweaking pitch sequences, discussing a spot in the rotation. When Michigan State ace Joseph Dzierwa walked into coach Jake Boss Jr.’s office earlier this season, he came in to discuss something a little different.

Through Team Impact, a non-profit that connects children with life-threatening illnesses with college teams, Michigan State athletics regularly sponsors local kids. This season, the newest Spartan teammate was a 6-year-old boy from Lapeer named Luca Wright. He’s battling B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Dzierwa wanted to take his team’s support a little further. With the money his talented arm earned through NIL, the 6-foot-8 junior lefty wanted to pledge a donation for every strikeout he threw this season.

“I think I’ve been blessed to wear the shoes I’m in,” Dzierwa told The Detroit News. “And so I think just being able to help other people, I think that’s kind of my goal of life is to impact people around me, not just myself. And so this kind of sparked my interest.”

Boss loved the idea.

“As guys grow and they start to mature and it becomes more about somebody else than about them,” Boss said, “then I think that’s when it’s a lot of fun as a coach.”

One hundred thirty-one strikeouts later — 98 in Big Ten play, second most in the conference — Dzierwa raised a whole lot of money for Wright, both his own and the pledges of donors to the “Caught Looking for Luca” campaign. He’s also a big part of why Michigan State’s season will continue into the Big Ten tournament this week, where he’ll have more opportunities to ring up batters.

Dzierwa and his teammates first got to know Luca before the season, when Michigan State hosted its First Pitch dinner. Players immediately noticed Wright’s positive attitude. Even amid such difficult circumstances, he’s got a whole lot of energy.

“He’s out here playing catch with us. He’s in the dugout with his family and his siblings,” Michigan State first baseman Sam Busch said. “So, it’s really cool to connect with a kid like that and help out any way we can.”

“I think our guys understand the role they can have in his life to make his life a little bit better,” Boss said. “And have him feel like he’s part of something special, and just make sure that he’s aware that he’s got a lot of people in his corner, and he’s not fighting this thing alone.”

Wright’s battle with childhood cancer is a story that Dzierwa and his family have experienced. When he was a teenager, Dzierwa lost his cousin Ethan to a battle with cancer. They were roughly the same age. That loss has stuck with Joseph and his family all these years later.

“When you see and experience it with a loved one, it changes you, and it changes who you are and how you see the world,” Joseph’s mother, Dasa Dzierwa, told The News.

His junior year of high school, Joseph’s dad, Matt Dzierwa, also had a stroke that put life into perspective for his son. A perspective thankful for his own blessings, but also cognizant of what those blessings can do for other people.

“Baseball is kind of secondary to a lot of things in this world,” Matt told The News. “And you know, that’s the way it should be.”

Joseph’s passion for community outreach started in his youth. Otsego High School is small, with an enrollment of less than 500 students. It’s representative of the small town feel of its surrounding area, where people look after each other, including through a community food pantry. In his senior year there, Joseph wanted to give back and help that pantry with some funding. So he — the quarterback of the football team and a pitcher with MLB scouts watching his every move — raised $1,000 letting kids throw pies at his face.

“This is part of who he is and how he lives life,” Dasa said. “And it just brings us great joy as parents, seeing that take place in different spaces of his life.”

Coming to Michigan State enabled Joseph to continue helping others. With the backing of a Big Ten brand behind him, he also found the accompanying attention of newfound stardom.

“Our guys understand the platform that they have when they put the jersey on,” Boss said.

Dzierwa became a star early on, earning All-Freshman and then second-team All-Big Ten honors his first two seasons while throwing a combined 139 strikeouts in 136 innings pitched. After committing to Vanderbilt in the transfer portal with a lucrative NIL deal on the table, Dzierwa came back with “more to give” to the Spartans. He wanted another run with his teammates. Last year’s Spartans didn’t make the Big Ten tournament. It didn’t sit right with him.

“I came back this year, and this is one of the things I wanted to do was get back to that tournament,” Dzierwa said Wednesday. “Not making it last year, I felt bad for the seniors, and I kind of want to do this for them.”

After shutting out Oregon and USC in his previous two starts, Thursday’s start from Dzierwa ended in a 4-3 loss to Minnesota. Another loss Friday meant the Spartans needed to win Saturday and see Northwestern lose to clinch the 12th and final spot in the Big Ten tournament. A walk-off single from Randy Seymour gave Michigan State an 11-10 win, while Northwestern lost to UCLA 11-1.

To Omaha, the Spartans go. Once there, Joseph’s arm will play an important role in how deep the postseason goes. He and his teammates have a chance to keep the season alive, the lowest seed of the field but nonetheless with a chance to make a run.

It’s also a chance to rack up more strikeouts, ones that will continue to support Wright’s treatment and keep baseball in perspective of life.

“He’s going through a lot right now,” Joseph said. “To just kind of see him just keep going every day is kind of inspiring to me. Even just to see him go throughout his day, like daily life — go play sports and everything, kind of get away — it kind of reminds me of why I play this sport.”