All Things Gopher Baseball

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Gophers take the lead 2-1 in the top of the 8th but with 1st and 3rd and 1 out miss the opportunity for more and New Mexico responds with a 2 out 2 strike homerun in the bottom of the inning to go up 3-2.
 


Gophers tie it in the 9th with a Bateman single, sac bunt, and Counsell single but can't score Counsell with 1 out at 2nd.
 



Wietgrefe looked really good in the 9th
Headed to extras tied at 3
 

Man 2 pretty good swings from Hokenson and Mezzenga there but nothing falls. Thought for sure Mezzenga had given Minnesota a 2 run lead but it dies on the warning track.
 


Wietegrefe gets out of a big jam in the 10th. First two runners reached but he retires the next 3. Going to 11th
 





That is twice now the last two innings I have jumped up and yelled get out only to be disappointed by the catch at the wall. First Mezzenga and then Perry.
 

Would've been a good time to pinch run for Swenson. Both Hunt and Hokenson just hit it too hard.
 



What a heartbreaker
A lot of good baseball this weekend to come away empty handed
 

Hard to be optimistic when 0-4 but there were a lot of positive things this weekend. Could very easily be 3-1. Will do a deeper dive later into the good, bad and ugly.

My goal for the season is to finish top half of Big Ten and return to conf tourney. That still remains. I've seen nothing this weekend that indicates we can't do that.
 


Few thoughts from the opening 4. Newcomers are a really impressive group. Between Hokenson, Mezzenga, Berkland, Neels, Hunt, and Wietgrefe you are getting guys who are gonna play big roles early. Fritcher should get some time, interested to see if we see Jurgella and Egan this weekend. Disappointing to have Kennedy and Fitzgerald out for the year, especially Kennedy as I know he was likely to play a big role. Want to see what the veteran pitchers Blazek and Shepard bring. Like Saunders potential but he might need more seasoning same with Ellis.

Looking at the lineup I think you can kinda pencil in about 2/3 of it everyday. CF-Bateman, 2B-Counsell, Merila-DH, Perry-3B, Hokenson-RF/1B, and Mezzenga-SS/LF. Other guys I think you'll see rotate through those opening positions unless someone just puts a strangle on a spot. The closest to doing that so far is Larson but Hunt could be a guy that fits somewhere with his switch hitting if he continues to hit well and Swenson is another guy with the right handed bat. Neels and Berkland will continue to see plenty of time situationally as well I'd think.

Pitching wise I thought Novotny was pretty solid for the most part and will be a fixture in the rotation, Malec was good and should stick in the weekend rotation, Holetz really pitched today and seems like a perfect midweek guy if he can do what he did today. Klassen needs to show something this weekend as a pitcher and not a thrower. Even after the homer today I feel pretty confident in Clausen late in the game, I really didn't think the pitch for the homerun was that bad. Wietgrefe is gonna be a nightmare for lefties and looks to be a valuable relief guy. Rooney was a little up and down, has to locate a little better and can't get behind in counts. Hokenson and Hauser both looked solid in the limited viewing. Capomaccio had the most surprising outing to me but I want to see him back it up before I'd feel really good about him playing a big role. I don't want to see either Gurka or Dauman in a close game ever.
 

Here's how the newcomers performed. If I missed someone or got something wrong, I apologize.

Freshman
Drew Berkland, 1-6
Weber Neels, 0-5, 4BB
Easton Fritcher, 0-1, 1 sac bunt
Kris Hokenson, 3-13, 2 2B, 3 RBI….also pitched 2 innings with no runs
Caden Capomaccio, 3 IP, 1 H, 1 BB, 4 K

Sam Kennedy, DNP
Gilbert Saunders III, DNP
TJ Egan, DNP
Tristan Ellis, DNP

Transfers
Sam Hunt, 4-7, 1 2B, 1 3B, 2 RBI
Ike Mezzenga, 3-10 1 RBI, 3 BB
Connor Wietegrefe, 5.2 IP (relief), 7 H, 3 ER, 4 BB, 8 K (very solid in Monday’s game)
Joe Hauser, 1.1 IP2 H, 2 BB, 1 K, 0 ER

Cam Blazek, DNP
Ben Shepard, DNP
Brady Jurgella, DNP
Josh Fitzgerald, DNP

Only being able to listen to radio broadcasts from the opponents feed, I obviously can't see how people looked other than the stats.
-It seemed that Neels may have struggled a bit at catcher on Saturday? 4 walks are very good for OBP but hitting wise did he ever hit it out of the IF? Just wondering if he's overmatched at the plate. Hard to know without seeing it.

-Hockensen with 2 extra base hits on a weekend where they were lacking. Impressive pop for a freshman

-Sam Hunt needs more at bats.

-Capomaccio with a very nice debut on the mound. Hopefully a sign of things to come.

-I was speculating a few pages back if Wietegrefe could contend for a starting spot. Obviously that isn't the case, but he did emerge from the weekend as our leader in innings pitched. It's great to have those guys that can offer you stretch periods out of the bullpen.
 

Big Ten roundup.

Indiana goes 1-2 at Auburn. None of the 3 games were very competitive. But heading into the weekend they were probably hoping to get 1 win so mission accomplished.

Northwestern goes 0-3 at Texas State, giving up 56 runs! Yes, you heard that right. 12, 20, 24. Complete garbage. Texas State was a good team last year so maybe they are legit. But anyway you slice it, that was a bad weekend for the kitties.

Iowa goes 3-0 with easy wins over Indiana State and 2x over Quinnipiac. Not good competition at all. Iowa plays much better teams next weekend. I suspect we will get a better sample as to what Iowa is like.

Rutgers goes 1-2 vs Campbell.

Penn State goes 1-2 at Miami FL. Not a bad weekend for Penn State. They nearly had the series won but gave up 2 in the b9 on Sunday. They have to be feeling good about their start.

Nebraska goes 0-3 against San Diego. Much like the Gophers, they were competitive in every game so hard to tell if they were happy or disappointed.

Maryland goes 2-1 at South Florida. South Florida isn't great but hard to count on a sweep as a road team....so probably what the Terps were hoping for.

Ohio State goes 2-2 against UCONN. UCONN has been a decent team the last few years so probably a decent showing by the Buckeyes.

Michigan State goes 3-1 with wins over Michigan, Fresno State and Grand Canyon and a loss to Arizona. That's a good weekend for Sparty.

Michigan goes 2-2. Beat Fresno State, loss to Sparty, loss to UC-San Diego and win against Grand Canyon.

Purdue goes 3-1 against Holy Cross.

Illinois goes 2-2....they beat Youngstown State twice and then lost 2 to #10 Wake Forest.
 

Keeping a close eye on the walks given up as that seems to be the most glaring downfall in the past few years. Going back to 2016 (when we were an NCAA team) here are the walks given up per inning.
2016: 34-20 record, NCAA Regional, .421 BB/IP
2017: 26-21, .408 BB/IP
2018: 41-13, Super Regional, .359 BB/IP
2019: 29-27, .563 BB/IP
2020: 8-10, .776 BB/IP
2021: 6-31, .758 BB/IP
2022: 16-36, .593 BB/IP
2023: 0-4, .627 BB/IP

I must admit that I was surprised the numbers through the first 4 games were this bad. It didn't seem that bad to me as I followed/listened over the weekend. Taking away Klassen's 5 walks in 2 innings and the number goes down to .519 BB/IP....still not great but would still have been better than anything since the Super Regional season of 2018. Small sample size though. We'll see how things progress as we go through the season.
 

Just chiming in here to say as someone who doesn't get to follow the team as closely as I once did and would like to, I appreciate all the updates from you guys.
 

DarrenTheGreek said:
Here's how the newcomers performed. If I missed someone or got something wrong, I apologize.

Freshman
Drew Berkland, 1-6
Weber Neels, 0-5, 4BB
Easton Fritcher, 0-1, 1 sac bunt
Kris Hokenson, 3-13, 2 2B, 3 RBI….also pitched 2 innings with no runs
Caden Capomaccio, 3 IP, 1 H, 1 BB, 4 K

Sam Kennedy, DNP
Gilbert Saunders III, DNP
TJ Egan, DNP
Tristan Ellis, DNP

Transfers
Sam Hunt, 4-7, 1 2B, 1 3B, 2 RBI
Ike Mezzenga, 3-10 1 RBI, 3 BB
Connor Wietegrefe, 5.2 IP (relief), 7 H, 3 ER, 4 BB, 8 K (very solid in Monday’s game)
Joe Hauser, 1.1 IP2 H, 2 BB, 1 K, 0 ER

Cam Blazek, DNP
Ben Shepard, DNP
Brady Jurgella, DNP
Josh Fitzgerald, DNP

Only being able to listen to radio broadcasts from the opponents feed, I obviously can't see how people looked other than the stats.
-It seemed that Neels may have struggled a bit at catcher on Saturday? 4 walks are very good for OBP but hitting wise did he ever hit it out of the IF? Just wondering if he's overmatched at the plate. Hard to know without seeing it.

-Hockensen with 2 extra base hits on a weekend where they were lacking. Impressive pop for a freshman

-Sam Hunt needs more at bats.

-Capomaccio with a very nice debut on the mound. Hopefully a sign of things to come.

-I was speculating a few pages back if Wietegrefe could contend for a starting spot. Obviously that isn't the case, but he did emerge from the weekend as our leader in innings pitched. It's great to have those guys that can offer you stretch periods out of the bullpen.
Click to expand...
Sam Kennedy is injured and out for the year, I think it is tommy john but can't recall 100%. Big loss he was gonna have a big role.
Josh Fitzgerald tore up his knee one of the last few Northwoods League games and will miss the entire season I believe.
Neels had some good ABs working counts and fouling off a couple but the balls he put in play weren't hit real well.

Disappointing as it sounds like it will be just stats for this weekend in Fort Meyers, no radio/stream option.
 

Fitzgerald out for season (knee) Kennedy out for season (Tommy John) Egan out for season (Tommy John) Semb out for Florida tourney and possible longer ( shoulder). Not having Kennedy is a huge blow, would have helped us a lot and got a lot of innings. Offense looked solid for the most part, think the newcomers will have to step up for it to be successful. Seems like we a missing some firepower in the lineup, lots of single’s guy. Not really confident that anyone can hit the long ball consistently. Will have to manufacture runs. Rotation was shaky, but overall not horrible for the inexperience. Think Klassen will be the closer before seasons end. I was very impressed with Seth Clausen, think he could possibly start for us. Bullpen descsions day 1 seemed odd to me. Dauman and houser in a one run game where we could easily win?? They seem like more mop up innings type of guys to me.
 

Couple Big Ten games yesterday.....
Indiana (2-2) defeats Miami OH (0-4) 13-5
Maryland (2-2) falls to West Virginia (2-2) 8-6

Disappointing starts for Maryland and Rutgers. I was interested in the WVU/Maryland game since we play them both.
 

Anyone know the travel plans for the baseball team? Just wondering if they'll be able to make it to Florida by Friday morning since they have a 1pm EST game scheduled.
 

John13 said:
Fitzgerald out for season (knee) Kennedy out for season (Tommy John) Egan out for season (Tommy John) Semb out for Florida tourney and possible longer ( shoulder). Not having Kennedy is a huge blow, would have helped us a lot and got a lot of innings. Offense looked solid for the most part, think the newcomers will have to step up for it to be successful. Seems like we a missing some firepower in the lineup, lots of single’s guy. Not really confident that anyone can hit the long ball consistently. Will have to manufacture runs. Rotation was shaky, but overall not horrible for the inexperience. Think Klassen will be the closer before seasons end. I was very impressed with Seth Clausen, think he could possibly start for us. Bullpen descsions day 1 seemed odd to me. Dauman and houser in a one run game where we could easily win?? They seem like more mop up innings type of guys to me.
Click to expand...
I knew the Fitzgerald one back when it happened this summer and learned of the Kennedy one when I talked to people close to the program at the beginning of February but had heard Egan and Semb were both healthy and gonna have big roles then after dealing with some injuries this fall so both of their injuries must have happened recently?
They really liked Kennedy there was a very real possibility of him being a weekend starter.
I can't see Klassen as a closer with how much he has struggled to throw strikes at times in his career. I do hope to see him rebound this weekend as he showed better command late last summer, he may have been trying to overthrow a little in the opener.
Clausen's stuff looked really good and I think he will be a solid closer for us, even the homerun wasn't a terrible pitch and looked like he jammed the guy up a little bit. I was surprised it got out.
I didn't like going with Dauman in game 1 but he actually fared better than I thought he would and when he entered it was 6-2 so it was kind of that in between lane especially for the first game of a series. My problem was once we got the lead in the 7th I would've made a move to the bullpen. I do think Dauman should not be used in high leverage spots.
Offensively I think we will be more gap to gap type team but we will hit some homeruns as well. We played weekend one in a pitchers park and this weekend will probably show similar. Perry had a couple balls caught at the wall, Mezzenga had one caught at the wall, Hokenson showed some pop, Larson showed some pop, Counsell put one to the wall, Hunt looks to have the ability to drive the ball, and Swenson has showed some power through his career.
Hauser I think will be a valuable arm out of the bullpen. He had 10 appearances as a freshman at Arizona State.
 


Today's lineup against St. Louis. First pitch at 12 CST

B. Bateman CF
S. Hunt DH
B. Counsell 2B
J. Perry 3B
I. Mezzenga SS
R. Swenson C
B. Merila LF
K. Hokenson RF
K. Bork 1B

T. Novotny P
 

Novotny walks a couple in T1 but escapes without any damage.

In b1 Gophers get a 2 out rally:
Counsell single
Counsell stolen base
Perry single (scores Counsell)
Mezzenga double (scores Perry)

Up 2-0 after 1.
 

After the back-to-back walks in the 1st, Novotny has settled into a groove. No hits through 3, 4 k's and 8 batters retired in a row.
 

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