All Things Gopher Baseball

[AZGopher8]

Elsewhere in Big Ten Baseball

Iowa 5-1; L vs Sam Houston, W vs LSU, W vs K-State….Good weekend for Hawkeyes. That LSU win will be HUGE for NCAA discussion

Penn State 4-2; Followed up impressive opening series against Miami by going 3-0 against Northern Illinois and Monmouth. Good start for Lions.

Michigan 4-2; Got 2 wins against Fullerton. Not bad. Busy week coming up with games Mon, Tue, Wed. Schedule gets REALLY tough for Michigan next week. (Fullerton, Irvine, UCLA, TCU, TxTech, Louisville)

Purdue 5-3; Split 2-2 against NJIT. I don’t think Purdue is very strong. They have played NOBODY yet.

Illinois 4-3; took 2 of 3 at Southern Miss. That’s a nice weekend!

Michigan State 4-3; Followed up their solid opening weekend with a letdown. Went 1-2 against SC Upstate, Gardner-Webb and Presbyterian College. Not great.

Nebraska 3-3-1; Swept South Alabama. We’ll know a lot more about Nebraska after the Cambria Classic.

Maryland 3-4; went 1-2 at Ole Miss. Nothing wrong with that but you gotta think they’re disappointed in being under .500 at this point after starting out ranked in t15.

Indiana 3-4; went 1-2 at Texas. Never game up more than 5 runs. Considering they’ve played 6 of their 7 games at Auburn and Texas they have to be feeling good.

Ohio State 3-5; Letdown this week for OSU. Lost 2 to Grand Canyon and split with Gonzaga.

Rutgers 2-4; Went 1-2 this week against George Mason, Ball State and Boston College. Disappointing start for Scarlet Knights, who were on the edge of being ranked.

Northwestern 0-6; Lost 3 games to Gardner-Webb, Presbyterian and SC Upstate.

Just wanted to give you props...these summaries are awesome! Thank you!

 

[DarrenTheGreek]

Ben Shepard starts tonight. R-Sr transfer from MN-Duluth. First appearance on the year.

Need a W in the worst way.

 

[Goldy Gopher]

Ben Shepard starts tonight. R-Sr transfer from MN-Duluth. First appearance on the year.

Need a W in the worst way.

First start but not appearance, he pitched 2 scoreless in Saturday's game.

 

[DarrenTheGreek]

First start but not appearance, he pitched 2 scoreless in Saturday's game.

Missed that. Thanks for the correction.

Starting lineup for today:
Bateman CF
Neels 1B
Mezzenga RF
Counsell 2B
Perry 3B
Larson SS
Merila DH
Swenson C
Berkland LF

Shepard P

 

[Goldy Gopher]

Pitching has been solid
Defense has not been sharp
Bats have been very weak
Milwaukee leads 3-0 in the bottom of the 8th

 

[LesBolstad]

0-8 start WTH
Likely 0-11 after this weekend

 

[DarrenTheGreek]

The hitting was terrible tonight. I think I counted two at bats with solid contact.

 

[TNGophfan]

Just, wow!

 

[John13]

Hitting was awful last night. Going to be a very long weekend if we can’t get hits off of UW Milwaukee midweek pitchers. I wouldn’t be surprised if we have less that 3 hits for Saturday and Sunday combined. Pitching wasn’t bad last night. Klassen is bumped to the pen, holetz takes the Sunday role now. I like that move. Probably won’t get results on Sunday because it’s Vanderbilt, but in the long run I think it will be best. At some point with the pitching staff they are going to have to use all of there best guys on one day in hopes of getting a win. And throw whoever is left for the other two games. There simply isn’t enough pitching talent to spread all of the best guys out in the rotation.

 

[DarrenTheGreek]

Nebraska with a big 5-3 in over #7 Vandy to open up the Cambria Classic.

Just a solid all-around game for the Huskers. 13 hits, only 5 given up (3 solo HRs for Vandy). P Schananman comes in relief and goes 3 IP with only 1 H.

 

[DarrenTheGreek]

Ole Miss defeats Maryland 5-1. Closer game than the score would indicate but the defending champs are pretty solid. This was the fourth meeting between the two teams. Rebels have won 3 of 4.

 

[Goldy Gopher]

Give up a 1-2 slow roller up the middle for a 2 out single and 0-2 piped fastball is put off the batters eye for a quick Hawaii 2-0 lead in the 1st

 

[DarrenTheGreek]

Nice job by Tucker getting out of that jam in the 3rd after a bunt and IF single.

Perry is struggling at 3B and a misplay at 1B nearly cost us.

 

[DarrenTheGreek]

Unlucky triple play. Wow this team cannot catch a break. Bases loaded no out. Merila lines it to 3B, ball is dropped, 3B tags third, throws it home to get runner, meanwhile Merila thought ball was caught and didn't run to first.

So snake bit right now

 

[Goldy Gopher]

That play can't happen.
Veteran Merila just assuming ball was caught and heads back to the dugout from 1st base, I'd bench him for that
Where was the 1st base coach Theisen in that situation too

 

[DarrenTheGreek]

Perry with his third bad throw of the game.

 

[DarrenTheGreek]

Great throw by Swenson to get the base runner. With the exception of one pitch, Novatny has been solid thru 4. Gophers hitters getting better contact today. Still lots of game left

 

[DarrenTheGreek]

Swenson with a dinger. Second hit on the day. He's having a great night.

Trailing 1-2 now b5

 

[DarrenTheGreek]

Bateman picked off AGAIN!!!!!

 

[DarrenTheGreek]

Novatny finished for the night. 5IP, 6H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 6 k. Good showing.

 

[DarrenTheGreek]

Neels was inches away from tying the game in the b9 but it goes off the top of the wall for a double. So close. Gophers fall 2-3.

Pitching was good. Just need to string some hits together.

 

[Goldy Gopher]

Another close lose, frustration has to be mounting with the team I know it is with me.
Such a small margin of error. Novotny pitches so well but doesn't execute a 1-2 and 0-2 pitch in the 1st and is down 2-0.
The frustrating thing to me is the mistakes aren't coming as much from the young guys/newcomers where you would understand it more but it was two JRs tonight in Bateman and Merila with inexcusable errors on the bases.
Not scoring with nobody out and them loaded is unacceptable.

 

[DarrenTheGreek]

Vandy walks off Maryland by plating 2 in the b9 to win 8-7. Good game.

 

[DarrenTheGreek]

Nebraska beat up on Hawaii 12-3

Nebraska 2-0
Ole Miss 1-0
Hawaii 1-1
Vandy 1-1
Minnesota 0-1
Maryland 0-2

 

[DarrenTheGreek]

Tonight's lineup

Bateman CF
Counsell 2B
Mezzenga SS
Perry 3B
Swenson C
Merila DH
Hunt RF
Hokenson LF
Bork 1B

Malec P

 

[DarrenTheGreek]

Ole Miss P Saunier has 5 k thru 2 IP. From my view it looks like we're flaying at these

 

[DarrenTheGreek]

Finally were stringing some hits together. Swenson a dinger, Mezzenga and Perry doubles. Tied up b4

 

[DarrenTheGreek]

Bateman takes a called third strike and runner is thrown out stealing for DP. You can't take that pitch there. Ugh.

 

[DarrenTheGreek]

Beautiful relay had the Ole Miss runner dead to rights but Swenson dropped the ball. 4-3 Rebels mid 5

 

[DarrenTheGreek]

Perry with a 2 run HR. Give the guys credit....they're battling and not giving up. Gophers lead 5-4 after 5