All Things Gopher Baseball

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Rough start to the weekend, as the Gopher bats were silent (3 hits, 16 strikeouts), Semb with another shaky start (5+ innings, 9 hits, 3 walks, 6 earned runs), and throw 2 more defensive errors onto the pile. A Berklund HR and 4 scoreless innings of relief from Hemmesch about the only highlights.
 

Hard to win series when you have one starter giving you anything in Wietgrefe. Think Semb is much more suited for the bullpen and was shocked to see them go back to Novotny in the 2nd game today. Hopefully see Hemmesch and maybe Capomaccio get a look along with Wietgrefe next week.
Probably have to win the rest of these conference series to make the tournament.
 

Gophers get back to .500 in sweeping the midweek series with St. Thomas. Last night, they overcame 3 early errors and 5 run deficits on a couple of occasions and chipped away, and relievers worked out of jams to eventually win in extra innings.

Tonight, they cruised as offense scored in first 5 innings and pitching combined on 7 hit shutout.

Weather looks good for Friday and Sunday, with chance of rain Saturday in State College. Pretty much a must-win series this weekend.
 

Pissed that one down their leg. Semb was in constant trouble but escaped most of them. Bullpen really struggled. Penn State is solid offensively you can't give them as many advantage counts as we did tonight. Offensively we still can't execute very well situationally, it cost us games early in the year and it is still doing so now. Many opportunities to add on or even blow it open but you knew how this was gonna end when we never changed the score.
 

Gophers bounce back and win Saturday and Sunday in games they had to have. Lot of twists and turns in those contests but got the W.
 


Heading into final 3 weekends here is the standings:
T1. Purdue 11-4
T1. Illinois 11-4
T3. Nebraska 10-5
T3. Indiana 10-5
T3. Michigan 10-5
6. Iowa 10-8
T7. OHio State 7-8
T7. Michigan State 7-8
-------------
9. Maryland 8-10
10. Minnesota 6-9
11. Penn State 7-11
12. Rutgers 3-12
13. Northwestern 2-13
Our schedule is 3 home vs Nebraska; 3 home vs Michigan State, 3 road vs Northwestern. I believe we'll need to go at least 6-3 to have much of a chance. 5-4 would be very tight.

We've lost our last 4 game 1's of series....it's going to be crucial that we start picking up some wins to open a series.
 

Tough start to weekend, as Gophers drop game 1, and Ohio State, Michigan State, and Maryland all win. Defense once again was an issue as Gophers committed 3 errors and a passed ball leading to 4 unearned runs in the 5th. Gophers rallied to tie it at 6-6 but bullpen touched for 4 runs in final 3 innings.
 

Offense was held in check and bullpen tagged for 5 runs in final two innings as Gophers lose game 2 despite a solid start from Weitgrefe. Fun environment with big crowd coming out for the jersey promotion and nice contingent of Nebraska fans traveling in as well. Unfortunately, another loss.
 

No errors, no walks and timely hitting makes it all look easy in game three win. Hopefully this is what Novotny needs to get going.
 



Nebraska took advantage of every little thing we gave them, executed when they got guys in scoring position, and came through with the clutch hits and that is why they won the series. Felt like we played pretty well but a couple bad plays cost us Friday and Saturday.
Opportunity is still on the table with the huge head to head battle coming up with Michigan State and the standings are very tight.
1. Illinois 13-5 vs. Iowa, @ Purdue
2. Nebraska 12-6 vs. Indiana, @ Michigan State
2. Purdue 12-6 @ Michigan, vs. Illinois
2. Indiana 12-6 @ Nebraska, vs. Michigan
5. Iowa 13-8 @ Illinois, vs. Florida International
6. Michigan 11-7 vs. Purdue, @ Indiana
7. Michigan State 9-9 @ Minnesota, vs. Nebraska
8. Maryland 10-11 @ Boston College, vs. Penn State
9. Ohio State 8-10 vs. Northwestern, @ Rutgers
10. Minnesota 7-11 vs. Michigan State, @ Northwestern
11. Penn State 7-11 vs. Rutgers, @ Maryland
12. Rutgers 4-14 @ Penn State, vs. Ohio State
13. Northwestern 2-16 @ Ohio State, vs. Minnesota
 

5-1 might not even get us there. If we take 2/3 from Sparty and then sweep NW then we finish 12-12. Sparty would then be 10-11 heading into Nebraska. Likely they go 1-2 so that means we pass them. But Maryland is looking to take 2 or 3 from PSU and put them at 12-13 wins. Ohio State will likely go 5-1 or 6-0 against Rutgers and NW so that puts them at 13-14 wins. We need to overtake 2 teams and in this scenario that only gets us past Sparty with possibly a tie to Maryland. Very close.


7. Michigan State 9-9 @ Minnesota, vs. Nebraska
8. Maryland 10-11 @ Boston College, vs. Penn State
9. Ohio State 8-10 vs. Northwestern, @ Rutgers
10. Minnesota 7-11 vs. Michigan State, @ Northwestern
11. Penn State 7-11 vs. Rutgers, @ Maryland
 

Its been a rough 4 years or so. Pitching has been terrible in that span. Cant win that way. To think we will win 5 out of 6 is not out of the question, but it hasnt happened in a long time unfortunately.
 

Shama had a article on 14 and in it he says it is expected that Brian Raabe will be the next Gopher coach and boy would at be an extremely underwhelming hire for me. He would be well down my list of targets.
 



Same script as the Nebraska losses. Get a solid start, back and forth game but bullpen falters late and offensively you get the minimum out of your big opportunities.
 

#B1G baseball tournament pairings (through Friday results)

1 Illinois 14-5
8 Maryland 10-11

4 Nebraska 12-7
5 Iowa 13-9

2 Indiana 13-6
7 Michigan State 10-9

3 Purdue 13-6
6 Michigan 11-8

Still in the Hunt
9 Ohio State 9-10
10 Penn State 8-11
11 Minnesota 7-12
 





Goldy Gopher said:
Shama had a article on 14 and in it he says it is expected that Brian Raabe will be the next Gopher coach and boy would at be an extremely underwhelming hire for me. He would be well down my list of targets.
Click to expand...
Another local media guy (...can't remember, maybe it was Shooter...) also previously mentioned Raabe would also likely be on the short list, so would not be surprised if he is indeed the next coach.

The only other name I have heard of candidates being considered is a D2 coach.

I get this isn't a top-tier job. The next coach is going to to have some challenges. Minnesota is a northern school with a tenuous usage arrangement with U.S. Bank Stadium, has an AD that doesn't have much of an affinity for non-revenue sports (IMO) and has shown he isn't adverse to cutting them, a conference that that doesn't seem that interested in baseball, we have zero NIL support that I am aware of, and realignment is adding some good teams to the conference at a time when we already down.

On the other hand, it is still a Big 10 job, we have historical success, under realignment the conference may be consistently in the top 4 going forward because of the aforementioned realignment, and we aren't that far removed from a super regional despite the struggles the last few years...so I would think there be a decent level of appeal.

All that said, if it is Raabe, I have no idea if he is the right selection or not.

Go Gophers!
 


Tough luck game with a number of hard hit outs but still found a way to get in position to win it and then went bad news ears on it in the 9th. Hit batter, error on bunt, strikeout, and another error on a bunt. Just not enough execution in situations you have to have it especially when you are having some tough hitting luck.
 

That was a rough one. Felt like two losses between the HR in the 8th and meltdown in the 9th. After the Neels HR I thought there might be some magic this weekend. Bummer.
 

Gophers roll in game 2 thanks to a pair of six run innings and pretty solid pitching. Perry with a 3-run HR to blow it open.

Would be nice to see Gophers win the series, top their conference win total from last year, have a winning record, and get Anderson a victory in his final game tomorrow.
 

Gophers have now outhomered their competition almost 2 to 1: 68 hit vs 35 given up. I don’t remember a Gopher team with this kind of power.

Will be very curious to see where Perry and Counsell are drafted this year.
 

Gophers hang on to win in 14's final game. Bench was emptied and seniors were featured as Bork and Jurgella combined on extra base hits to score an insurance run late and Gross got the final out for the save.

Congratulations to Coach Anderson on an amazing run and 1390 wins.
 


Go figure losses to Michigan State and Northwestern cost you guys a spot in the B1G tournament.
 


Iowa coach Rick Heller said in a recent news article the Big 10 will move to a 30 game conference schedule next year, with protected opponents each season (guessing that means Iowa and Nebraska for us). Sounds like divisions were desired but they were told that wouldn't be happening in any sport for 2 years. He also mentioned the conference tournament would likely expand to either 10 or 12 teams with some of it being single elimination (ala SEC/ACC tourneys).
 

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