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A question about a Minnesota kid that got away. I was reading about the Huskers upcomining season with a new caoching staff and they talked about all of the players. The Huskers have a freshman shortstop by the name of Pat Kelly, from Red Wing. It looks like he has won the starting shortstop job with the Huskers. Does any body know if the Gophers recruited him and any more about the kid? Johnny Gopher usually answered questions like this but haven't seen him around for awhile. Hope someone can help me out with some info.
 

I'm not sure if the gophers recruited him, but I saw him play last year and he's really good. He has a hell of an arm. He can throw in the mid 90's and is also a terrific line drive hitter. I was amazed when I saw him. For his warmup he was throwing foul to foul pole on a line. It was pretty impressive.
 

Pat Kelly

I asked about this kid from Red Wing earlier, about how he ended up at Nebraska, still not sure how. He is having a pretty good season so far. He has started about half the games for the Huskers. He is leading the team with a .431 BA. He also has 4 homeruns in just 51 AB. He does lead the team with 7 errors. It sounds like the Huskers have 2 recruits from Minnesota coming in next year. Hopefully that trend does not continue.
 

Hope the trend of Minnesota players heading to Nebraska does not continue as well. Just speculation as to why Pat Kelly didn't come to the U but Michael Handel was the heir apparent to A.J. Pettersen the moment he set foot on campus. He is a very good player in his own right and is the likely starter at shortstop for the entirety of his career at Minnesota.
 

Gophers2Omaha said:
Hope the trend of Minnesota players heading to Nebraska does not continue as well. Just speculation as to why Pat Kelly didn't come to the U but Michael Handel was the heir apparent to A.J. Pettersen the moment he set foot on campus. He is a very good player in his own right and is the likely starter at shortstop for the entirety of his career at Minnesota.
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I'm a high school coach in the same conference as Red Wing so I've seen this kid play several times. He has the tools offensively to be a very good college player but he needs work defensively. He may have a strong arm when playing catch and fooling around before a game, but he short hops many throws to 1B and his range is limited. I'm surprised he's playing SS at the college level, I pegged him as a 2B or even an OF.

He committed to Nebraska as a Sophomore I believe - which was before they even starting talking about joining the Big Ten - so he committed thinking he was going to play in the Big 12 against the likes of Texas, Baylor, Oklahoma, etc. Can't blame the kid for taking advantage of that opportunity since that conference dwarfs the Big Ten when it comes to competition. Not every kid wants to play for the Gophers believe it or not. As mentioned, the Gophers are set at SS for awhile.
 


MinnesotaBoiler99 said:
I'm a high school coach in the same conference as Red Wing so I've seen this kid play several times. He has the tools offensively to be a very good college player but he needs work defensively. He may have a strong arm when playing catch and fooling around before a game, but he short hops many throws to 1B and his range is limited. I'm surprised he's playing SS at the college level, I pegged him as a 2B or even an OF.

He committed to Nebraska as a Sophomore I believe - which was before they even starting talking about joining the Big Ten - so he committed thinking he was going to play in the Big 12 against the likes of Texas, Baylor, Oklahoma, etc. Can't blame the kid for taking advantage of that opportunity since that conference dwarfs the Big Ten when it comes to competition. Not every kid wants to play for the Gophers believe it or not. As mentioned, the Gophers are set at SS for awhile.
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Thanks for the info, that does explain alot. The idea of playing in the Big 12 is huge, I kinda figured that is why he ended up here in Lincoln. He is playing second base now after starting out the year at short. Had an injury and moved to second. He is struggling in the field and has had a few short hop throws to first, but is hitting very well right now. Didn't realize that Handel was that good. Hard to follow the baseball scene in Minnesota living in Lincoln. I appreciate the info.
 

Kelly is absoluutely killing the Gophers this weekend. Two game winning homeruns in two games. The Gophers are in serious trouble in making the Big Ten tournament being on the road next weekend. Over 8000 have been to the first 2 games of the series here in Lincoln.
 

Seedings if B1G Tournament were held today. Serious battle going on for all-important #2 seed.

Purdue is a lock for the NCAA Tournament, Michigan State is on the bubble (#48 RPI).

1. Purdue (16-4) -- bye
2. Indiana (12-8) -- bye
3. Penn State (12-8)
4. Michigan State (11-9)
5. Nebraska (11-9)
6. Ohio State (11-10)

Gophers (10-10) and Illinois (9-11) still legitimately in the hunt for B1G tourney spot. Iowa outside chance at (8-12). Michigan and Northwestern mathematically eliminated.

Sunday
Illinois @ Penn State, 11 a.m. (BTN)
Michigan @ Purdue, noon
Iowa @ Michigan State, 12:05 p.m.
Minnesota @ Nebraska, 1:05 p.m.
Indiana @ Northwestern, 2 p.m. (BTN)
 

I believe Kelly is playing 2nd now and is really killing the Gophs this weekend. I'm pretty sure the Gophers recruited him, but he chose Nebraska early as he probably thought he would get better competition there and Nebraska had the upper hand on facilities. I don't think the Handel being the heir apparent at SS hurt too much in how hard the Gophers recruited him as a lot of times players are just recruited as infielders. You never want to see in-state kids go to other schools, but I think that really shows how good some of the high school baseball in Minnesota is. I know I would have loved to play baseball for the Gophers, but when some of these kids have teams like Arizona, San Diego, and other teams like that coming after them it can be hard to resist.
 



Goldy Gopher said:
You never want to see in-state kids go to other schools, but I think that really shows how good some of the high school baseball in Minnesota is. I know I would have loved to play baseball for the Gophers, but when some of these kids have teams like Arizona, San Diego, and other teams like that coming after them it can be hard to resist.
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When I played at Purdue in the mid 90's we had 5 players from Minnesota in our starting line-up including our top 2 starting pitchers. Minnesota by no means is a baseball recruiting hotbed, but the talent in this state is vastly underrated and there is a bias towards players from northern states. My college coach recruited Minnesota and Wisconsin hard because he liked players that could deal with cold weather in the Spring. One kid he plucked out of nowhere in Wisconsin was Dave Gassner who made 2 starts for the Twins about 5 years ago. He was basically unrecruited by any D-I schools but our coach saw him pitch at Legion Tournament and the rest is history.
 

I thought that I had read at one time that Kelly committed to Nebraska because he wanted to play in the BIG 12, against the Texas schools. This decision was made before Nebraska's move to the BIG10 and I think Nebraska's move to the BIG10 made him re-think his commitment for a bit. Seems like the choice to attend Nebraska has worked out pretty well for him.
 

Looking at some future recruiting on mnbaseballhub it shows Nebraska has a player from Minnesota coming next year and then 3 are already commited there for 2013, along with 1 player commited to Florida for 2013. Nebraska seems to be a top competitor for these Minnesota kids but I would think with the new stadium that could help with some recruiting battles.
 

SelectionSunday said:
Seedings if B1G Tournament were held today. Serious battle going on for all-important #2 seed.

Purdue is a lock for the NCAA Tournament, Michigan State is on the bubble (#48 RPI).

1. Purdue (16-4) -- bye
2. Indiana (12-8) -- bye
3. Penn State (12-8)
4. Michigan State (11-9)
5. Nebraska (11-9)
6. Ohio State (11-10)

Gophers (10-10) and Illinois (9-11) still legitimately in the hunt for B1G tourney spot. Iowa outside chance at (8-12). Michigan and Northwestern mathematically eliminated.

Sunday
Illinois @ Penn State, 11 a.m. (BTN)
Michigan @ Purdue, noon
Iowa @ Michigan State, 12:05 p.m.
Minnesota @ Nebraska, 1:05 p.m.
Indiana @ Northwestern, 2 p.m. (BTN)
Click to expand...
After getting swept by Nebraska, losing all 3 games by 1 run each, the Gophers really need to sweep Illinois and then hope for Ohio St. losses this coming week. The Gophers bats seemed to come around in the Nebraska series and hopefully they can keep the hitting up and get some good pitching and come away with a sweep of the Illini and hope that Indiana can take care of the Buckeyes.
 



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