Baseball stinking it up against St. Thomas

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MRJ

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Well, the young guys are struggling against St. Thomas tonight. As expected, we started a lot of bench players and they are certainly playing like it. Isaakson started the gave up three runs in the first and the Tommies lead the Gophers 6-3 in the eighth. Defensively, they've also committed three errors tonight. In other words, the team came out really flat and have never rebounded. Ugh. :mad:

In addition, McCallum has been just brutal in the field. He's committed four errors himself this game just to give you an idea of how bad it has been.

Hopefully, the guys will find themselves over the next two innings and we're going to lose to a DIII team in our home opener, not exactly the way to enter a big series with Iowa this weekend.
 

Well, it's now a final as the Gophers fall to St. Thomas 6-3. A horrendous effort on every level for the Gophers tonight. Hopefully this will be a big enough kick in the pants to remind the guys they have to show up every time out, regardless of the opposition.

Bottom line: there was nothing good to away from this game. It was a mess pretty much from the start.
 

I have said it time and time again that it's all about next year. I know this loss is dissappointing but this MN team is still a young team. Next year we'll be really tough to beat and might be one of the better teams in the nation, if Anderson can keep guys from leaving early.
 

It was basically an exhibition game and didn't affect the Gophers RPI at all(still steady at #33).

My problem is there is no reason to play this game at this time of the year. It's one thing to do it at the beginning of the year when alot of teams play D2 and D3 teams, but this late in the season there is absolutely nothing for Minnesota to gain from this game. We used 7 pitchers and got guys like Hummel and Ryan some playing time but we are close enough to the end of the regular season and postseason where most of our regular guys didn't want to be playing and it showed. St. Thomas is a very good team and program and better than most D2 and some lower D1 so if you are going to play them, you better bring it, and we didn't. Still this is on the coaches more than anybody.
 

I also never understood why we play this game. No one ever gets up for the game, except of course for St. Thomas and it is truly a lose-lose situation. If you blow them out, no one cares, because thats what they should do. If it is close, its not good because we are suppose to blow them out, and of course if we lose, it causes a big uproar. Also, a win doesn't help or hurt the RPI because it is a non
D1 team, but losing cannot look good in the eyes of the NCAA tourney commitee. I am not sure how the committe works all the time, but I do know that, as previously mentioned, it doesn't hurt our chances in terms of RPI, a committe member looking at our resume and seeing that we lost to a D3 cannot help our chances. I mean that could be the difference in being a 2 or 4 seed, even if it is not suppose to matter. Now, I am not sure that committes would do that, but with the way they judge Northern teams, it is a worry some times.
 


Saint Thomas

We play Saint Thomas because we don't have a lot of choices for midweek teams. Plus the Big Ten going to three games instead of four this year, puts even more pressure on trying to find midweek teams.
 

I understand we do not have a lot of teams to play around here, but we play 1 game each year against them. We could easily schedule a two game series with Milwaukee, instead of just one game. Or go down to Nebraska. Or simply play 1 less game. This game helps no one, except maybe a few subs who get some at-bats, but even they understand that no one really cares how well they do against a D3 team (by the way, I mean no offense to St. Thomas, they have a great program and some good players) because they are suppose to play well. The game makes no sense, if we are struggling to get in games, work on getting D1 games, or do not play at all. Like I have said before 14 does a great job of scheduling games early in the season. Every year they play a great schedule that is challenging and helps them for the long run, but this is one strategy that I do not agree with.
 

The problem is it doesn't count for your RPI or with the selection committee.
 

the coaching staff is good friends with the st. thomas coach, and the st. thomas coach's son played at the U i think
 



Coach Denny son did play for the Gophs, and the coaching staff for the Gophs really respect the program at St. Thomas, but its not a great game for the Gophers to play. With that said, it is generally a pretty good turnout because St. Thomas brings some fans, and never hurts seeing some good looking St Thomas girls in the stands.
 

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