Gopher Baseball 2019

Michigan wins 8-0 to take the series. The Gophers had runners on basically every inning but didn't execute very well at all. Very bad situational hitting today as at least 4-5 times they had a runner reach 3rd with 1 out or less and couldn't score anybody. Michigan had 4 homeruns in the game including solo shots in the 1st and 2nd.
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Gophers win 4-3 on a 2 run walkoff homerun from Max Meyer. Gophers struggled at the plate early with a lot of shallow pop ups but did start to hit some balls hard as the game went on. They did struggle to move runners over today though and I know that is something the staff won't be at all happy with. Pitching was solid until the 4th inning when walks came to kill as the Gophers walked the bases loaded and then a run scored on a infield hit that was really just a well placed slow roller. 2 more walks followed to score 2 more runs and NDSU was up 3-1. Max Meyer was the spark late getting a pinch hit RBI single in the 7th and then the home run in the 9th. Patrick Fredrickson came in to start the 6th or 7th and retired the first and only hitter he faced on a fly out. Ty McDevitt and the trainer came out to the mound and talked with Fredrickson for a couple minutes before he ultimately walked off with them and the Gophers made a pitching change. Fredrickson didn't seem to be holding his arm at all or pointing to it at all but you could tell on the pitches he did throw something just didn't look right, looked like he just wasn't comfortable.
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Is there any chance they play this weekend? Any alternative plans being made to get the games in?
 

Too bad US Bank won't throw us a bone for booting the Goph's out of there this spring and let us play there this weekend.
 



I don't know why U.S. Bank is not available but i know they will try to play 3 games between Sunday and Monday. They need to get the games in because there are no open dates between now and the end of the Big Ten season. Teams have just figured out Patrick and with his lack of control, (walking and hitting batters) bad things happen when pitchers don't throw strikes. Thoresen has had the same problem this year as last year but he continues to get opportunities to start each week. (He leads the team in starts) Not sure why he hasn't been moved to the bullpen with his control issues. Should be an interesting couple of weeks with the Illinois series followed be SDSU Tuesday and Oklahoma next weekend. Several MLB scouts at the Michigan series watching Meyer and Schulze along with a couple more Tuesday night watching Schulze close out the NDSU game with some filthy stuff in the 9th inning.
 

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Ugly day today. Gophers should've took control early in game 1 but didn't and let Illinois hang around and they came back with a run in each of the 6th, 7th, and 8th to take the win. Game 2 was just terrible. 2 big innings for Illinois did the bulk of the damage but the Gophers didn't even really compete at all. Bad at the plate, on the mound, and in the field for the majority of the game.
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Have we heard anything on Fredrickson?
Said on the broadcast Sunday that they are just gonna give him a week or two rest right now and see how it goes. Just mentioned he had discomfort last Tuesday against NDSU.
 

Gophers battle back to steal a 5-4 win today against Illinois. 2 in the 7th and 2 in the 8th gave the Gophers a lead and Brett Schulze came in after a leadoff double to escape trouble and preserve the win.
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J.P. Massey goes 4 innings in his first start allowing just a solo home run, Jeff Fasching goes 3 scoreless, and Nolan Burchill and Bubba Horton finish things off with a inning each. Jordan Kozicky had a solo home run and Cole McDevitt had a couple hits and a RBI.
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Does anyone know where or how I could get one of the masters hats given out the other night to the first 100 students. I would really really like to get one. If anyone knows or has a way to get one I would sincerely appreciate it. 2FE76AF4-BCBA-4C68-AB3B-E26617913EEF.jpg
 



Does anyone know where or how I could get one of the masters hats given out the other night to the first 100 students. I would really really like to get one. If anyone knows or has a way to get one I would sincerely appreciate it. View attachment 6106
Your best bet is probably to try to email someone in the marketing department to see if they gave out all of them or not. Here is a link to the directory.
https://gophersports.com/staff.aspx
 

Gophers use 2 big innings and a very nice performance from Sam Thoresen to take the opener against Oklahoma. A 4 run 1st highlighted by a Jack Wassel 3 run homerun and a 3 run 5th did the majority of the damage offensively. Riley Smith also added a homerun late in the game. Thoresen did a great job tonight. He showed why the coaching staff has talked so highly of him. When he has solid control he has some absolutely nasty stuff. I think the biggest thing is just trying to keep Sam confident.
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Where were those bats against Illinois? If Thoreson pitches like that the rest of the season, it will soften the blow of not having Fredrickson.
 

Gophers didn't execute well today committing 3 errors but still had a chance to win just couldn't get it done. Oklahoma got 1 run in the 3rd taking advantage of a two out single, a overthrow at first, and a couple walks. The walks were partly because Meyer didn't have his best control but he also looked frustrated with the strike zone and I can't blame him because the guy was bad both ways all game. Maybe the most inconsistent zone I have ever seen in a D1 baseball game. The Sooners got a couple of doubles in the 5th to tack on another run. Easton Bertrand smoked a homerun that got in a hurry to left but that was all the scoring the Gophers could manage today. They did have a perfect chance to tie it in the 7th with a double to start the inning by Jack Wassel but back to back strikeouts followed by a walk and then a nice play by the right fielder running down a Meyer drive in the right center gap kept the Gophers off the board.
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Another one that felt like the Gophers did it to themselves. Gophers were up 2-0 in the 5th and gave OU life with a dropped pop up between the pitchers mound and home plate. Easy play that absolutely has to be made. Not only would that run score but 2 more as well on a 3 run homer. Gophers had 1st and 2nd with no one out in the bottom of the inning but self destructed with a pop up sac bunt and a runner getting picked off 2nd.
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Another one that felt like the Gophers did it to themselves. Gophers were up 2-0 in the 5th and gave OU life with a dropped pop up between the pitchers mound and home plate. Easy play that absolutely has to be made. Not only would that run score but 2 more as well on a 3 run homer. Gophers had 1st and 2nd with no one out in the bottom of the inning but self destructed with a pop up sac bunt and a runner getting picked off 2nd.
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I wonder why the dropped pop-up wasn't counted as an error. Did it hit the ground without the pitcher or catcher touching it?
 

I wonder why the dropped pop-up wasn't counted as an error. Did it hit the ground without the pitcher or catcher touching it?
Nobody ever touched it so technically not an error. Still an error to anyone who follows baseball though. Culliver looked like he would've had it but a few infielders came charging in late and Wassel called him off but it dropped just out of his reach. One of those plays where someone needs to take charge right away.
 

Nobody ever touched it so technically not an error. Still an error to anyone who follows baseball though. Culliver looked like he would've had it but a few infielders came charging in late and Wassel called him off but it dropped just out of his reach. One of those plays where someone needs to take charge right away.

Thanks
 

Was this guy ejected? Because it was clearly done on purpose. It was his right foot too which makes it even more obvious.

 

Was this guy ejected? Because it was clearly done on purpose. It was his right foot too which makes it even more obvious.

It was definitely very intentional and things got very close to exploding there. I don't know if he was officially ejected as they never said on the broadcast but the guy wasn't in for his next at bat and a couple of umps were talking for a while to the Oklahoma coach after the play so he very well could've been tossed.
 



Gophers completely blow one today really no other way to put it. Sam Thoresen had a rough start loading the bases with nobody out from a couple walks but he minimized the damage to just one run and then really pitched well. Sam went 6 innings and allowed 1 run on 2 hits while striking out 11 and walking 4. The Gophers scored solo runs in the 3rd and 4th to take a 2-1 lead but also left a couple runners on in each inning. The Gophers kept plugging away though with 2 more runs in each the 5th and 6th. The trouble started when the Gophers went to the bullpen as Jeff Fasching came in and allowed a 2 run homerun in 2/3 of an inning. Jake Stevenson got the final out of the 7th and came back out for the 8th but allowed the first 2 men to reach. Nick Lackney took over and was really sharp as he got the Gophers out of the jam with a strikeout, a groundout, and a strikeout. I thought they might give Lackney a shot to finish things but they went to Brett Schulze in the 9th and he just wasn't himself. Schulze allowed a home run on the first pitch he threw before getting back to back strikeouts but really still didn't look sharp. The next 2 batters walked bringing up Indiana's top player Matt Lloyd. Lloyd was up in the count the whole at bat and Schulze couldn't throw his breaking ball for a strike at all which has been the plan of attack for Gopher pitching all weekend. Combine that with Schulze leaving a number of fastballs up and you could almost see the ending coming. After getting back to a full count with a couple foul balls Lloyd took a high fastball and smashed it over the right field fence for the win. Very very disappointing result and finish today. Tomorrows game 3 is on ESPNU at 11.
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That Sat. loss was awful. They should have won the series which would have been huge.
 

Unfortunately, it looks like the Gophers are an upper third to middle of the league team this year, with a great pitcher, very average offense and suspect defense. Injuries have hurt with Fredrickson, but a bit of a disappointing season. Obviously need to win the B1G tournament to move on. Of course first need to qualify for it. Finish strong, Gophers.
 





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