Gopher Baseball Advances to Super Regional for First Time in History
Two score and one year ago (41 years), the Golden Gophers baseball team won an NCAA Regional. Prior to Sunday evening, despite being regarded as a “successful program,” the Maroon and Gold have spent the last four decades worth of seasons failing to repeat their late 1970’s accolade.
As they always say, the 41st time is a charm:
The #Gophers win their Regional for the first time since 1977! We’ll play on next week in the team’s first ever Super Regional! pic.twitter.com/Tb0nFkx1A9
— Minnesota Baseball (@GopherBaseball) June 4, 2018
In front of a record Siebert Field attendance of 2,425, Minnesota’s 13-8 victory over UCLA more than satisfied the beautifully biased home crowd. With the weekend ending game completing the team’s third win in as many days, John Anderson and his ball club are officially on to the next one.
As for Anderson, the 2018 campaign marks his 37th season as the Gopher’s coach. Naturally, the extremely tenured skipper was a bit emotional in the midst of Sunday’s long-awaited excitement.
“Moist from tears of joy and his voice cracking,” Anderson had this to say:
To quickly touch on the game itself, despite plating a baker’s dozen worth of runs, the Regional round-clinching defeat didn’t come as easy as the Minnesota offensive prowess may suggest.
After entering the bottom of the third trailing by one, three Gopher scores (including an Alex Boxwell two-run HR) gave the Gophers a 7-5 lead. To double-down on that little rally, their next time at-bat, the hometown team blew the ball game wide open:
#Gophers plate six in the fourth and have broken it wide open! pic.twitter.com/gmFXITosiX
— Minnesota Baseball (@GopherBaseball) June 4, 2018
The Regional champs saw 5 members of their history making roster earn All-Tournament team honors. Shortstop Terrin Vavra, who was also named the weekend’s most outstanding player, was joined on the hypothetical squad by teammates Max Meyer (P), Micah Coffey (3B), Boxwell (OF), and Toby Hanson (DH).
From here, Minnesota (44-13, 14th ranked nationally) will travel to Corvallis, Oregon for a best-of-three series against, Oregon State (47-10-1, 3rd ranked nationally). While the specific time and dates for the contests are yet to be announced, it is known that “the series will be played Friday, June 8 through Sunday, June 10 or Saturday, June 9 through Monday, June 11.”
If, in the program’s first ever Super Regional (adopted in 1999) appearance, they can bust the Beavers; the Maroon and Gold will be joining seven other schools in the Cornhusker country for the big show.
Johnny Minnesota (@TheJohnnyMN)
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