The Gophers finished off the Big Ten with a 15-5 win over Iowa on Saturday night. Just days after winning the program's 22nd Big Ten regular season title the Gophers won their 9th Big Ten Tournament title. Since 1995 this is only the fourth time a team has won both the regular season and tournament titles.
Senior catcher, Kyle Knudson was the tournament's most outstanding player. SP-Phil Isaksson, Closer Scott Matyas and infielder AJ Pederson were also named to the All-Tournament team.
Quite an amazing journey for this team who's record now stands at 30-28.
"For us it's been an interesting journey," said Minnesota Head Coach John Anderson. "The way it started and the obstacles we had, and for the guys to hang in there and not give in, I don't' think you could ask for more from this team. And then to finish it off in Columbus, Ohio with a Big Ten championship, I just have to give credit to our kids. I'm just really, really proud of our team."
The journey, however, isn't over as the Gophers head out West to the Fullerton Regional as the 4 seed. They will face Cal State Fullerton (the 1 seed) on Friday as 10 pm CST. Stanford and New Mexico will be the 2 and 3 seeds respectively.
Minnesota typically plays a very difficult schedule and this year was no different. The Gophers faced Regional hosts UConn and Louisville. They traveled to #2 seeded Alabama and they beat #3 seeded Kansas State. Their record wasn't spectacular in those games but it prepared for this part of the season and hopefully they'll continue their hot streak through the NCAA Tournament.