Minnesota Baseball: Gophers Host South Dakota State Wednesday

The #21 Minnesota Golden Gophers baseball team will host the South Dakota State Jackrabbits in a midweek non-conference makeup game on Wednesday. The game originally slated for a week ago will be played at Siebert Field before the Gophers head to Columbus for a huge weekend series against the Buckeyes.

Last weekend the Gophers took two out of three games from the Iowa Hawkeyes to win the Gophers sixth consecutive series. Freshman Patrick Fredrickson went 7.2 shutout winnings on Saturday to pick up his fifth win of the season and lower his ERA to 1.68, and fellow freshman Max Meyer picked up his ninth and tenth saves of the season.

The Gopher offense continues to be one of the top in the nation. They rank 11th in batting average with a .307 team average. The Gophers have scored 7.1 runs per game, ranking 15th in the country. Ben Mezzenga’s .398 batting average ranks 20th nationally while Terrin Vavra is right on his heals and .394 to rank 27th.

With their sixth consecutive series win, the Gophers continue to rise in the national polls. They currently are ranked #21 in the D1Baseball.com poll, #23 in the Baseball America Top 25, #26 according to College Baseball News, #27 according to the NCBWA, and are among the teams receiving votes in the USA Today Coaches Poll.

The Gophers will take on a South Dakota State team that comes into Wednesday night with a 10-22 overall record and a 8-7 record in the Summit League. The Gophers played the Jackrabbits once earlier this season at US Bank Stadium winning 1-0. Luke Petterson had the Gophers only three hits of the game, but it would be enough. Hopefully the Gophers can take care of business once again and not look forward to a huge Big Ten series at Ohio State this weekend,