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The Gophers routed the Canisius Golden Griffins in the opening round of the NCAA Minneapolis Regional on Friday night, putting up a 10-spot en route to a 10-1 victory.
UCLA stunned Gonzaga on the other half of the bracket, scoring four runs in the bottom of the ninth to take home a come-from-behind victory and advance to face Minnesota.
Tonight, the Gophers trot out freshman phenom Patrick Fredrickson, who is 9-0 on the season with a sparkling 1.78 ERA. He was named the Big Ten Pitcher of the Year and Freshman of the Year.
Opposing Fredrickson will likely be freshman RHP Zach Pettway, who has had a pretty good, if not inconsistent season. Pettway is 8-4 on the year with a 3.51 ERA, though he’s been undone by the long ball all year, surrendering 14 HRs.
Interestingly enough, this will be the second time Minnesota will get to face Pettway and the Bruins. He silenced the Gopher bats en route to a 6-1 win on March 4 at U.S. Bank Stadium, when UCLA was in town for the DQ Classic/Big Ten-Pac-12 Challenge. Pettway went six strong innings with seven Ks and allowing only five hits. A lot has changed since then, of course, and Pettway’s ERA has jumped from 2.23 on March 30th to today’s 3.51.
A little about tonight’s game:
Where and when:
7 p.m. CT at Siebert Field
Go to the games:
As of this writing there were still a few standing room only (SRO) tickets available. You can buy tickets for Saturday only here.
How to watch:
If you can’t make the game you should absolutely watch. You’ll need to watch online on ESPN3 with the WatchESPN app.
Follow stats online:
Go here to follow the stat and play-by-play online.
The Schedule
SATURDAY
- Game 3 - Gonzaga vs. Canisius - 2:30 p.m. (with a weather delay) — ELIMINATION GAME
- Game 4 - Minnesota vs. UCLA - 7:00 p.m.
SUNDAY
- Game 5: Winner Game 3 vs. Loser Game 4 (elimination game) — 2 p.m.
- Game 6: Winner Game 5 vs. Winner Game 4 (championship) — 6 p.m.
MONDAY
- Game 7 (if necessary): If winner of Game 5 wins Game 6, then it plays winner of Game 4 — 6 p.m.