Minnesota baseball beats Iowa, advances to B1G semis

The Gophers continued their run through the bottom half of the Big Ten Tournament, taking down Iowa 3-0 in what was a must-win game for the team. Pitcher Cam Baumann danced around trouble all night, but put together a good line overall, allowing just one run on three hits, despite walking five batters.

Minnesota scratched across three runs, which felt like eight, as the team held a slim 1-0 lead until the ninth when Easton Bertrand led off with a bunt single and stole second before Jordan Kozicky drove him in. Eli Wilson came up big with a two-out double to add another run and closer Brett Schulze shut the door with a hitless inning for his ninth save of the season.

The Gophers have no margin for error, having lost once already in the double elimination tournament and now face seventh-seed Ohio State and need two victories to advance to the tournament championship. Minnesota swept a three-game series against the Buckeyes just a couple weeks ago.

NCAA Tournament hopes ride on the Gophers winning the automatic bid through a conference tournament championship, as the team didn’t do enough in the regular season to warrant an at-large bid.

First pitch of the first game is at 1pm on BTN, with the second game slated for a 5pm start, if necessary.