Super Regional Preview: Minnesota Comes To Corvallis To Face Oregon State Baseball

Minnesota Golden Gophers

• 2018 Record: 44-13 (18-4 in conference)
• Head Coach: John Anderson
• Best Batter: Terrin Vavra (.393 batting average)
• Best Fielder: Alex Boxwell (123 putouts, 1.000 Fielding %)
• Best Starting Pitcher: Patrick Fredrickson (1.76 ERA)

The Skinny

The 2018 B1G Tournament and regular season champs are in the midst of a huge year for their program. With 44 wins so far, they’ve reached their highest win total since the 1999 season. Winning every conference series they were met with helped them become the double champions of their league. They really hit their full stride in the months of May and June though as the Gophers have gone 16-1 in that time outscoring opponents 107 to 44.

This past weekend, Minnesota won the Minneapolis regional, which they hosted, by picking up three straight victories. Those wins were a 10-1 W over Canisius, a 3-2 win over UCLA in extras, and a 13-8 win over UCLA in the final.

Head coach John Anderson, who has been Minnesota’s skipper since 1982, spoke with the press following the regional victory and commented on how happy he’s been with the culture change brought about by his current group of seniors, which has clearly paid dividends.

In that group of seniors, outfielder Alex Boxwell has been a workhorse for them with 119 hits in his four-year career. Pair that with just one career error, and the Coon Rapids, Minnesota native has been a great asset for the Gophers on offense and defense. Junior infielder Terrin Vavra has performed in a similar vein with 42 RBIs while turning 23 double plays this season.

On the pitching/youth side, freshman righty and Gig Harbor, Washington product Patrick Fredrickson earned both B1G Freshman of the Year and Pitcher of the Year honors this season. Fredrickson finished with a 7-0 record in 14 appearances with 10 starts and 55 strikeouts. He’ll likely be the starter in game two of this series.

Also, not a Draymond Green fan, apparently.

Overall, this is going to come down to whether or not Minnesota can match up with Oregon State’s offense. Both have solid pitching, both are national top ten teams...this is a clash of titans, so to speak. I do think Oregon State will win this. But there’s a ton of talent on both of these squads. The baseball viewing public is going to get their money’s worth.

Number To Know: 3.11

The Gophers had a national top ten ERA this year at 3.11.

History Against Oregon State:

OSU leads the all-time series 5-3. Most recently, Oregon State won a thriller 8-7 in the Surprise, Arizona, behind a three-RBI day from Nick Madrigal.

Super Regional Schedule: