In the Gophers home opener Tuesday, the offense looked refreshed despite kicking off the season with 17 consecutive road games.
Minnesota recorded 16 hits from 11 different players in a 10-3 victory over Augsburg at Siebert Field, moving the team to 10-8 on the season.
“It always feels better to play a game … rather than playing inter-squad or a practice,” head coach John Anderson said. “It was a good day, not because we won but because I think we got some good work in today.”
The Gophers cycled through five pitchers in the game, with junior right-hander Cody
Campbell getting the start. Campbell allowed one hit and issued two walks in three scoreless innings.
“For the most part, all of them did a good job executing more than one pitch, not just a fastball,” Anderson said. “I thought we pitched with some tempo on the mound, and I was encouraged.”
Minnesota started the game with a three-run first inning, with senior first baseman Connor Schaefbauer driving in two of the runs.
Schaefbauer recorded a double in his next at-bat in the third inning to score another run, and redshirt junior outfielder Jordan Smith, senior outfielder Dan Motl and freshman shortstop Terrin Vavra all added RBI singles in the third to put the Gophers up 7-0.
“It’s something we’ve stressed all year, trying to set the tone offensively,” Schaefbauer said. “We want to be up as early and as often as we can to give our pitchers some room to work.”
Once Campbell left the mound freshman right-hander Jake Stevenson made his second appearance of the season and held Augsburg scoreless in two innings of work.
He allowed one hit and walked two while striking out two and induced a double play to end the fourth inning.
Schaefbauer batted another run in during the fourth inning with a sacrifice fly, giving him a career-high four RBIs in the game.
The Gophers added two more runs in the fifth inning after freshman catcher Cole McDevitt hit a leadoff double and later scored on the second out of the inning.
Redshirt junior Matt Stemper added an RBI single to put the Gophers up 10-0.
Augsburg answered by scoring a run in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings to make the score 10-3.
Redshirt junior Tim Shannon pitched the seventh and eighth for the Gophers and allowed two earned runs off of two hits.
Freshman left-handed Nick Lackney made his third appearance of the season in the ninth and ended the game with a clean inning that featured two strikeouts.
The Gophers have another road series before returning home again, but McDevitt said the team was thankful to end its long streak of road games.
“I think we’re all sick of traveling and being on the road,” McDevitt said. “It was a pretty nice day, and it was fun to be around the boys and play here.”
