The Gophers baseball team will play all 12 of its Big Ten home games this year at Target Field and three non-conference games at the UniversityâÄôs Siebert Field, the team announced Friday.
Because of a collapsed roof at the Metrodome, which will not be repaired in time for the college baseball season, the Gophers had to reschedule, relocate or cancel all of their home games for the 2011 season.
The team was originally scheduled to play 31 games at the Metrodome.
Of those, Minnesota cancelled March games against Washington State and Hamline, as well as a pair of two-game series against North Dakota State âÄî of which one game will be made up in May âÄî and Cal State Bakersfield .
The Metrodome Tournament, which was supposed to include the Gophers, Butler, Gonzaga and Illinois, will be replaced by a three-game series against Gonzaga in Sacramento, Calif. from March 11-13. A two-game series against Kansas State, originally scheduled for April 5-6, will be moved to 2012.
The Gophers will play three games at Siebert Field against St. Thomas (April 13), South Dakota State (April 20) and North Dakota State (May 17). The team has not played a game there since the 2008-2009 season.
In a Jan. 24 interview, when Gophers coach John Anderson was in the midst of the scheduling nightmare, he said, âÄúObviously we have to look at Siebert Field, but thatâÄôs a stretch based on what we know there, because of the condition of the facility. We havenâÄôt done anything to the playing surface to speak of for the last couple years.âÄù
The GophersâÄô conference schedule begins April 1 with a doubleheader at home against Purdue.
Ticket information for those games and the others at Target Field has not been released, though team spokesman Steve Geller said that information âÄúwill be released jointly by the Minnesota Twins and the University of Minnesota at a later date.âÄù
“From the moment the Metrodome roof collapsed, the Pohlad Family and the entire Twins organization have bent over backwards to help us make this work,âÄù Gophers coach John Anderson said in a release.
âÄúIt will obviously be exciting for our team to be able to play 12 games at Target Field, and we feel like it is another great example of the Twins efforts to go above and beyond to help our program.âÄù
The Gophers began their season Friday in Clearwater, Fla., at the Big Ten-Big East Challenge.
They are the defending Big Ten Tournament and regular season champions, and were ranked No. 1 in the conference in a poll conducted among Big Ten coaches this week.
