In a two-day span, the Gophers baseball team transformed a mini-slump at the plate into a full-blown offensive explosion.
Robb Quinlan blasted three home runs on Tuesday against Iowa State in Ames, Iowa, in Minnesota’s 18-6 squashing of the Cyclones. The Gophers improved to 18-13 on the year, while Iowa State fell to 11-20.
After being held in check for the first two games at Penn State, the Gophers began to hit better on Sunday in a 7-4 win. Quinlan mirrored the improvement, getting three hits and three RBIs in the game after having just one hit in the first two games.
That pattern continued on Tuesday, but on a much larger scale. Quinlan, a sophomore outfielder, hit two of his home runs in a nine-run first inning. His third, a solo blast to left, rolled to the porch of a nearby house. He went 4-for-4, with a double to the center field fence also thrown in, and four RBIs. He now has a team-high six homers on the season.
Yes, the wind was blowing out at Cap Timm Field, not that Quinlan needed much help.
“The second one I hit [a solo shot to center] might have been pushed a bit,” said Quinlan, “But the other two I hit pretty well.”
Minnesota belted a season-high six home runs in the game, three of them in the first inning. Besides Quinlan’s pair, Phil McDermott added a two-run homer, his third of the year and first since the Gophers’ spring trip in February. The Gophers also strung seven hits together in the inning, chasing Cyclones starter Ryan Seifert out of the game after just one-third of an inning.
Seifert happens to be Iowa State’s best pitcher.
“He’s their number-one guy,” Gophers coach John Anderson said. “He can get it up to 90 or 91 (miles per hour).”
Other players to homer for Minnesota were Craig Selander, who hit his fourth of the year, and Mark Groebner (a late-inning replacement for Quinlan), who hit his fifth.
Three other players had three hits apiece in the Gophers’ season-high 21-hit attack: Selander, Ben Griffin and Matt Scanlon.
“I think everyone was frustrated from this weekend. Everyone started to come around on Sunday,” Quinlan said. “Everyone just started to break out today.”
Note: The Gophers’ nine-run inning still wasn’t their highest-scoring frame of the year. They scored 12 runs in the sixth inning of a game against Chicago State on March 24.

GAME SUMMARY
Gophers 912 003 102 — 18 21 0
ISU 011 030 010 — 6 12 2
Freeman, Gangl (7), Dobis (8) and Guse, Negen (7); Seifert, Mathys (1), Sedlacek (3) and Senjem. W — Freeman, 2-1. L — Seifert, 3-5. HRs — Minnesota, Groebner (5), McDermott (3), Quinlan 3 (6), Selander (4); Iowa State, Runk (1). T — 2:44. A — 125.