Minnesota got off to a good start to the season when the team rallied late to beat Gonzaga 8-5 in their season opener.
After that, however, the Gophers lost the next three and came out of Arizona with a 1-3 record.
“I’ve been through this for 40 years, and when you go from indoors to outdoors there’s a lot of adjustments that have to be made,” said head coach John Anderson. “We’re inexperienced in a lot of our lineup, and played great competition that [is] going to expose your weaknesses pretty quickly.”
The Gophers took one out of four of their first games of the season, getting outscored 30-7 in the three consecutive losses, in a weekend series from Friday through Monday in Surprise, Arizona.
Minnesota was down 3-0 going into the top of the sixth inning during the first game against Gonzaga. Gophers designated hitter/pitcher Max Meyer hit a double to score freshman outfielder Easton Bertrand, and Meyer ran home as well thanks two two infield errors. Then, in the eighth inning, Bertrand hit an inside-the-park home run, catcher Eli Wilson hit a single for two RBIs and outfielder Eduardo Estrada hit a home run to make it 8-4 going into the ninth inning. Gonzaga scored one in the ninth but it wasn’t enough and Minnesota won the first game of the season 8-5.
Brett Schulze recorded the win on the mound for the Gophers with three strikeouts in 1.2 innings. Meyer tallied the save, relieving Schulze in the ninth.
“We started out pretty slow, that first game against Gonzaga, but we got the bats going late and we had a really good bullpen performance,” Schulze said. “It was a good team win to get the ball rolling.”
Gonzaga took its revenge on Monday with a 6-5 victory. Gonzaga scored six runs in the third and fourth innings to make the score 6-2. The Gophers came back in the seventh inning with a triple from Bertrand that scored one and a sacrifice fly from freshman Zack Raabe, which cut the Bulldogs’ lead 6-4. Gophers outfielder Ben Mezzenga hit a single for one more run, but the team couldn’t get the tying run and lost their third consecutive game 6-5.
The Gophers lost to New Mexico on Saturday 11-1 before losing to No. 8 Oregon State 13-1 on Sunday. Oregon State won the College World Series last season, ending the Gophers’ season in the Super Regional round of the playoffs in the process.
“Losing the first couple games, it’s obviously really tough right now because we got blown out for a couple of those,” Meyer said. “So it’s kind of a slap to the face, and I’m sure that we’re going to be coming out hot because we [have] a group of winners. We don’t like to lose.”
Minnesota will play Dallas Baptist (3-0) Friday through Sunday in an upcoming weekend series in Dallas, Texas.
