Ever in search of normalcy and a few innings for its relievers, the Gophers baseball team will head to Brookings, S.D., Wednesday, a day after yet another canceled game.
TuesdayâÄôs bout with South Dakota State was rained out âÄî the ninth game postponed or canceled due to rain this year. The two teams were originally scheduled to play last Wednesday, but rain forced a postponement then as well, and the schedule was changed to a home-and-home series this week.
The first game has now been canceled entirely, and Minnesota (14-15, 6-6 Big Ten) will head to South Dakota again in search of a few midweek innings for its pitchers.
DJ Snelten was scheduled to start Tuesday and may now draw the start Wednesday. Head coach John Anderson said heâÄôll try to get as many pitchers into the game as he can so under-used hurlers can start to build some consistency.
âÄúWeâÄôre going to have to sort it out as we go along; weâÄôre probably going to pitch everybody the next couple days if we play,âÄù Anderson said before TuesdayâÄôs game was rained out.
âÄúWeâÄôll start with one guy and weâÄôll just make our decisions as we go along.âÄù
Several relievers that the team may need to lean on down the stretch and hence would like to get innings from are Cullen Sexton (eight appearances, 9 innings), Luke Rasmussen (seven, 5.2) and Tim Ryan (five, 4).
The Jackrabbits-Gophers series is the first meeting of a reunited baseball family. Pitching coach Todd Oakes and his son, starting pitcher TJ, will square off against former Gophers righty Tyler Oakes, now in his first year as a graduate assistant pitching coach for SDSU.