Gophers baseball is right around the corner. First pitch of the 2022 season is on Friday, Feb. 18 in Boca Raton, Fla. in a non-conference series opener against Florida Atlantic.

Heading into his 42nd season at the helm, the Gophers’ head coach John Anderson will look to forget about the 6-31 season in 2021 with a revamped Minnesota roster.

Replacing veteran offensive players

Minnesota will be without its two leaders in total at bats from a season ago. Second baseman Zack Raabe was drafted in the 8th round of the NFL Draft by the Milwaukee Brewers and third baseman Jack Wassel graduated from the program.

As for returning position players, the Gophers will rely heavily on senior catcher Chase Stanke, who was third on the team in batting average (.272) in 2021 and tied for second in total hits (34).

Versatile junior Sam Ireland will play a large role in 2022 at both first base and on the mound as a pitcher. After posting a .212 batting average with 66 at bats last season, he will have a similar role in 2022.

The rest of the infield will be led by a combination of redshirt senior Ronald Sweeny, sophomore Boston Merila, junior Drew Stahl and redshirt-junior Noah Berghammer. Sweeny led the group with 114 at bats last season, driving in a team high 30 RBI, posting a .228 batting average.

The Gophers outfield will be headlined by senior Andrew Wilhite, redshirt-senior Easton Bertrand, redshirt senior Jack Kelly, who will double as a backup catcher and sophomore Brett Bateman who will contribute as a pitcher as well. Bertrand was second on the team last season, posting a .295 batting average.

Returning success on the mound

The pitching staff returns every single player who started more than one game a season ago. Junior RHP Sam Ireland, redshirt-junior LHP Jack Liffrig, junior RHP Trent Schoeberl, redshirt-senior LHP Tom Skoro, and senior RHP J.P. Massey will likely round out the unit.

Liffrig led the team with 11 starts. 64 innings pitched and 43 strikeouts last season, he recorded the second best ERA on the team at 4.36.

Ireland and Skoro were the only other two players on the team that pitched 30+ innings in 2021 and Ireland led the team with 4.31 ERA in seven starts.

The Gophers bullpen will have a lot of new names this season, with redshirt-junior RHP Josh Culliver and sophomore Noah DeLuga are the only two other pitchers that pitched 10+ innings last season.