Hello All,
Long time no see, well that could be on our part since we have not posted an update in quite sometime. We blame our website guy, hear he really lets the team down not just on the internet... with that being said lets get to what you all want to know.
Over spring break 11 of the guys on the team piled into two minivans and drove through the night to Tampa, FL. After multiple bathroom breaks and drivers almost falling a sleep behind the wheel the guys made it in one piece and ready for bed. Unfortunately they had a practice to get used to the brisk air of Plant City where all their games would be played. All week the team was in close battles that either went their way or the opponents. The team started the week off with a 7-5 win over #2 THE Ohio State University. Junior Geoff Fisher tossed a complete game and if you ask him, he will tell you the amount of pitches he threw. Game two was another hard fought game and another complete game, this time by freshmen Connor Ryan. Connor does not remember the exact number of pitches he threw but it was a lot less than Geoff. On the back end of the DH Minnesota pulled out an 8-7 victory of SUNY-Brockport in extra innings, who doesn’t love free baseball? Going into their first beach day the team was at a surprising 3-0 record. Coming back from the beach day the team played a border battle against Iowa, even though there was no Floyd of Rosedale Trophy involved both teams played like there was and Iowa handed Minnesota their first loss of the week. In the final day of action Minnesota split a DH, in the first game senior Austin Ridl tossed the third complete game of the week in 68 pitches in a 5-1 win over UW-Milwaukee. The team dropped their final game to Cleveland State in a game that almost went Minnesota’s way in the bottom of the 7th. With the teams performance in Florida the NCBA saw it fitting to rank Minnesota for the first time in program history at number 19. In Florida the team was lead at the plate by Aaron Schwecke who batted .545 (12-22), 4 RBIs, 5 stolen bases and scored 8 times. Brian Dexheimer tallied 9 hits, 7 RBIs, crossed home 7 times and walked 6 times. Geoff Fisher and Austin Ridl both earned conference pitcher of the week for their time on the mound in Florida. Austin also was recognized as the National Pitcher of the week as well. Aaron Schwecke was named conference hitter of the week for the week he had in Plant City.
The team finished their conference schedule against UW-Superior in the cities April 9th and 10th. April 9th the team behind starter Marshall Dalziel invaded Siebert field under the lights and left with a 10-0 win. Sunday the teams played a DH which Minnesota swept and clinched their second playoff berth in 3 years, this time as the conference winner. Geoff Fisher and Aaron Schwecke won pitcher and hitter of the week in their conference clinching victories.
On a beautiful Thursday night Minnesota travel up Snelling Ave to take on the University of Northwestern JV baseball team. Behind solid pitching and timely hitting Minnesota left the DH with a sweep. Game one was a 6-4 win behind Geoff Fisher and his bat (yes, you read that right). Game two was a 6-3 win being Brock Chenier 5 solid innings and a big 4th inning that started with an opposite field homerun by Marshall Dalziel.
The University of North Dakota Fighting Hawks traveled to the cities for a weekend series. UND will be a new addition to the conference next year so why not play a team you will see in the future? Minnesota won the double header on April 16th behind strong starting pitching. Game one was a 12-3 victory behind Marshall Dalziel going 6 innings striking out 10 and giving up 3 runs (1 earned). Brock Chenier bat came alive as he went 2-4 with a double, homerun and 3 RBIs. Game two was an 8-3 win behind the arm of lefty Ben Smith. He also went 6 and struck out 10. Tristen Zimprich lead the offense as he went 3-4 with two doubles, a homerun and a couple RBIs. Game three on Sunday was a 13-3 loss, Brian Dexheimer and Justin Povlick both went yard and accounted for all three RBIs. As of last weekend Minnesota moved up 6 spots in the National rankings to number 13. We guess all the hard work is starting to pay off.
This coming week the team heads to Parade Stadium in Minneapolis to take on Augsburg College JV team, that will be the last game that the team plays before heading to the conference playoffs in Sheboygan, WI that take place on May 6-8. If the team manages to win that tourney they will head to Kansas for the NCBA Division 2 World Series. But first we have to take care of business in Sheybogan and that will be no easy task by any means.
As always follow us on Twitter @umnclubbaseball for all the updates you need to know.
~Staff~