Get To Know The Gophers

Writeup below by our beloved BeaverGopher, who is going to have a massive case of ambivalence this weekend. Big thanks to him for filling us in on these guys. I had no idea MN was such a storied baseball program.

Sophie’s Choice for Beavergopher

I hate the NCAA seeding committee! I would have loved to see this as the championship matchup, but alas, the SEC has to be assured a team in to validate the narrative.
Get to know the Gophers:

CWS champions in ‘56, ‘60, & ‘64
Coach was Dick Siebert for whom our field is named for.
CWS appearances in ‘56, ‘60, ‘64, ‘73, & ‘77
NCAA tournament appearances: (32 )1956, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1964, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1973, 1974, 1976, 1977, 1981, 1982, 1985, 1987, 1988, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2016, 2018
B1G championships: 24
B1G Tournament champions: 10
Notable alums: Dave Winfield, Paul Molitor, Terry Steinbach, Dan Wilson, Greg Olson, Brent Gates, and Glenn Perkins.
PAC connection. Jerry Kindall the former AZ coach and three time CWS champion was the team caption of the Gophers ‘56 CWS champion.
So there is a proud baseball tradition here. The HS baseball in the state is quite good, but starting in the late 80’s the SEC and ACC have been raiding the state as the elite players want to play in warm weather. Pitchers have ended up at Fl, Vandy, UNC, and TCU just the past few years. Beavs verballed a Lefty for ‘19 from Stillwater, MN.
HC John Anderson got the job at age 26 and has been our coach for 37 years. He is a great coach and even better person. He has been offered jobs at several southern power schools over the years, but thankfully has stayed. He is very well liked and respected by his peers. Teams play very sound baseball and generally don’t beat themselves.

Team star. SS Terrin Vavra. First team AA. Dad was coach for the Twins. 3rd round MLB
draft pick.
This is a veteran team with lots of juniors and seniors in the lineup. They are one pitching meltdown from three-peating as conf. champs. Mainly local kids with a lot of multi sport athletes. They have very good team speed and have been pretty aggressive with the running game this season. The lineup is heavy on lefties and there is power potential 1-9.
Offensively comparing the two squads, I would give the Gophers the advantage at LF, 1st, DH, and SS. Vavra and the LF Mezzenga are hitting in the upper 300’s.

Defensively they are very good, but not to the level of the Beavs. The most glaring difference is CF. Alex Boxwell will make some bad reads and let balls get over his head.
Kwan is really awesome, so big advantage to the Beavs. The CF made the All Region team based on his his bat. The catcher is the son of former Seattle Mariner and Gopher catcher Dan Wilson. Very good player, but Adley is freaking unbelievable. Vavra, the SS, is really good. Not Caydn, but close enough.

The question about this team coming into the year was could they they find pitching.
Two freshman became AA and made the season. Saturday starter Patrick Fredrickson has been fantastic. Great control and good movement. Pitcher of the year and freshman of the year in the B1G. Friday guy, Reggie Meyer, is a big lefty with a good slider and sits at 92 with his fastball. When he is on he is pretty good. If he does not go deep in his start, you can probably buy your tickets to Omaha. The freshman closer, Max Meyer, has been awesome. He basically won the regional with three shutout innings against UCLA. He blew away the UCLA batters with a great slider and was hitting 94/95 on the gun we could see from our seats. He is a very slightly built kid that looks like he should be on a HS tennis team. He seems to have the it factor. If it comes to a third game, the strategy has been to get a few innings out of a pitcher to get to the long reliever Brett Schultz. He was very effective against UCLA. After those two the bull pen is a throw of the dice. Sometimes good, sometimes bad.

So the Gophers have a team built to win a Super if the cards fall right. Good hitters top to bottom. They have been very mentally tough and have found ways to win this year. They only had nine true home games at Siebert Field this year due to the horrid spring weather and had to play one of their “home series” at Purdue because of said weather.
They keep the pressure on with their bats. If both teams are on, Beavs win in two. If something goes south, they are capable of an upset. Hopefully it is a well played series. May the best rodent win.

Go Beavs and Go Gophers.

And screw the the NCAA for setting up this nightmare for me.