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College  | Story  | 6/3/2018

Minnesota among the Super

Patrick Ebert     
Photo: Alex Boxwell (Minnesota Athletics)

Minneapolis Regional Day 1 | Minneapolis Regional Day 2 | 2018 College Baseball Regional Preview

MINNEAPOLIS – You’ll have to excuse the Minnesota faithful for getting a little nervous when Sunday night’s Minneapolis championship game escalated quickly. The team hadn’t won a Regional since 1977 and their eventual 13-8 victory over UCLA pushed them into the Super Regional round for the first time ever.

In what started out as a blustery, cool day, the winds subdued and the skies cleared just in time for baseball at Siebert Field.  The teams exchanged single blows, back and forth, through the top of the second inning and then decided to up the ante with three runs each in the bottom of the second to the top of the third.

When the bottom of the third came around the Minnesota hitters continued to show their conviction, opening a lead they would not surrender.

It started with a Terrin Vavra single up the middle and was followed by a Eli Wilson walk. Two batters later Cole McDevitt hit a sacrifice fly to tie the game at 5-5 before Alex Boxwell hit a two-run home run to right-center field, his second home run of the Regional, that put them ahead for good.

After holding UCLA scoreless in the top of the fourth, Minnesota tacked on a six spot for good measure, a scoring barrage highlighted by Boxwell’s two-run double, giving him four RBI in the game and giving the Gophers a comfortable 13-5 lead.

Vavra finished the game with two more hits, including another double, two runs scored and one driven in, making him an easy choice for the Regional’s Most Outstanding Player.

“We knew that in this format, these games are not necessarily pitching because a lot of times pitching goes out the window in those first couple games and rely on the bullpen,” Vavra said. “We knew that they were running out of arms, and so were we at some point. We didn’t try to change our approach. We just went up there with the same mentality.”

The game’s two starting pitchers didn’t fare especially well, as UCLA’s Jack Ralston only logged 1 1/3 innings of work while Minnesota’s Jake Stevenson make it through two full frames. While UCLA used six total pitchers to try to keep the pesky Minnesota lineup at bay, Jackson Rose came on in the third and for the most part shut down the UCLA offense for the next four innings.

“What a night. What a three days,” coach John Anderson said in relief after the game. “Bringing a Regional back to Siebert Field, I wouldn’t want to have done it with any other team than the team that’s here with me today … They never flinched. They never quit preparing and working and pushing one another every single day. I think the game today was a representation of the way they’ve handled themselves all year long.”

Five Gophers were named to the Minneapolis All-Regional Team, including Vavra (shortstop), Boxwell (outfield), Micah Coffey (third base), Toby Hanson (designated hitter) and Max Meyer (relief pitcher).

From here Minnesota will travel to Corvallis to face third-seeded Oregon State in the Super Regional round in a best-of-three matchup between Gophers and Beavers to see who will be heading to Omaha for the 2018 College World Series.


UCLA beats Gonzaga, again

In the first game of the day, an elimination contest between UCLA and Gonzaga, sophomore righthander Ryan Garcia carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning as the Bruins ended the Zags’ season with a 10-4 win. Garcia finished the day by going 7 1/3 strong, giving up three runs (only one was earned) on three hits and a pair of walks while striking out nine.

“It was important that we had a good starting pitching performance,” coach John Savage said of Garcia’s outing. “I thought Ryan threw the ball extremely well. Obviously, he didn’t give up a hit until the seventh inning and he was just sharp. That’s exactly what we needed. We need a lot of innings if we are going to get this thing done over the next couple days.”

The offense did its part as well in a complete team effort. While second baseman Chase Strumpf continued his hot hitting, adding two more well-struck doubles that led to a pair of runs, three other hitters enjoyed multi-hit games and right fielder Garrett Mitchell hit a bases-clearing triple in the top of the eighth that put the game out of reach.

Gonzaga finished the 2018 campaign with a 33-24 record, reaching the postseason by sweeping the field at the West Coast Conference Tournament, beating third seed Loyola Marymount and No. 1 seed Pepperdine, twice, by a combined run differential of 34-5.

After their loss to Minnesota UCLA finished the year 38-21.

Here is the full Minneapolis Regional All-Tournament Team:

P – Max Meyer (Minnesota)
P – Ryan Garcia (UCLA)
C – Auston Pinorini (Gonzaga)
1B – Michael Toglia (UCLA)
2B – Chase Strumpf (UCLA)
3B – Micah Coffey (Minnesota)
SS – Terrin Vavra (Minnesota, Most Outstanding Player)
OF – Branson Trube (Gonzaga)
OF – Daniel Amaral (UCLA)
OF – Alex Boxwell (Minnesota)
DH – Toby Hanson (Minnesota)


2018 Postseason Picture:

Advanced to Super Regionals (national seed in parenthesis):

Stanford, Calif: Cal State Fullerton
Corvallis, Ore.: Oregon State (3)
Fayetteville, Ark.: Arkansas (5)
Chapel Hill, N.C.: North Carolina (6)
Lubbock, Texas: Texas Tech (9)
Clemson, S.C.: Vanderbilt
Deland, Fla.: Stetson (11)
Austin, Texas: Texas (13)
Minneapolis, Minn.: Minnesota (14)
Conway, S.C.: Washington
Raleigh, N.C.: Auburn

Stetson will be at North Carolina; Minnesota will be at Oregon State; Washington will be at Cal State Fullerton. The other teams are waiting for the winners from the Regionals to be determined on Monday:

Gainesville, Fla. – Florida (1) vs. Florida Atlantic
Oxford, Miss. – Ole Miss (4) vs. Tennessee Tech
Tallahassee, Fla. – Oklahoma vs. Mississippi State
Athens, Ga. – Georgia (8) vs. Duke
Greenville, N.C. – South Carolina vs. UNC Wilmington

National seeds eliminated:

Stanford (2), Florida State (7), Clemson (10), East Carolina (12), Coastal Carolina (15), NC State (16).
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