Hot Start or Real Contender? Inside Gophers Baseball’s 9

It has been more than six years since Gophers baseball has finished higher than ninth in the Big Ten standings. That could change in year two under head coach Ty McDevitt, as his team has gotten off to a red-hot 9-3 start. Let's break it down.

Minnesota had a busy offseason, adding more than 10 new players from the transfer portal. There were plenty of questions after last year's 24-28 campaign, and they were projected to finish near the bottom of the Big Ten standings again. According to DraftKings Sportsbook, they opened with the 14th-best odds to win the Big Ten conference at +8000. Those numbers have since jumped to +2500, which is tied for seventh-best in the conference.

Schedule

The Gophers opened the season with three wins over Stetson, St. John's (NY) and Ball State in Deland, Florida. They remained in the Sunshine State and left with one loss against Florida Gulf Coast and two blowout wins over Northeastern. They welcomed Kansas to U.S. Bank Stadium for their first four games at home, and they split those games 2-2. They won two more mid-week games in Minneapolis against Milwaukee. Their three losses have come by a combined seven runs.

Their schedule has not been the toughest in college baseball, but it still ranks 118th out of 308 teams through 12 games. They will have three more winnable games this weekend in Minneapolis against UNLV, South Dakota State and Omaha as part of the 2026 Cambria Classic. They will have two more mid-week nonconference games against Gonzaga next week before their Big Ten opener against Illinois on March 13. Their schedule to this point has presented its fair share of challenges.

Top players

Senior catcher Weber Neels has been Minnesota's most effective hitter this season. The Cottage Grove, Minnesota native is leading the team with a .400 batting average, along with five home runs and 15 RBIs. He was even named Big Ten Player of the Week after going 10-14 with 2 2B, 4 HR, 9 R, 9 RBI, 3 BB and 2 SB against Kansas.

Minnesota has five different players hitting over .300. Veterans Charlie Sutherland and Easton Richter lead the team with 16 RBIs, to go along with nine home runs combined. The biggest difference from this year's team compared to last year continues to be the pitching.

St. Thomas transfer junior RHP Marcus Kruzan continues to be tremendous with a 2.45 ERA and 15 strikeouts in two starts and 14.2 innings pitched. RHP Cole Selvig has shown improvements along with transfer Isaac Morton and Ben Gregory, giving the Gophers a solid four-man rotation.

Whether or not Minnesota competes for a spot in the regionals stage of the postseason remains to be seen, but they've shown more than enough reason to think they will exceed preseason expectations and compete in the top half of the Big Ten standings.

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