Minnesota Gophers Baseball Closes Out Regular Season Hosting #24 Nebraska Cornhuskers

The Minnesota Golden Gophers baseball team has rejuvinated itself in the second year under head coach Ty McDevett this season. The Gophers are guaranteed to finish with a record above .500 as they enter the final three games of the regular season with a 30-20 overall record. However, there is still more work to do. Minnesota enters the weekend with a 11-16 record in Big Ten play and are currently in a three-way tie for 10th place in the conference with Rutgers and Washington. The top 12 teams in the Big Ten standings advance to next week’s Big Ten Tournament in Omaha. Michigan State sits in 13th place with a conference record of 11-19. Thus, all three of the Gophers, Scarlet Knights, and Huskies need at least one win this weekend to quarantine their spot in the conference tournament, or else it will fall to tie breakers to determine who gets the last spot, and who will see their season come to an end.

It will not be an easy task for the Gophers to find that one win this weekend as they host #24 Nebraska at Siebert Field. The Cornhuskers enter the weekend with a 38-14 overall record and are 20-7 in Big Ten play, good enough for second place in the conference by a game over USC and two ahead of fourth place Oregon and Purdue. So Nebraska also has something to play for this weekend to quarantine their spot in the top four of the conference standings and get a bye directly into the single elimination quarterfinals rather than get stuck in the double-elimination qualifier that teams 5-12 need to play prior to the single elimination eight team bracket.

Nebraska is led by Mac Moyer who is hitting .374 with 11 doubles and 31 RBIs over 214 at bats. The Gophers are 34-41-1 overall against the Cornhuskers all time, holding a 2-2 home record and a 2-4 away record against Nebraska over their last 10 matchups.

The Gophers have the second toughest matchup of the three teams looking for that last win to clinch a Big Ten Tournament spot. Washington has to host #1 UCLA this weekend while Rutgers is at 15th place Northwestern.

If there is a tie with the Spartans or any other team for the final spots in the conference tournament, the first time breakers is head to head. Minnesota did not face Michigan State or Rutgers this season but did take two of three games from Washington. Michigan State also went 2-1 against Washington, but went 1-2 against Rutgers. If the head to head tiebreaker does not determine the qualifier, the next step is to compare the winning percentage against the teams that finish in places 1-8 in the final Big Ten standings, and the best winning percentage of that group wins the tie breaker. It would appear that the Gophers would clinch a spot in a three-team tiebreaker for two spots with Washington and Michigan State due to their head to head wins over the Huskies, but all others would come down to the final winning percentage against the field.