The three-game series is crucial to Big Ten Tournament qualification
The Minnesota Golden Gophers baseball team will play their final three home games in the 2025 season this weekend when they host the Maryland Terrapins for a three-game Big Ten series. Minnesota has just six games remaining in the regular season and currently sits in a tie for 15th place in the conference with Maryland. Both the Gophers and Terrapins are just two game out of the #12 spot in the conference standings and the final Big Ten Tournament bid, but have three teams ahead of them to leap over into the spot. Thus, this weekend is a defacto elimination series with the loser likely resigned to finishing their season next weekend.
The Gophers went into Lincoln last weekend and dramatically pulled out a 10-onning win in the series opener or Friday night, but would drop games two and three to the Nebraska Cornhuskers to fall three games back of them in the conference standings. Minnesota heads into their final home series of the season with an overall record of 22-24 and 8-16 in conference play.
Maryland took two out of three games at Penn State last weekend, and then won a midweek game over James Madison on Wednesday night in ten innings. They enter the weekend with a 23-27 overall record and an identical 8-16 Big Ten record.
Friday night the Gophers will throw their 2025 ace in Joe Sperry. The junior from Rochester enters the weekend with a 4-1 record in just over 42 innings pitched with an era of 4.63 and 30 strikeouts. He started in the win last Friday in Lincoln throwing 4.2 innings and allowing just one run and three hits. The Terrapins will counter with Kyle McCoy who is 5-2 on the season with an ERA of 3.00 and 65 strikeouts in 2 innings pitched.
Saturday the Gophers will send sophomore Kyle Remmington to the hill. He doesn’t have a great win/loss record entering the weekend at just 1-6 and an ERA of 4.58. But he does miss bats striking out 46 batters in 56 innings pitched. Maryland counters with Joey McMannis who is 1-2 and has a 9.26 ERA in 35 innings pitched.
Sunday’s pitchers are TBD, but last Sunday in Lincoln Minnesota started Senior Justin Thorsteinson who is 3-3 with a 5.91 ERA on the year.
Minnesota will need their bats to come alive this weekend. Outfielder Parker Knoll leads the way for the Gophers with a .318 batting average. Drew Berkland and Weber Neels both have 12 home runs on the season to lead the team, and Berkland’s 48 RBI are tops for the Maroon and Gold. The Terrapins are led offensively by Chris Hacopian who is hitting .372 with a .622 slugging percentage. Hollis Porter leads the Terps with 20 home runs on the season and 61 RBI.
Minnesota needs to go at least 2-1 if not 3-0 this weekend to have a chance to win their way into the Big Ten Tournament next weekend. The Gophers finish the regular season at Michigan State next weekend who also is in a fight for that final Big Ten Tournament spot. Nebraska is 11-13 and sits in the #11 spot headed into the weekend while the Spartans and Northwestern are both 10-14 and in a tie for 12th. Purdue is in 14th and 9-15, one game ahead of both Minnesota and Maryland. This weekend Purdue is at Indiana, Michigan State is at USC, Northwestern goes to last place Ohio State, and Nebraska hosts Michigan. All but Northwestern are facing teams ahead of them in the standings, so the Gophers can make up some significant ground with a sweep of the Terrapins this weekend.
Friday night’s game is set for a 6PM first pitch, Saturday’s game will start at 3PM, and Sunday’s Senior Day will be a 1 PM Start. Friday and Saturday’s games will stream on B1G+, and Sunday’s finale will air live on Big Ten Network.