The Dome can't keep bailing the team out while it waits for improvements to be done at its home field. But the way things are going, the opener may be pushed back.

By Patrick Reusse

March 30, 2008 at 6:18AM

Joel Maturi should be ashamed of himself. He has been on the job as Minnesota's athletic director since July 2002, and Siebert Field -- home of his baseball team -- remains a disgrace to the memory of the coach for whom it is named.

There were vague suggestions in recent months that some improvements would be made to the worst facility imaginable for Big Ten baseball for this season, but a visit Saturday afternoon showed that was bad information.

The two sets of ramshackle bleachers are receiving a coat of paint before being assembled, which is definitely putting lipstick on a pig.

The Gophers are not scheduled to play at the field named for the legendary Dick Siebert until April 9 against Northern Iowa. That game could be moved to the Metrodome, which would make the April 18-20 series against Illinois the season debut of Maturi's blighted ballpark.

The Dome bailed out the Gophers for this weekend, when they started the Big Ten schedule with a four-game series against Indiana.

Minnesota started playing early-season games in the Dome in 1984. The Gophers went into this weekend with a 25-11 record in Big Ten games and a 170-77-1 record in all indoor games.

John Anderson has been the coach since 1982. His teams have won eight Big Ten tournaments and played in 14 NCAA regionals in the previous 26 seasons. And, in the 20 years since the Big Ten stopped using an East-West format, the Gophers have finished first or second 14 times.

When Anderson started, the Twin Cities dailies still covered the Gophers' Big Ten home series and a sunny day at Siebert would produce a drove of fans. Reporters and TV cameras drop by only occasionally now, and spectators come out in dribbles rather than in droves.

The Gophers opened the conference with a 10-2 victory Friday night. This did not inspire an outpouring of witnesses for Saturday's pair of seven-inning games with the Hoosiers.

There were 300 to 400 folks scattered in the Dome's best seats Saturday, or about 1 percent of the audience that was willing to watch Eric Decker catch passes for a woeful Gophers football team last fall.

Decker comes from Cold Spring, perhaps Minnesota's No. 1 baseball hotbed. He was willing to forgo baseball during the spring of 2006 and 2007 to advance his football career with the Gophers.

At the end of spring practice last year, Decker practiced with the baseball team for a couple of weeks.

That's when he informed the new football staff that he intended to play baseball this year.

The baseball Gophers opened their schedule in late February in the usual ambitious fashion: a three-game series against powerful Ole Miss, followed by strong teams from TCU, Pepperdine and Tulane in the Dairy Queen Classic at the Dome.

Asked about the level of competition, Decker said, "Uff. I haven't seen anybody like this. Ole Miss, TCU, Tulane. ... That was some good pitching."

Decker said he had been out front against breaking pitches and late against good fastballs.

"Hopefully, in the next couple of weeks I'll start to catch up with this pitching," he said.

Indiana was leading 2-1 when the Gophers batted in the third.

Matt Nohelty's line drive to left was played into a triple. The lefthanded-hitting Decker was next against righthander Tyler Tufts.

"I expected a breaking ball, and that's what I got," Decker said. "It felt good."

It sounded good, too -- not the aluminum ping, but the solid sound of a ball hit on the thick part of the metal. It was hit well over the Hefty bag in right field for Decker's first collegiate home run. It came in his 51st at-bat.

The Gophers scored four runs in that inning. The 5-2 lead seemed secure with junior lefthander Kyle Carr. Then, Gophers freshman Mike Kvasnicka misplayed a ball in right field in the sixth, two runs scored and Carr had to leave the tying run stranded at third with one out.

Freshman Cullen Sexton came in for the seventh. He pumped a handful of 90-mile-per-hour fastballs, got three quick outs and finished the 5-4 victory for his first collegiate save.

The witnesses applauded politely and stretched out in their blue seats to wait for Game 2.

Patrick Reusse can be heard weekdays on AM-1500 KSTP at 6:45 and 7:45 a.m. and 4:40 p.m. • preusse@startribune.com