The Gophers had an extremely entertaining baseball team in 2018, winning the Big Ten regular-season and tournament titles. They hosted a regional that packed the cozy confines of Siebert Field and went 3-0, with two victories over UCLA.
The reward for this was a trip to Corvallis, Ore., where they were beaten in a super regional by Oregon State. That was the team of Adley Rutschman, Trevor Larnach, etc., that would win six consecutive elimination games to take the College World Series.
Those Gophers had outstanding pitching led by Max Meyer and Patrick Fredrickson, and the fielding was also amazing. If a ball could be caught anywhere, almost always it would be.
John Anderson, the head coach since 1982, had a solid team again in 2019, and then the hard times came calling as never before.
Most of the 2020 season was wiped out by the COVID-19 pandemic. The same calamity limited the schedule to only Big Ten games in 2021, and the Gophers went an overmatched 6-31.
They remained deep in the 13-team Big Ten standings in the past two years. Anderson was given the option to return for the 2024 season and has done so.
Immediately, the Gophers are facing an obstacle. The plan to play as many as 15 home games inside U.S. Bank Stadium in February and March has been wiped out by the decision of building operator ASM Global to replace the dome's artificial turf during that period.
"We always relied on the bill that squeezed through the Legislature and said this stadium would be available for amateur athletics in the same manner and similar cost as was the Metrodome," Anderson said.