The Gophers baseball team won its 23rd Big Ten regular-season championship over the weekend and will open the conference tournament as the No. 1 seed against No. 8 Iowa Wednesday at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha, Neb.
The title was only the second for the program in the last 12 years, however, recent history shows the Gophers have performed well in the postseason after winning the outright conference championship. In 2004 and 2010, the last two years the Gophers won the regular-season crown, they also won the conference tournament and advanced to the NCAA tournament.
In 2010, the Gophers were one win shy of playing in the Super Regionals. They beat No. 1 seed Cal State Fullerton in the regional opener and New Mexico in the second round, but lost back-to-back games to Fullerton in regional championship. In 2004, they also played in the Fullerton regional and lost their first two games.
In 2007 and 2009, the Gophers won 40-plus games and earned at-large berths into the NCAA tournament. In 2009, the Gophers made another regional finals appearance, but lost to LSU.
The Gophers have played in 14 NCAA tournaments under veteran coach John Anderson, but have never advanced to the Super Regionals. The program has won three national championships and last appeared in the College World Series in 1977.
The Gophers were regularly one of the top teams in the country in the early 2000s and won either a Big Ten regular-season or conference tournament championship five straight years (2000-2004). The program won only one Big Ten regular-season title and conference tournament (the same year) from 2005-2015 and missed the Big Ten tournament hosted at Target Field last season after finishing ninth in the standings.
This season's turnaround (34-18 overall, 16-7 Big Ten) was led by an all-around consistent effort from the Gophers. Eight of their players hit above. 300, led by Matt Fiedler's .383 average. Fielder also compiled a 7-2 record and 3.67 ERA in 83-plus innings pitched. Starting pitchers Toby Anderson and Dalton Sawyer also had seven-win seasons.
The double-elimination Big Ten tournament runs Wednesday through Sunday. The Gophers and Iowa play Wednesday evening at 5 p.m. on BTN and will play the winner or loser of No. 4 Ohio State and No. 5 Michigan. See the full tournament bracket.
