Gophers baseball begins Ty McDevitt era after 43 seasons under John Anderson

The Gophers baseball program, which has been a model of stability for nearly eight decades, heads into the 2025 season amid changes.

The Gophers open with a three-game series at Houston under first-year head coach Ty McDevitt. McDevitt is just the fourth coach the Gophers have had since the fall of 1947 and the second since the fall of 1981. McDevitt replaced John Anderson, who retired following the 2024 season after 43 years as head coach.

Each of the three successors to Dick Siebert, who coached the Gophers from 1948 to 1978, has been a former Gophers player and assistant coach. George Thomas replaced Siebert after Siebert’s death in 1978 and coached the Gophers for three seasons before Anderson took over at age 26.

McDevitt, a four-year letter winner with the Gophers and an assistant on Anderson’s staff for eight seasons — the last six as pitching coach — takes over in a season of change for the Big Ten. With the addition of Oregon, UCLA, USC and Washington, conference teams will play a 30-game schedule — a three-game series with 10 opponents.

“We have a good, competitive ballclub,” McDevitt said. “I’m excited about the team. The schedule is insanely competitive.”

The Gophers, who were 25-23 overall and 11-13 in the Big Ten last season, will play 12 games against teams that made the NCAA tournament last season. Four of the Gophers’ opponents — Virginia, Oklahoma, Oregon and Oregon State — were ranked in the top 25 at the end of last season.

The schedule includes 10 games at U.S. Bank Stadium, which was unavailable to the Gophers last season while the turf was being replaced. The Gophers open Big Ten play against Purdue on March 7 at the Vikings stadium. The Gophers' first conference road series will be March 14-16 at Oregon, which was ranked No. 12 at the end of last season and No. 19 in the Baseball America preseason poll.

“We have to replace 300 innings from last season,” McDevitt said. “In any year that’s a challenge. It’s especially challenging this year with our schedule.”

Gone from last season is Connor Wietgrefe, who was named All-Big Ten after finishing second in the Big Ten and 18th nationally in ERA. Wietgrefe, who signed with the Pittsburgh Pirates after they picked him in the seventh round in the MLB draft, was 8-4 with a 2.77 ERA and 74 strikeouts in 78 innings.

“We have pitching depth but no top choice at the moment for the Friday starter,” McDevitt said. “We have a lot of sophomores who got their feet wet last year, and they got better in the fall [practice]. Our sophomore class has a lot of potential.”

Among the sophomores are righthanders Tyler Hemmesch, Kyle Remington and Cole Selvig — a transfer from Texas — and lefthander Will Whelan.

“We also have four strong arms in the back end of the bullpen,” McDevitt said, referring to righthanders Seth Clausen and Eli Sundquist and lefthanders Noah Rooney and Justin Thorsteinson.

Among the returning position players are Josh Fitzgerald, Weber Neels and Jake Perry.

Fitzgerald, a senior outfielder, was sixth in the Big Ten in hitting last season. He batted .360 with nine home runs, 38 RBI and 11 stolen bases.

Perry, a senior third baseman, and Neels, a junior catcher, each played in all 48 games last season. Perry hit .305 with nine home runs and 43 RBI. Neels hit .317 with eight home runs and 43 RBI.

Brady Counsell, a three-year letter winner for the Gophers who started all 48 games last season, transferred to Kansas for his final season.

“If you look at our ERA and our offense numbers, we should have won more games,” McDevitt said. “We made too many mistakes [64 errors in 48 games] and big innings are hard to overcome. We have to focus on fundamentals. I like the energy and passion this team has shown.”