Minnesota Moves to 15 in National Baseball Rankings

Today on my drive into work, I needed to wind up the windows and blast the AC, which means two things. The 15 hours of spring are now over and summer has begun and it is time to ratchet up the baseball coverage.

The Golden Gophers are riding high, sweeping Indiana in three straight, which allowed them to tie Michigan for the Big Ten lead. In the process, they swept the weekly big ten honors, with Terrin Vavra winning player of the week. The junior from Menomonie won his second POTW honors, this time with 2 homers while batting 6 for 7. Freshman Patrick Fredrickson from Gig Harbor took home both Freshman and Pitcher of the Week by striking out 8 batters in a win against Indiana.

The run by Minnesota allowed them to climb to 15 in D1Baseball.com’s rankings, while Indiana was bounced from the top 25. However, Indiana still looks good for the NCAA tournament, as do the Gophers and the Buckeyes. In fact, 7 Big Ten teams are in the top 62 in the RPI rankings. In 2015, the Big Ten set their record by sending 5 teams, which they matched last season. This season could easily match or exceed that number.