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University of Minnesota Athletics
Minnesota Plays Host to Ohio State at Target Field
5/18/2011 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Minnesota closes its regular season with a three-game set versus the Ohio State Buckeyes at Target Field on Thursday and Friday.
Game times are set for 3:05 p.m. (CT) and approximately 6:05 p.m. for Thursday's doubleheader, and then 6:05 p.m. on Friday in a game that will be televised live on the Big Ten Network. All three games can be heard live, free of charge in the Gold Zone.
Minnesota is coming off an 8-5 win versus North Dakota State on Tuesday evening at Siebert Field in its final regular season non-conference game. That followed a tough weekend at Penn State in which the Gophers lost to the Nittany Lions by scores of 7-0 on Friday and 4-2 on Sunday, with a 3-2 win in the middle game of the series.
The Gophers (21-20, 12-9 Big Ten) enter the final weekend of Big Ten play tied with Illinois for second place in the standings, just one game behind league-leading MSU. Ohio State is 23-24 overall and 11-10 in the conference. The Buckeyes are part of a three-way tie for fourth place in the Big Ten.
Junior shortstop AJ Pettersen leads Minnesota with a .347 batting average and 31 runs scored, while right fielder Justin Gominsky is batting .314 with 24 runs scored and three triples, and junior first baseman Nick O'Shea has a .308 batting average with team-leading totals of 25 runs batted in and five home runs.
Sophomore right-hander TJ Oakes is the Gophers' probable starter for the first game on Thursday. Oakes is 5-5 with a 3.53 earned run average, but is 4-2 in Big Ten starts this season. Senior lefty Phil Isaksson is Minnesota's probable starter for Thursday's second game, and enters with a record of 3-4 and a 2.97 ERA.
The Gophers hold an 82-79-2 edge in the all-time series versus the Buckeyes. Minnesota has won the past two series, and last year's series victory at Bill Davis Stadium in Columbus denied Ohio State what would have been a Big Ten-record 14th consecutive appearance in the Big Ten Tournament.
The Golden Gophers eliminated the Buckeyes by scores of 16-2 and 4-3 in the first two games of the series before the Buckeyes won the finale, 9-6, to send Hall of Fame coach Bob Todd into retirement with the 1,003rd win of his career. Ohio State last defeated Minnesota in a series in 2008 at Bill Davis Stadium, 3-1. Minnesota has series wins in 1990-91-92-03-04-06-09-10, while OSU's wins were in 2001-05-08.
Tickets will be sold at the Target Field ticket windows on Target Plaza and may be purchased with cash only. There will be no checks or credit cards taken at the ticket window. In addition, there will be no presale or sales through the Gopher Ticket office.
The tickets for Gopher contests will only be sold on the day of the game at Target Field ticket windows. Those ticket windows will be open at 9 a.m. on the day of all of the University of Minnesota games. The main entrance for each of the Gopher contests will be Gate 29. That gate will be open 30 minutes prior to game time.
Tickets & Pricing at Target Field
- All seats are General Admission
- Adults/Students/Seniors: $10.00
- Children 14 and under: $5.00
- University of Minnesota Students (with valid U of M ID): Free
