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Gopher Pitching Staff Notches Record Year in 2019
7/10/2019 10:30:00 AM | Baseball
MINNEAPOLIS – Dating back to the 2014 season, the Minnesota pitching staff has seen its strikeout totals rise, finally eclipsing a new threshold in 2019. This past year, Golden Gopher hurlers struck out a program-record 536 batters, up from a mere 293 punch-outs in 2014.
With the arrival of current Minnesota pitching coach Ty McDevitt in 2017, the program has seen its arms make significant steps forward in terms of development. McDevitt first joined the coaching staff as a volunteer assistant from 2017-18 until being officially named pitching coach shortly thereafter.
Before McDevitt even arrived, the Golden Gopher pitching staff appeared to be making strides and was beginning to develop into a more dynamic group; one capable of striking out the Big Ten's most elite hitters. After a pedestrian 293 strikeouts in 2014, this number rose to 317 in 2015, and then again in 2016, with 427 batters being set down on strikes. At this point, however, it seemed the program had reached a plateau, as Minnesota punched-out 414 batters in McDevitt's first year on staff in 2017.
Under McDevitt's tutelage, however, Minnesota pitchers found a way to take their mound presence to the next level. The 2018 season saw the staff's strikeout production bump up to 445 batters, and in 2019, seemingly everything fell into place.
With 536 strikeouts in the team's most recent campaign, Gopher arms bested their 2018 total by 91 strikeouts, an increase of over 20%. Overall, the number of batters retired on strikes by Gopher pitchers rose by 82.9% from 2014 to 2019, a truly monumental improvement for the program.
Looking ahead to the 2020 season, the Gophers will return four of their top five workhorses in terms of innings pitched from the 2019 season in the form of Max Meyer, Joshua Culliver, Sam Thoresen, and Patrick Fredrickson. Three of these experienced pitchers landed in the top five in strikeouts for Minnesota last season as well: Meyer (87), Thoresen (69), and Culliver (51). With this level of returning talent and a promising incoming recruiting class, the Gophers should be primed for yet another exciting season headlined by a surplus of whiffs from opposing batters.
For more information on Minnesota Baseball, follow the Golden Gophers on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook by searching for "Minnesota Baseball."
With the arrival of current Minnesota pitching coach Ty McDevitt in 2017, the program has seen its arms make significant steps forward in terms of development. McDevitt first joined the coaching staff as a volunteer assistant from 2017-18 until being officially named pitching coach shortly thereafter.
Before McDevitt even arrived, the Golden Gopher pitching staff appeared to be making strides and was beginning to develop into a more dynamic group; one capable of striking out the Big Ten's most elite hitters. After a pedestrian 293 strikeouts in 2014, this number rose to 317 in 2015, and then again in 2016, with 427 batters being set down on strikes. At this point, however, it seemed the program had reached a plateau, as Minnesota punched-out 414 batters in McDevitt's first year on staff in 2017.
Under McDevitt's tutelage, however, Minnesota pitchers found a way to take their mound presence to the next level. The 2018 season saw the staff's strikeout production bump up to 445 batters, and in 2019, seemingly everything fell into place.
With 536 strikeouts in the team's most recent campaign, Gopher arms bested their 2018 total by 91 strikeouts, an increase of over 20%. Overall, the number of batters retired on strikes by Gopher pitchers rose by 82.9% from 2014 to 2019, a truly monumental improvement for the program.
Looking ahead to the 2020 season, the Gophers will return four of their top five workhorses in terms of innings pitched from the 2019 season in the form of Max Meyer, Joshua Culliver, Sam Thoresen, and Patrick Fredrickson. Three of these experienced pitchers landed in the top five in strikeouts for Minnesota last season as well: Meyer (87), Thoresen (69), and Culliver (51). With this level of returning talent and a promising incoming recruiting class, the Gophers should be primed for yet another exciting season headlined by a surplus of whiffs from opposing batters.
For more information on Minnesota Baseball, follow the Golden Gophers on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook by searching for "Minnesota Baseball."
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