COLLEGE STATION, Texas – The No. 1 Texas A&M Aggies bid au revoir to the Golden Gophers in Sunday's NCAA Division I Baseball Championship College Station Regional title game, besting Minnesota, 8-2, on Olsen Field at Blue Bell Park. The victory gave Texas A&M its second consecutive regional title and the eighth in program history.
The Aggies will host TCU, the winner of the Fort Worth Regional, in a Super Regional next weekend. Four sets of Super Regionals will run Friday-Sunday and four sets will run Saturday-Monday. Super Regional dates and times will be announced near the completion of all of the regionals on either Monday or Tuesday.
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For the third time at the regional, the Aggies drew first blood. This time the Maroon and White broke the scoring seal in the top of the second inning. With one out, Minnesota starting pitcher Matt Fiedler gave up consecutive four-pitch walks to Michael Barash and Jonathan Moroney. Joel Davis made the Gophers pay by rattling a full-count offering into the corner down the rightfield line for a two-run triple.
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Texas A&M (48-17) tacked on two more runs in the top of the fourth. Barash started the rally again with a double down the leftfield line and Moroney was issued another four-pitch walk. After Davis drew a walk to load the bases, Hunter Melton plated a run with a grounder to third and Austin Homan knocked in a run with a sacrifice fly to stake the Aggies to a 4-0 lead.
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Minnesota (36-22) cut a run off the lead in the bottom of the sixth. With two outs, Micah Coffey punched a single up the middle, moved to second on a wild pitch and scored when Austin Athmann hit a wall-banger to leftfield for a double.
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The Aggies stretched the lead back to four runs with a run in the next half inning. Melton was hit by a pitch to start the frame and moved to second on a grounder back to the mound by Homan. An error by third baseman Coffey on a grounder by J.B. Moss put runners on second and third. Nick Banks plated Melton with a fielder's choice grounder to short for the 5-1 lead.
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The Golden Gophers kept plugging away in the bottom of the eighth. With one out, Terrin Vavra doubled down the leftfield line and he scored two batters later when Athmann punched a single to centerfield, closing the gap to 5-2.
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Texas A&M put Minnesota's comeback hopes on ice with a three-run ninth inning. The fame featured a two-run single by Birk and a sacrifice fly by Barash.
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Turner Larkins (3-0) earned the win on the mound with his longest outing of the season. Larkins worked 5.2 innings, allowing one run on five hits while striking out three.
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Andrew Vinson became Texas A&M's career leader in pitching appearances when he entered the contest in the sixth inning. It marked his 104th outing as an Aggie. He got the Maroon and White through two innings, allowing one run on three hits while striking out two. Mark Ecker struck out all four batters he faced to earn his eighth save of the season. It moved him into third place on Texas A&M's career saves list with 16.
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Matt Fiedler (7-4) was saddled with the loss for Minnesota. He yielded four runs on three hits and five walks while striking out two in 4.0 innings.
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It marks the first time since the NCAA Division I Baseball Championship went to the Super Regional format in 1999 that Texas A&M has gone 3-0 to win a regional.
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With the win, the Maroon and White pushed their win tally to 98 over the last two seasons. It marks the highest win total in back-to-back years since the 1998 (46-20) and 1999 (52-18) campaigns.
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Moroney picked up College Station Regional Most Outstanding Player recognition. Aggies on the College Station Regional All-Tournament Team included Moroney (DH), Brigham Hill (P), Barash (C), Birk (2B), Homan (SS), White (3B), Moss (OF) and Moroney (OF). They were joined by Wake Forest's Parker Dunshee (P) and Joey Rodriguez (OF), Minnesota's Toby Hanson (1B) and Jordan Smith (OF) and Binghamton's Eddie Posavec (OF).
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NCAA College Station Regional All-Tournament Team
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P – Parker Dunshee, Wake Forest
P – Brigham Hill, Texas A&M
C – Michael Barash – Texas A&M
1B – Toby Hanson – Minnesota
2B – Ryne Birk – Texas A&M
SS – Austin Homan – Texas A&M
3B – Boomer White – Texas A&M
OF – Jordan Smith – Minnesota
OF – Joey Rodriguez – Wake Forest
OF – Eddie Posavec – Binghamton*
OF – J.B. Moss – Texas A&M*
DH – Jonathan Moroney – Texas A&M
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Most Outstanding Player
Jonathan Moroney – Texas A&M
Super Regional Ticket Info: The NCAA will determine game dates and times either late Monday or on Tuesday. Once that happens, we expect a limited number of All-Session Lawn/SRO tickets to be available. Ticket sale information will then be posted on 12thMan.com, on Twitter @AggieBaseball and at facebook.com/AggieBaseball. All reserved seats are SOLD OUT for the Super Regional.
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NOTES
Texas A&M
Minnesota
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QUOTES
Minnesota Golden Gophers
Head coach John Anderson
Opening Statement…
"Trying to figure out what day it is and what time it is here but anyway congratulations to Texas A&M. They have an outstanding ball club and there's a reason they're post season, there's a reason why they're ranked where they are. They have an outstanding team. Very, very proud of our team, the way we fought back here after losing the first game and long day we put in today. I thought we competed all day long today. I thought we competed for nine innings here against Texas A&M. It's a wonderful group of young men and bounced back from last year to this year and some of the heavy hearts we carried with us all year when our pitching coach Todd Oakes was fighting for his life to beat leukemia and the way that they were able to keep it together and work hard every day and keep pushing along and accomplishing some of their goals just tells you a lot about the leadership of this group and the type of young men that we have here and couldn't be prouder of what they gave to this program this year. Had a blast riding along with them, being their coach, their leader, and couldn't have made it without them to be honest with you so there were many games I had to feed off of them based on the heavy heart that I had. Sorry it had to end, didn't want it to end. It's been too much fun hanging around a bunch of class young men that really do get it and understand it both in terms of why they're here, why they're playing baseball, why they're going to school to earn their degrees and the way that they attributed to Coach Oakes and the way they handle themselves on and off the field has been just an amazing group of young men. So I thought the freebies, we gave them [Texas A&M] too many freebies. I think five or six of their runs were because of walks. We made an error in the one inning, gave them another one so you can't give a great baseball team like this extra baserunners because of walks and errors because it's just going to cost you. They're too talented and the bullpen is rock solid. I thought [Turner] Larkins did a nice job pitching only three pitches. He's got some angle to his fastball, he hit a lot of balls in the ground, had people with some ground balls because of the angle of the fastball and like I said they're very talented and you can't give them extra baserunners with walks. We did that tonight and a hit batter I believe that scored so that to me is the difference in the game. We just couldn't get one more hit in the lineup against their pitching staff, couldn't put three or four good at bats together. Their pitching staff was just too good tonight."
On outhitting Texas A&M 8-6…
"Yeah and not all that is us. It's their pitching, it's pretty good. They do that to a lot of people and I thought our guys stepped in the batter's box all game for nine innings and competed, got after it in there. You've got to give credit where credit is due and they've got an outstanding pitch staff and that's why it's hard to score runs on them because they're able to execute pitches and get people out."
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Junior catcher Austin Athmann
On keeping the belief…
"Coming into this game we knew A&M really had one heck of a ball club. The first few innings of the game we knew we played our best ball I have to say. With their pitching, we put together some good at bats and we just believed. Everyone knew we had to play our best game to put up a fight against A&M and I thought we really did that. Like John [Anderson] said, the freebies is what let it get away from us a little bit and then ultimately lost but I thought we put up a very good fight minus the freebies and I definitely think we played a good ball game there."
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On the environment…
"It's one of a kind. The closest thing to this I've played in is the Big Ten Tournament at TD Ameritrade, but I mean it's quite the environment. There's very few words to describe it. It's unique. It's really cool the following of fans they have here and the number of fans and the quality of fans that they have here that they aren't bashing the other team. They're cheering for both teams. Of course they want their team to win but they're cheering for us as well. They just wanted to see a good ballgame and I think they do a great job. It's a blast playing here regardless of the outcome."
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Texas A&M Aggies
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Head coach Rob Childress
Opening Statement…
"I would like to congratulate Minnesota on a fantastic year. Coach Anderson has been an incredible rock for three decades there at Minnesota and certainly none been bigger than this year, navigating some rough waters and getting to the championship. Can't say enough about what they've done this season through the terrible tragedy losing such as a great person, and a great father."
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On Tuner Larkins..
"He's been the guy down the stretch who has taken the ball in the big games and taken over a spot in the rotation. I thought he was really good made us all look great. Coming out in this big environment, couldn't have been prouder of him and his maturity as a young man and as a pitcher."
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On grinding out runs…
"In game one, we didn't get enough timely hits to win against a really well coached team in Binghamton and we certainly got the big hits yesterday. Today we made our hits matter taking advantage of some free baserunners early in the game to grab the advantage. Then, Turner (Larkins) made it stand up. We went to Andrew (Vinson) and he did a nice job passing it off to Mark Ecker when it was time. We did an awfully nice job scoring those three runs in the ninth that allowed us to breathe a little in the bottom half."Â
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Senior catcher Michael Barash
On the subdued celebration…
"We expected to come out here and win this regional. Obviously the goal is to win a National Championships, tonight was the first step of a larger process. We are ready to go and we will be ready for next weekend."
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On the rematch with TCU…
"Ultimately it's just another game we are going to play. Obviously, all the guys who are returning still have the sour taste in their mouth. I know I haven't forgot it. It has been what's fueled us to continue to be the best and motivate us a little bit. But, in the end, it is just a baseball game between us and them. If you try to make it into anything more you'll be in some trouble. I think we will be ready to go."
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Sophomore pitcher Turner Larkins
On the start…
"The only thing I was thinking before the game was just to try to get us off to a good start. Our bats and our bullpen were as good as any in the country, I just tried to put us in the driver's seat. Minnesota are a really good hitting team and very aggressive at the plate, so I had to work down and let them beat themselves up."
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The Aggies will host TCU, the winner of the Fort Worth Regional, in a Super Regional next weekend. Four sets of Super Regionals will run Friday-Sunday and four sets will run Saturday-Monday. Super Regional dates and times will be announced near the completion of all of the regionals on either Monday or Tuesday.
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For the third time at the regional, the Aggies drew first blood. This time the Maroon and White broke the scoring seal in the top of the second inning. With one out, Minnesota starting pitcher Matt Fiedler gave up consecutive four-pitch walks to Michael Barash and Jonathan Moroney. Joel Davis made the Gophers pay by rattling a full-count offering into the corner down the rightfield line for a two-run triple.
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Texas A&M (48-17) tacked on two more runs in the top of the fourth. Barash started the rally again with a double down the leftfield line and Moroney was issued another four-pitch walk. After Davis drew a walk to load the bases, Hunter Melton plated a run with a grounder to third and Austin Homan knocked in a run with a sacrifice fly to stake the Aggies to a 4-0 lead.
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Minnesota (36-22) cut a run off the lead in the bottom of the sixth. With two outs, Micah Coffey punched a single up the middle, moved to second on a wild pitch and scored when Austin Athmann hit a wall-banger to leftfield for a double.
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The Aggies stretched the lead back to four runs with a run in the next half inning. Melton was hit by a pitch to start the frame and moved to second on a grounder back to the mound by Homan. An error by third baseman Coffey on a grounder by J.B. Moss put runners on second and third. Nick Banks plated Melton with a fielder's choice grounder to short for the 5-1 lead.
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The Golden Gophers kept plugging away in the bottom of the eighth. With one out, Terrin Vavra doubled down the leftfield line and he scored two batters later when Athmann punched a single to centerfield, closing the gap to 5-2.
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Texas A&M put Minnesota's comeback hopes on ice with a three-run ninth inning. The fame featured a two-run single by Birk and a sacrifice fly by Barash.
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Turner Larkins (3-0) earned the win on the mound with his longest outing of the season. Larkins worked 5.2 innings, allowing one run on five hits while striking out three.
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Andrew Vinson became Texas A&M's career leader in pitching appearances when he entered the contest in the sixth inning. It marked his 104th outing as an Aggie. He got the Maroon and White through two innings, allowing one run on three hits while striking out two. Mark Ecker struck out all four batters he faced to earn his eighth save of the season. It moved him into third place on Texas A&M's career saves list with 16.
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Matt Fiedler (7-4) was saddled with the loss for Minnesota. He yielded four runs on three hits and five walks while striking out two in 4.0 innings.
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It marks the first time since the NCAA Division I Baseball Championship went to the Super Regional format in 1999 that Texas A&M has gone 3-0 to win a regional.
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With the win, the Maroon and White pushed their win tally to 98 over the last two seasons. It marks the highest win total in back-to-back years since the 1998 (46-20) and 1999 (52-18) campaigns.
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Moroney picked up College Station Regional Most Outstanding Player recognition. Aggies on the College Station Regional All-Tournament Team included Moroney (DH), Brigham Hill (P), Barash (C), Birk (2B), Homan (SS), White (3B), Moss (OF) and Moroney (OF). They were joined by Wake Forest's Parker Dunshee (P) and Joey Rodriguez (OF), Minnesota's Toby Hanson (1B) and Jordan Smith (OF) and Binghamton's Eddie Posavec (OF).
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NCAA College Station Regional All-Tournament Team
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P – Parker Dunshee, Wake Forest
P – Brigham Hill, Texas A&M
C – Michael Barash – Texas A&M
1B – Toby Hanson – Minnesota
2B – Ryne Birk – Texas A&M
SS – Austin Homan – Texas A&M
3B – Boomer White – Texas A&M
OF – Jordan Smith – Minnesota
OF – Joey Rodriguez – Wake Forest
OF – Eddie Posavec – Binghamton*
OF – J.B. Moss – Texas A&M*
DH – Jonathan Moroney – Texas A&M
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Most Outstanding Player
Jonathan Moroney – Texas A&M
Super Regional Ticket Info: The NCAA will determine game dates and times either late Monday or on Tuesday. Once that happens, we expect a limited number of All-Session Lawn/SRO tickets to be available. Ticket sale information will then be posted on 12thMan.com, on Twitter @AggieBaseball and at facebook.com/AggieBaseball. All reserved seats are SOLD OUT for the Super Regional.
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NOTES
Texas A&M
- Andrew Vinson breaks the all-time record for pitching appearances with his 104th for the Maroon and White
- A&M's winning streak moves to seven, which started once they faced elimination in the SEC Tournament
- A&M's record moves to 48-14 in 2016, 67-46 in regional appearances, and 36-14 in NCAA games in Olsen Field/Blue Bell Park
- This will be the seventh overall appearance in the super regional for the Aggies
- Texas A&M will face TCU for the second consecutive year, this time as the host. The first matchup is TBA.
- Hitting streaks extended: Michael Barash (14), Jonathan Moroney (8), Boomer White (5), and Ryne Birk (2)
- Mark Ecker's save moves him into a tie for third historically in the program with 16. It is his eighth on the year.
- Boomer White records another multi-hit game, a team-high 28th on the year
- This marks the first sweep of a regional since 1993 for Texas A&M
- Texas A&M's pitching staff finishes the regional with a 2.00 ERA, with the bullpen posting a 0.90
Minnesota
- Minnesota ends their 2016 campaign with a 36-22 record.
- The eight runs surrendered by the Gophers was their highest for the regional
- Austin Athmann was the only Gopher to record multiple hits, knocking in their only two runs for the game
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QUOTES
Minnesota Golden Gophers
Head coach John Anderson
Opening Statement…
"Trying to figure out what day it is and what time it is here but anyway congratulations to Texas A&M. They have an outstanding ball club and there's a reason they're post season, there's a reason why they're ranked where they are. They have an outstanding team. Very, very proud of our team, the way we fought back here after losing the first game and long day we put in today. I thought we competed all day long today. I thought we competed for nine innings here against Texas A&M. It's a wonderful group of young men and bounced back from last year to this year and some of the heavy hearts we carried with us all year when our pitching coach Todd Oakes was fighting for his life to beat leukemia and the way that they were able to keep it together and work hard every day and keep pushing along and accomplishing some of their goals just tells you a lot about the leadership of this group and the type of young men that we have here and couldn't be prouder of what they gave to this program this year. Had a blast riding along with them, being their coach, their leader, and couldn't have made it without them to be honest with you so there were many games I had to feed off of them based on the heavy heart that I had. Sorry it had to end, didn't want it to end. It's been too much fun hanging around a bunch of class young men that really do get it and understand it both in terms of why they're here, why they're playing baseball, why they're going to school to earn their degrees and the way that they attributed to Coach Oakes and the way they handle themselves on and off the field has been just an amazing group of young men. So I thought the freebies, we gave them [Texas A&M] too many freebies. I think five or six of their runs were because of walks. We made an error in the one inning, gave them another one so you can't give a great baseball team like this extra baserunners because of walks and errors because it's just going to cost you. They're too talented and the bullpen is rock solid. I thought [Turner] Larkins did a nice job pitching only three pitches. He's got some angle to his fastball, he hit a lot of balls in the ground, had people with some ground balls because of the angle of the fastball and like I said they're very talented and you can't give them extra baserunners with walks. We did that tonight and a hit batter I believe that scored so that to me is the difference in the game. We just couldn't get one more hit in the lineup against their pitching staff, couldn't put three or four good at bats together. Their pitching staff was just too good tonight."
On outhitting Texas A&M 8-6…
"Yeah and not all that is us. It's their pitching, it's pretty good. They do that to a lot of people and I thought our guys stepped in the batter's box all game for nine innings and competed, got after it in there. You've got to give credit where credit is due and they've got an outstanding pitch staff and that's why it's hard to score runs on them because they're able to execute pitches and get people out."
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Junior catcher Austin Athmann
On keeping the belief…
"Coming into this game we knew A&M really had one heck of a ball club. The first few innings of the game we knew we played our best ball I have to say. With their pitching, we put together some good at bats and we just believed. Everyone knew we had to play our best game to put up a fight against A&M and I thought we really did that. Like John [Anderson] said, the freebies is what let it get away from us a little bit and then ultimately lost but I thought we put up a very good fight minus the freebies and I definitely think we played a good ball game there."
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On the environment…
"It's one of a kind. The closest thing to this I've played in is the Big Ten Tournament at TD Ameritrade, but I mean it's quite the environment. There's very few words to describe it. It's unique. It's really cool the following of fans they have here and the number of fans and the quality of fans that they have here that they aren't bashing the other team. They're cheering for both teams. Of course they want their team to win but they're cheering for us as well. They just wanted to see a good ballgame and I think they do a great job. It's a blast playing here regardless of the outcome."
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Texas A&M Aggies
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Head coach Rob Childress
Opening Statement…
"I would like to congratulate Minnesota on a fantastic year. Coach Anderson has been an incredible rock for three decades there at Minnesota and certainly none been bigger than this year, navigating some rough waters and getting to the championship. Can't say enough about what they've done this season through the terrible tragedy losing such as a great person, and a great father."
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On Tuner Larkins..
"He's been the guy down the stretch who has taken the ball in the big games and taken over a spot in the rotation. I thought he was really good made us all look great. Coming out in this big environment, couldn't have been prouder of him and his maturity as a young man and as a pitcher."
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On grinding out runs…
"In game one, we didn't get enough timely hits to win against a really well coached team in Binghamton and we certainly got the big hits yesterday. Today we made our hits matter taking advantage of some free baserunners early in the game to grab the advantage. Then, Turner (Larkins) made it stand up. We went to Andrew (Vinson) and he did a nice job passing it off to Mark Ecker when it was time. We did an awfully nice job scoring those three runs in the ninth that allowed us to breathe a little in the bottom half."Â
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Senior catcher Michael Barash
On the subdued celebration…
"We expected to come out here and win this regional. Obviously the goal is to win a National Championships, tonight was the first step of a larger process. We are ready to go and we will be ready for next weekend."
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On the rematch with TCU…
"Ultimately it's just another game we are going to play. Obviously, all the guys who are returning still have the sour taste in their mouth. I know I haven't forgot it. It has been what's fueled us to continue to be the best and motivate us a little bit. But, in the end, it is just a baseball game between us and them. If you try to make it into anything more you'll be in some trouble. I think we will be ready to go."
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Sophomore pitcher Turner Larkins
On the start…
"The only thing I was thinking before the game was just to try to get us off to a good start. Our bats and our bullpen were as good as any in the country, I just tried to put us in the driver's seat. Minnesota are a really good hitting team and very aggressive at the plate, so I had to work down and let them beat themselves up."
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