The Gopher baseball team secured a third-straight three-game weekend series victory with a 6-3 defeat of St. John’s (N.Y.) in the team’s season finale at U.S. Bank Stadium on Saturday.

Minnesota (18-10) staked a first-inning lead for the first time in the series, picking up rookie right-handed pitcher Patrick Fredrickson after he allowed a first-inning run when St. John’s (13-8) got a two-out RBI single from Rob Boselli III.

Luke Pettersen continues to swing a hot bat for the Maroon & Gold as he led off the bottom of the first with a single. Terrin Vavra walked behind him, and Eli Wilson started his three-hit day with an RBI single.  Micah Coffey continued the rally with a two-out RBI single, and Jordan Kozicky putting an exclamation mark by lining a ball to right center for a triple, scoring Coffey and Wilson.

The Gophers added two more in the bottom of the third when Vavra led off the inning with a single, coming around to score on Wilson’s double, before Kozicky brought home Wilson with an infield single. Kozicky finished 2-for-4 with three RBIs while Wilson was 3-for-4 with two RBIs and two runs scored. Kevin Magee (2-3) entered the game with a 0.88 ERA for St. John’s, but surrendered six runs on nine hits Sunday in 5.2 innings of work.

Fredrickson worked the first four innings for Minnesota, scattering five hits while striking out one. He has now allowed just one earned run in his last 21 innings. The Red Storm scored two in the fifth, but the Minnesota bullpen shut the door the rest of the way. Brett Schulze (5-0) earned the victory, striking out two in 1.2 innings of work. Max Meyer earned his seventh save of the season with 2.2 hitless innings, striking out three.

“We didn’t play very well yesterday or on Friday either in my opinion,” said head coach John Anderson. “I challenged the guys. This program has been built on being able to play the fundamentals of the game. Catch the ball, throw the ball, throw strikes, have quality at-bats. We had all sorts of guys on base in the first two days, but couldn’t get a hit with two outs and guys in scoring position. We got a big hit out of Kozicky today, and another one from Wilson.”

Minnesota is scheduled to head on the road for a two-game weekday series at St.Louis this week. First pitch is set for 3 p.m. today.