University of Minnesota Athletics
BUCKEYES STEAL GAME ONE FROM GOLDEN GOPHERS 7-2
4/27/2001 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Friday night's game in Columbus, Ohio was a battle between the top two offensive teams in the league. Minnesota, batting .324 entering the evening contest was atop the Big Ten, with Ohio State right behind hitting .320. It was the Buckeyes that struck first with a run in each of the first two innings. They took advantage of a one-out walk and a stolen base to get a RBI single by Doug Dendinger in the first, and a RBI hit from lead-off man Mike Harris in the second to take a 2-0 lead.
Minnesota put a lead-off man on base with a walk in the first two innings and threatened with men in scoring position, but two double plays by the Buckeye defense took the Golden Gophers out of both innings.
Minnesota closed the gap on the Buckeyes with a two-out run in the top half of the fourth inning. Senior Kurt Haring earned first base by taking his 2-2 pitch off the body, and sophomore Luke Appert moved Haring to third with a ground ball down the first base line. Sophomore David Roach knocked Haring across the plate with a single up the middle, and just like that, the Golden Gophers showed life with a two-out rally.
Junior Scott Howard legged out an error by Harris, the Buckeye's second baseman to load the bases. It was one of three errors on the night for Harris. Junior Jason Kennedy, who hit his first-career grand slam last weekend versus Iowa, drove his first pitch to deep center field; but with a little help from the wind, centerfielder Mike Check made a backwards running grab near the warning track to end the inning. Kennedy finished the game 1-for-4, but hit three deep fly balls in his other three at bats.
Down 2-1 in the fifth inning, Ohio State broke the game open with a four-run effort in the bottom of five. The Buckeyes swiped two bases and found holes for three hits, increasing their lead to 6-1. They added one more in the sixth, and Minnesota scraped their second in the eighth, making the final 7-2.
The Golden Gophers left 11 men on base and hit into three double plays, as a season-high 2,239 Buckeye fans watched junior E.J. Laratta last all nine innings for his first complete game of 2001. Freshman Sam Steidl, junior Jack Hannahan and senior Josh Holthaus all collected two hits for Minnesota, but the Golden Gophers could not get the runs in, as they fell from the top of the Big Ten Standings. Purdue University defeated Indiana University earlier in the day to improve to 15-4 in conference competition, to take a half-game lead over Minnesota.
The Golden Gophers will try to rebound Saturday afternoon when they face the Buckeyes in an early-evening double-header. The two teams will take the field for game one at 3 p.m. CDT. Both games will air live on WDGY-AM 630 and online at www.gophersports.com.
