University of Minnesota Athletics
Minnesota Baseball Falls to Washington 5-3 in NCAA Regionals
5/30/2003 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Washington got on the board in the top of the first inning going up 1- 0. The Huskies loaded the bases for their slugger Chad Boudon with one out. Boudon delivered a sacrifice fly to put Washington up 1-0. However, Minnesota starter Glen Perkins (Stillwater, Minn.) got of the inning without any further damage.
Minnesota tied the score in the bottom of the third inning at 1-1. With one out Tony Leseman (St. Paul, Minn.) reached on an error by the third baseman. Leseman stole second, advanced to third on a groundout and scored on a balk.
Washington scored two runs in the top of the fourth on a Greg Isaacson RBI double and an Aaron Hathaway RBI single to go up 3-1. The Huskies kept the lead until bottom of the seventh when Minnesota scored two runs to tie it at 3-3. Leseman and Sam Steidl (Alexandria, Minn.) started the inning with back-to-back singles. With two outs Scott Welch (Missoula, Mon.) walked to load the bases. Pinch-hitter Jon Becker (Plato, Minn.) walked to bring home Steidl to make it 3-2. Reliever Trent Baysinger hit Jake Elder (Delta, British Columbia), which brought home Ben Pattee (Ukiah, Calif.) to tie the game at 3-3. David Hrncirik (Madison, Wis.) flew out to end the inning with the bases loaded to keep the score tied.
The Huskies went back ahead in the top of the eighth when Tila Reynolds hit an RBI single to bring home John Otness to make it 4-3. In the bottom of the inning David Roach (Clearwater, Fla.) reached on an error and was advanced to second on a sacrifice by Leseman with one out. However, Washington closer Will Fenton came in to retire the final two batters to get out of the inning.
Washington added an insurance run in the top of the ninth on an RBI single by Otness to make it 5-3. In the bottom of the inning Welch and Elder each delivered singles to make it first and third with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, but Fenton retired the last batter to close out the game.
"We got behind early in the first three innings, but I though our kids did a good job of staying in the game" said Minnesota head coach John Anderson. "We did a good job of getting guys on base, but we could not get the one hit we needed. They got ahead at the right time, and scored important runs in the eighth and especially in the ninth. They got a couple of balls to fall in with runners in scoring position and that was the big difference in the game."
Minnesota starter Glen Perkins (Stillwater, Minn.) saw a 10-game winning streak come to an end as he took the loss to fall to 10-2. Perkins went eight innings, gave up 10 hits, four runs and struck out five batters. Brian Carter picked up the win in relief to move to 1- 1. Will Fenton pitched one and two thirds innings for the save, to keep his season ERA at 0.00 in 31 and two thirds innings.
"We have tried to work on minimizing the opposition's opportunities throughout the year," said Minnesota pitcher Glen Perkins. "We just did not do that today. I had some lapses today where I was missing spots early in the game. Late in the game I started hitting my spots and my curve ball was going good."
Offensively Minnesota was led by Welch who was two-for-four. Elder was one for three with one RBI, while Leseman was one for three one run. Both teams left 13 runners on base for the game.
"We did a good job to battle back and tie the game up," said Minnesota second baseman Luke Appert. "We had the game right were we wanted it after the seventh inning. Their pitchers did a good job of not giving in and getting us out in big situations."
Minnesota will play at 1 p.m. (CT) on Saturday, May 31 in its second game of the NCAA Regionals against Pepperdine.
