University of Minnesota Athletics
Baseball Rallies in Ninth to Defeat Pepperdine in NCAA Regionals
5/31/2003 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
It was also Minnesota Head Coach John Anderson's 800th career victory, as well as the team's 40th of the season. It marks the first time since 1999 the Golden Gophers have recorded 40 victories in a season.
Minnesota entered the top of the ninth inning trailing 5-2, and only had seven hits in the game. Matt Fornasiere (Maple Grove, Minn.) started the inning with a double to left centerfield. Sam Steidl (Alexandria, Minn.) cut the deficit to 5-3 with an RBI single, which plated Fornasiere. After that the senior trio of Ben Pattee (Ukiah, Calif.), Luke Appert (Cottage Grove, Minn.) and Scott Welch (Missoula, Mon.) went to work. Pattee doubled down the left field line to bring home Steidl to cut it to 5-4. Appert made his first hit of this year's NCAA Tournament count, with an RBI double to bring home Pattee and tie the game at 5-5. Welch then provided the go-ahead RBI single to plate Appert making the score 6-5. Three batters later, David Hrncirik (Madison, Wis.) provided an insurance run with an RBI single to plate Welch to make it 7-5.
Freshman reliever Brian Bull (Omaha, Neb.) retired three of the four batters in the bottom of the ninth to preserve the Golden Gopher victory. Bull pitched two and two thirds scoreless innings of relief to pick up the win to move to 6-2 on the season.
"I'm proud of our kids," said Minnesota Head Coach John Anderson. "We finally got some guys on base in scoring position with less then two outs. Nobody in our dugout quit and we finally got things going in the top of the ninth. Credit Pepperdine's starter (George) Ramirez and their defense for shutting our bats down for the first seven innings."
Pepperdine started off the scoring in the bottom of the first on an RBI double to go up 1-0. Minnesota tied the score at 1-1 in the top of the third when Pattee singled home Fornasiere.
The Waves came right back in the bottom of the inning with a single run to go up 2-1, when David Uribes delivered an RBI single. Pepperdine took a 5-1 lead into the eighth inning after scoring single runs in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings.
Jake Elder (Delta, British Columbia) delivered a two-out single in the top of the eighth to cut the score to 5-2. David Roach (Clearwater, Fla.) came to the plate with the bases loaded, but Pepperdine closer Kea Kometani got him to fly to left field to end the inning. Minnesota greeted Kometani with three straight hits to chase him from the game in top of the ninth. With the score at 5-4, Appert delivered the game-tying double off Waves reliever Paul Coleman to tie the game at 5-5. Welch got the go-ahead RBI single off Coleman to make it 6-5 and ended up with one more run in the inning.
Coleman gave up two runs and two hits and did not get an out to take the loss. Coleman dropped to 1-4 on the season with the loss. Minnesota starter C.J. Woodrow (Plymouth, Minn.) pitched six and a third innings, gave up eight hits and four earned runs, but got the no-decision. Pepperdine starter Greg Ramirez pitched seven and two thirds innings, gave up seven hits, one earned run and struck out seven. Ramirez left the game in line for the victory, but ended up with the no decision.
"It was a great game," said Pepperdine Head Coach Frank Sanchez. "That's what the regionals are about. Both teams played well. The game isn't over until the last pitch and that is the nature of the game."
Offensively Minnesota was led by Fornasiere who was three-for-five with two runs. Pattee was two-for-five with two RBI and a run, while Steidl was two-for-five with one run and one RBI. Hrncirik was also two-for-five with an RBI, while Welch was one-for-five with two runs and the game-winning RBI.
"We finally got some hits to drop," Minnesota senior shortstop Scott Welch. "It was a relief to finally get some runs on the board. Our pitchers needed some help out there and we finally picked them up."
Minnesota had scored five runs in the first 17 innings of NCAA Tournament play, but exploded for five runs in the top of the ninth. It was the Golden Gophers first NCAA Tournament victory since they defeated Wichita State on May 26, 2000.
"Hitting is contagious," said junior centerfielder Sam Steidl. "Everyone was getting good swings and getting hits to drop. We never hit the panic button. We were frustrated for the first eight innings, but we finally got things going."
Minnesota will play at 9 p.m. (CT) on Saturday, May 31 in its third game of the NCAA Regionals against Washington.
