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University of Minnesota Athletics
Baseball Defeats Northern Illinois 5-4 in 11 Innings
3/26/2004 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
The Golden Gophers opened the scoring in the bottom of the third. With two outs, senior centerfielder Sam Steidl (Alexandria, Minn.) was hit by a pitch. Steidl moved to third on an errant pickoff by Northern Illinois starter Zach Minor. The next batter, junior third baseman David Hrncirik (Madison, Wis.) notched Minnesota's first hit with a single to left centerfield that drove home Steidl to put the Gophers up 1-0. After an error by Huskies third baseman Rob Marconi put freshman first baseman Mike Mee (Richfield, Minn.) on first and advanced Hrncirik to second, junior catcher Jake Elder (Delta, British Columbia) singled by a diving second baseman. The hit brought home Hrncirik to give Minnesota a 2-0 lead at the end of three.
On only his second hit allowed in the game, Perkins gave up a home run to Northern Illinois first baseman Mike Hockhauser in the top of the fourth inning. The ball stayed fair over the left field wall to cut the Gophers lead to 2-1.
The score stayed at 2-1 until the top of the seventh inning. Northern Illinois tied the game when right fielder Mike Brown drove in Hockhauser from second base. With two outs, Perkins was relieved by freshman right hander Josh Oslin (Mora, Minn.) with the score at 2- 2. The Huskies brought home two more runs to go up 4-2, on a Minnesota fielding error with two outs.
Northern Illinois' 4-2 lead was brief as Minnesota tied the score back up at 4-4 in the bottom of the seventh. Freshman John Arlt (Lakeville, Minn.) walked on a four-pitch walk, followed by Steidl who was hit by a pitch for the second time of the game. Arlt scored from second and Steidl advanced to third on a third baseman fielding error. Hrncirik laid down a sacrifice bunt to move up the runners, but reached first on an error. With the score at 4-3 and runners at first and third, Mee grounded into a double play to bring home Steidl to tie the game at 4-4.
The score would remain tied and go into extra innings. Both teams had opportunities to go ahead in the 10th inning with runners in scoring position, but were not able to bring in runs. In the bottom of the 11th inning, sophomore leftfielder Tony Leseman (St. Paul, Minn.) reached first on a hit-by-pitch with one out. Leseman moved to second base on a passed ball. Sophomore Matt Fornasiere (Maple Grove, Minn.) then stepped in to pinch hit. Fornasiere hit the next pitch back to the mound where the ball bounced off the pitchers hand. The second baseman went to field the ball to get Fornasiere at first but missed it, allowing Leseman to round third and come home to give the Golden Gophers a 5-4 win.
Moen pitched one inning of scoreless relief to pick up the win to move to 1-0. Perkins went six and two third innings, gave up five hits, two earned runs and struck out a season-high nine batters, as he received the no-decision. Oslin pitched three and a third scoreless innings, gave up three hits and struck out three batters. Trevor Wohlgemuth gave up one run in a third of an inning to take the loss to fall to 1-2.
Hrncirik paced Minnesota's offense, going two-for-three with a run and an RBI. Elder had the other RBI for the Golden Gophers. Steidl was 0-for-3, but scored a team-high two runs.
Mike Hockhauser went two-for-five with a home run and an RBI to lead the way for Northern Illinois.
Minnesota will return to action on Saturday, Mar. 27 when it plays host Iowa at 2 p.m. at Sec Taylor Stadium in its second game of the Iowa Cubs/Hawkeye Classic. The Golden Gophers will wrap up the tournament on Sunday, Mar. 28 at 11 a.m. against Northern Colorado.
