University of Minnesota Athletics
BB: Minnesota Falls 13-2 to Rutgers in Series Opener
3/18/2005 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Rutgers did all their early damage in two-out situations. The Scarlet Knights first two batters in the top of the first inning recorded outs. However, Steve Hook hit a two-run homer to put Rutgers up 2-0. Dave Williams had an RBI double to push the lead to 3-0.
In the top of the second, Minnesota once again recorded the first two outs of the inning. However, Rutgers got RBI singles by Johnny Defendis and Cory Rodriguez. Hook also scored on an error to push the lead to 6-0. It was Rutgers’ sixth run in the first two innings with two outs.
The Scarlet Knights, added single runs in the third and fifth to take an 8-0 lead. Minnesota broke the shutout in the bottom of the sixth when Andy Hunter (West St. Paul, Minn.) that brought home Matt Fornasiere (Maple Grove, Minn.) to make it 8-1. Hunter and Mee were on first and third, before Rutgers’ starter O.J. DeChristofano got out of the jam to keep the score at 8-1.
Rutgers piled on five more runs in the top of the eighth to make it 13-1. In the bottom of the eighth, David Hrncirik (Madison, Wis.) had a leadoff single, and stole his seventh base of the season to put himself in scoring position with no outs. Hrncirik moved up to third on a Luke MacLean (Bloomington, Minn.) fly out to right field. Hrncirik scored on an RBI groundout by Fornasiere to finished the scoring at 13-2.
Minnesota starter Matt Loberg (Anoka, Minn.) took the loss to break his two-game winning streak, and fall to 2-2. Loberg gave up five earned runs in four and a third innings and struck out three batters.
DeChristofano gave up four hits and one run in seven innings to get the win for Rutgers to move to 2-1.
Fornasiere was one-for-four with one run and an RBI. Hrncirik was one-for-four with one run and extended his hitting streak to nine games. Hunter was also one-for-four with an RBI, while Jeremy Chlan (Apple Valley, Minn.) was one-for-three with his first career triple.
Rutgers was led by Hook who was two-for-three with a home run, three runs and three RBI. Defendis had a game-high four hits and was four-for-six with two runs and an RBI.
Minnesota will host Rutgers on Saturday, Mar. 19 at 2 p.m. and Sunday, Mar. 20 at 12 p.m. at the Metrodome. Both games will be webcast on gophersports.com.
