University of Minnesota Athletics
BB: Minnesota Sweeps Doubleheader From First Place Illinois
5/15/2005 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Minnesota’s series victory also served to tighten up the Big Ten standings heading into the last week of play. Illinois (19-9) heads into the final week of Big Ten play three games ahead of Purdue (14-10), Minnesota (16-12) and Iowa (16-12). The Boilermakers sit in second place right now by percentage points at .583 (14-10). The Golden Gophers and Hawkeyes are tied for third with a winning percentage of .571 (16-12). Ohio State and Michigan are each tied for fifth with 14-11 Big Ten records.
The top six Big Ten teams qualify for the Big Ten Tournament to be held at the regular- season champion’s ballpark. With the two wins on the day, Minnesota qualified for its 22nd tournament appearance in 25 years.
In the first game of the doubleheader, Minnesota jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning. Matt Fornasiere (Maple Grove, Minn.) started things off with a one-out single, and Andy Hunter (West St. Paul, Minn.) delivered a two-out two-run homer to give the Golden Gophers a 2-0 leads.
Minnesota starter Brian Bull (Omaha, Neb.) pitched a no-hitter through three and a third innings. Bull and Illinois starter Jake Stewart kept the game at 2-0 until the fifth inning.
The Golden Gophers busted things open with four runs in the bottom of the sixth to go up 6-0. Taylor VanderAarde (Hastings, Minn.) started things off with a one-out bunt single. Stewart recorded the second out, but Mike Mee (Richfield, Minn.) kept the inning alive with a single to make it first and third. Hunter followed with an RBI single to bring home VanderAarde to make it 3-0. David Hrncirik (Madison, Wis.) brought home Mee with an RBI single to give Minnesota a 4-0 lead. With runners on first and third, Jake Elder (Delta, British Columbia) delivered a two-run double to chase Stewart from the game, and give Minnesota a 6-0 lead.
Bull had his bid for a shutout broken up in the top of the sixth when Illinois’ Dusty Bensko hit a two-out two-run homer to cut the lead to 6-2. However, Bull retired the final batter of the innings and got out of the seventh with no damage to pitch his first career complete game.
For the game, Bull gave up just four hits, two runs and struck out three batters in seven innings of work to pick up the win. With the win, he moved to 4-2 on the season and 4-1 in Big Ten play. Stewart took the loss to fall to 2-2 on the year.
Hunter paced the offense reaching base all three times he came to the plate, going two- for-two with a home run, two runs and three RBI. Elder was also one-for-three with two RBI. Hrncirik finished one-for-three with one run and one RBI, while VanderAarde was two-for-three with one run.
Bensko was two-for-three with a home run and two RBI in the game.
All six of Minnesota’s runs in the first game of the doubleheader came with two outs, in game that took just one hour and 49 minutes.
In the second game of the doubleheader, Illinois took an early 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning. Ryan Rogowski go things started with a one-out double. Rogowski then stole third, and scored on an RBI groundout by Chris Robinson.
Minnesota answered right back with three runs in the bottom of the first inning to take a 3-1 lead over Illinois. VanderAarde reached on an error by the shortstop to lead off the inning. Fornasiere followed with a double to make it second and third with no one out. Mee delivered an RBI groundout to scored VanderAarde to tie it at 1-1. Hunter followed with hit second first inning home run of the day to bring home Fornasiere, which put Minnesota ahead 3-1.
With the three runs in the first inning, Minnesota assured itself of scoring in the first inning of each of the four games of the series. The Golden Gophers ended up scoring nine of their 29 runs in the first inning of the four games.
Illinois responded with two runs in the top of the third inning to tie the game up at 3-3. With the bases loaded, Mike Rohde delivered a two-run single to tie the scored.
Minnesota came right back with two runs in the bottom of the inning to push the lead back out to two runs at 5-3. With one out, Hrncirik walked and Elder was hit by a pitch to make it first and second. John Arlt (Lakeville, Minn.) delivered an RBI single to bring home Hrncirik to give Minnesota a 4-3 lead. Tony Leseman (St. Paul, Minn.) followed with a sacrifice fly to bring home Elder from third base to give Minnesota a 5-3 lead.
Illinois followed up Minnesota’s two-run inning with two runs of its own in the top of the fourth to tie the game at 5-5. J.R. Kyes and Rogowski each had RBI single to even the game up at 5-5.
In the top of the fifth inning, Illinois had a golden opportunity to take the lead and momentum from Minnesota. Drew Davidson started the inning off with a double, and Shawn Roof walked to make it first and second. Minnesota reliever Andy Peters (Vadnais Heights) came in the game, and had Trevor Huisinga lay down a sacrifice bunt to make it second and third with one out. Peters came back to strike out Toby Gardenhire and Kyes to get out of the inning unscathed.
Illinois had another opportunity in the top of the sixth when Rogowski and Robinson hit back-to-back singles off Peters to start the inning. Bensko followed with a sharp line drive to right field, but Mee made a diving catch and threw out Rogowski trying to get back to second for the double play. Peters retired the next batter to get out of the inning.
Minnesota used that momentum to take the lead at 7-5 with two runs in the bottom of the sixth inning. Leseman singled to start the inning, and Luke MacLean (Bloomington, Minn.) walked to make it first and second. Both runners moved up to second and third on a wild pitch. Kevin Carlson (Edina, Minn.) delivered a pinch- hit RBI single to bring home Leseman to make it 6-5. Fornasiere followed with a sacrifice fly to give the Golden Gophers a 7-5 lead. Illinois caught a break when they double off a Minnesota baserunner at second and got out of the inning without further damage.
The Golden Gophers added to the lead with three runs in the bottom of the seventh to take a 10-5 lead. Hrncirik led off the inning with a single, and stole his 26th base of the season. Elder followed with an RBI double to make it 8-5. Arlt followed with a single to make it first and third. Elder scored on a wild pitch to make it 9-5, while pinch-runner Aaron Larson (Lakeville, Minn.) moved up to second base. After an infield single by MacLean made it first and third, Sean Kommerstad (Minnetonka, Minn.) delivered an RBI groundout to push the lead to 10-5.
Minnesota added one more run in the bottom of the eight to take an 11-5 lead, which stood up as the final scored.
Peters pitched three scoreless innings of relief, giving up four hits and tying a career-high with four strikeouts to pick up the win. With the win, he moved to 3-1 on the season. Aaron Saving gave up four runs in three and two thirds innings, as he suffered his first loss of the season to fall to 4-1 on the season.
Minnesota’s bullpen pitched five and two thirds scoreless innings in the second game of the doubleheader. Senior Luke Beresford (Duluth, Minn.) pitched two thirds scoreless innings, while Jon Mueller (LaCrosse, Wis.) came on to pitch two scoreless innings, giving up just one hits and striking out three batters.
Hunter was two-for-five with a home run, two runs and two RBI for Minnesota. With the five RBI on the day, Hunter moved up to 24 in Big Ten play. That gives him 87 career RBI in Big Ten play, which moved him past Jason Kennedy for second on the Minnesota career list in conference play. Hunter had already moved past Shane Gunderson and Luke Appert for third and fourth earlier in the weekend.
Hrncirik was also reached base four times in the game going three-for-four with two runs and a stolen base. With his 26th stolen base of the season, Hrncirik moved into a tie for seventh on the Minnesota single-season list.
Elder was also two-for-four with two doubles, two runs and two RBI. Arlt was also two- for-four with one RBI, along with Fornasiere who was two-for-four with one run and an RBI.
Several seniors contributed in a big way on the day for Minnesota, as Hrncirik was four- for-seven with three runs, a stolen base and an RBI, while Elder was three-for-seven with two runs and four RBI. Beresford also pitched a scoreless two-thirds innings of relief to help preserved the win in game two.
Hunter finished the doubleheader four-for-seven with two home runs, four runs and five RBI.
Illinois got a five-for-five performance with a two runs, two stolen bases and one run from Rogowski. Davidson also had two hits on the game for Illinois, while Rohde had a pair of RBI.
Minnesota will be back in action on Tuesday, May 17 when it hosts a the final game of the season at Siebert Field against Northern Iowa at 3 p.m. The Golden Gophers will then head to Columbus, Ohio to take on Ohio State in the final Big Ten series of the regular season. Minnesota will play Ohio State in a single game on Friday, May 20 at 6:35 p.m., a doubleheader on Saturday, May 21 at 4:05 p.m. and a single game on Sunday, May 22 at 1 p.m.
