University of Minnesota Athletics
BB: Minnesota Defeats Ohio State 9-3 in Series Opener
5/20/2005 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Minnesota also moved to just two games back of Illinois with three games to left in the Big Ten regular season. Iowa, who defeated Illinois 12-9 on Friday night, is tied with Minnesota for third at 17- 12. Purdue remained percentage points ahead of Minnesota and Iowa t 15-10 with a win over Indiana earlier in the day. The Golden Gophers also moved one and a half games ahead of Ohio State (14-12) and Michigan (14-12), who lost earlier today at Penn State.
The Golden Gophers got on the board early with a run in the top of the first inning to go up 1-0. Luke MacLean (Bloomington, Minn.) started the game with a leadoff walk. Matt Fornasiere (Maple Grove, Minn.) drew a one-out walk to make it first and second. Ohio State starter Dan DeLucia got Jake Elder (Delta, British, Columbia) to hit a grounder to the shortstop. The Buckeyes got Fornasiere at second on the ground out, but threw away the second part of the double play at first to allow MacLean to score to make it 1-0.
Ohio State tied the game at 1-1 with a single run in the bottom of the first inning. Matt Angle started the inning by reaching first on an error. Mike Rabin laid down a perfect bunt single that moved Angle to third base. Steve Caravati followed with a sacrifice fly to tie the game at 1-1. Ronnie Bourquin followed with a walk, but Minnesota starter Matt Loberg (Anoka, Minn.) retired the final two batters to keep the game tied.
Minnesota pushed its lead out to 4-1 with three runs in the top of the second inning. Andy Hunter (West St. Paul, Minn.) led off the inning with single, and moved to second on a Kevin Carlson (Edina, Minn.) single to right field. Mike Mee (Richfield, Minn.) followed with a single to load the bases. DeLucia retired the next batter on a pitcher-to-catcher fielder’s choice ground out.
Jeremy Chlan (Apple Valley, Minn.) followed with an RBI groundout to give Minnesota a 2-1 lead. Chlan’s ground out also moved Carlson and Leseman up to second and third. MacLean capitalized on the runners moving up with a two-run single to push the Golden Gopher lead to 4-1.
Minnesota scored three more runs in the top of the third to charge out to a 7-1 lead. Fornasiere led the inning off with a walk, and Elder was hit by a pitch to make it first and second with no one out. After DeLucia recorded the first out of the inning, Carlson delivered a double to score Fornasiere to make it 5-1. On the next play, Mee hit a grounder that go by the Ohio State first baseman for an error to put Minnesota ahead 6-1. Carlson came home to score on a sacrifice fly by Tony Leseman (St. Paul, Minn.) to push the lead out to 7-1.
The Golden Gophers added another run in the top of the fifth on Leseman’s second sacrifice fly of the game to push the lead out to 8- 1. Ohio State scored a single run in the bottom of the fifth when Angle came around to score on a throwing error cut it to 8-3.
Minnesota finished its scoring in the top of the ninth with a single run to make it 9-2, when Elder singled, moved up on errant pickoff throw, moved to third on a wild pitch and scored on a passed ball. Ohio State added a run in the bottom of the ninth on a Jason Zoeller home run for the final score of 9-3.
Loberg pitched his second complete game of the season, going nine innings, giving up six hits, one earned run and registering five strikeouts. He picked up the win to move to 7-5 on the season. With the victory, Loberg record his 10th career Big Ten win to tie for 10th on the Minnesota career list in conference wins.
Ohio State starter Dan DeLucia gave up five hits and seven run in two and a third innings of work. The start by DeLucia was the shortest of his career. Dan Barker came in and gave up just one hit and one run in five and two third innings.
MacLean reached base three times in the game, and was one-for-three with a run and two RBI on the night. Elder and Carlson each had two hits on the night for Minnesota. Carlson was two-for-three with two runs, one RBI and a double, while Elder was two-for-four with two runs.
Leseman also had two RBI on a pair of sacrifice flies. Mee and Hunter also reached base twice in the game for Minnesota. Mee was one-for- three with one run, an RBI and a walk. Hunter was one-for-four with a run and a walk.
Ohio State was led by Angle who was two-for-four with two runs. Zoeller was also one-for-four with a home run.
The two teams will continue the series with a doubleheader on Saturday, May 21 at 3:05 p.m. (CT). Minnesota will finish the series against Ohio State with a single game on Sunday, May 22 at 12:05 p.m. (CT). Tomorrow’s doubleheader will be broadcast on WMGT (1220 AM). It will also be webcast on gophersports.com.
