University of Minnesota Athletics
Minnesota Falls to Iowa 3-1 For Doubleheader Split
4/15/2006 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
The Minnesota baseball team (17-14, 5-6) dropped the second game of the doubleheader 3-1 to Iowa (15-16, 5-6) on Saturday, Apr. 15 at Duane Banks Field. With the loss, Minnesota split the doubleheader with Iowa for the day.
The Golden Gophers have split all three doubleheaders they have played in Big Ten play this year.
Minnesota got on the board first with a single run in the top of the second inning to take a 1-0 lead. Senior Andy Hunter (West St. Paul, Minn.) got things started with a leadoff-double to right field. After Iowa starter Austin Seward recorded a strikeout, Dan Lyons (Rochester, Minn.) drew a one-out walk to make it first and second. Joe Maciej (Elk River, Minn.) grounded out for the second out of the inning, but moved Lyons and Hunter to second and third in the process. Senior Luke MacLean (Bloomington, Minn.) delivered an RBI infield single to give Minnesota the 1-0 lead.
With runners on first and third, MacLean took off for second. Iowa catcher Dan Geelan faked a throw to second and caught Lyons in a rundown to end the inning.
Wes Freie got the bottom of the second started with a leadoff single. Jason White laid down an attempted sacrifice bunt, but moved all the way to second on an errant throw by Maciej. Freie ended up advancing to third base on the play. Kevin Hoeff tied the game with a sacrifice fly to centerfield to make it 1-1. and White also moved to third on the play. Matt Wooldrik laid down suicide squeeze bunt, which plated White to give Iowa a 2-1 lead. Iowa got runners on first and second after Justin Toole was hit by a pitch.
After Minnesota start John Gaub (South St. Paul, Minn.) got L.J. Mims to fly out, Travis Sweet delivered an RBI single to plate Wooldrik to push the lead out to 3-1.
Minnesota missed a gold opportunity to cut into the Iowa lead in the top of the third inning. Freshman Chris Herbert (White Bear Lake, Minn.) led off with a single, and Matt Nohelty (Rothschild, Minn.) beat out an infield bunt single to make it first and second with no one out. Taylor VanderAarde (Hastings, Minn.) moved both runners up a base with a sacrifice bunt to make it second and third with one out.
On the next play Mike Mee (Richfield, Minn.) lifted a bloop fly that looked it was going to drop, but the Iowa second baseman Toole made a diving over-the-shoulder catch for the second out and complete the double play by throwing Herbert out at the plate to end the inning.
Minnesota had another good opportunity in the top of the fourth when Lyons reached on a two-out walk. Maciej delivered a single to make it first and second, and Lyons moved to third on a wild pitch. MacLean followed with chopper to third base that he appeared to beat out, but was called out at first to end the inning.
In the fifth inning, Nohelty got thing started again with a two-out walk. Nohelty moved up to second on a balk by Seward. Mee and Seward locked up in a good battle at the plate. On the ninth pitch of the at- bat Mee crushed a 3-2 pitch to right field, but a heavy wind held it up at the warning track as Iowa’s Ryan Consadine camped under it for the third out of the inning.
Gaub went four innings on the game, gave up three hits, three unearned runs and struck out four in a losing effort. With the loss, Gaub fell to 0-2 on the season. Junior Josh Oslin (Mora, Minn.) pitched two shutout innings, giving up one hit and striking out two batters.
Seward went six innings, gave up six hits, one run and struck out three batters to pick up the win. Tim Gudex came in to pitch scoreless inning to pick up his sixth save of the season.
Nohelty led the way for Minnesota going two-for-three in the game. MacLean reached base twice and was one-for-two with an RBI. Hunter was also one-for-three with one run in the game. Lyons walked twice on the game in three plate appearances.
Iowa was led by Sweet who reached base three times, and was two-for- two with a stolen base and an RBI. Wooldrik had a run and an RBI on the day, while Hoeff had the other RBI for the Hawkeyes. White and Freie also scored single runs in the game.
Minnesota will finish the series with Iowa on Sunday, Apr. 16 at 1 p.m. That game will be broadcast on WMGT (1220 AM) and webcast on gophersports.com.
