University of Minnesota Athletics
Minnesota Outslugged 16-8 by Illinois in Series Finale
5/1/2006 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Minnesota dropped into a four-way tie for fifth place after the series loss with Penn State, Purdue and Michigan State, while Illinois moved into fourth place at 10 -10.
On the day, Illinois scored 12 of its 16 runs with two outs in an inning.
For Minnesota, senior Luke MacLean (Bloomington, Minn.) finished with three RBI, and was also two-for-five with a run. Tony Leseman (St. Paul, Minn.) also finished two-for-five with two RBI on the game.
Matt Nohelty (Rothschild, Wis.) tied his career-high with three hits, going three-for-five with two runs and one RBI. Mike Mee (Richfield, Minn.) also finished two- for-five with one run and one RBI, while Kyle Baran (Apple Valley, Minn.) was two-for-four with one run and an RBI.
Illinois got out of the gate fast with five runs in the top of the first inning. Chase Kliment and Lars Davis gave Illinois a 2-0 lead with a pair of sacrifice flies. Ryan Hastings delivered a two-run triple to push the score out to 4-0, and Joe Bonadonna followed with an RBI double to push the lead to 5-0.
Minnesota answered with three runs in the bottom of the first inning to cut the lead to 5-3. Nohelty, Mee and Hunter started the inning with three straight singles to load the bases. Illinois starter Jake Stewart registered a strike out for the first out of the inning. Kyle Baran (Apple Valley, Minn.) brought Nohelty home with an RBI groundout to make it 5-1. Senior Luke MacLean (Bloomington, Minn.) followed with a two-out, two-run single to cut the lead to 5-3.
Illinois added a run to push the lead out to 6-3 in the top of the second inning on a Dave Shultz RBI single.
The Golden Gophers came right back with two runs in the bottom of the second to cut the lead to 6-5. With one out, Chris Herbert (White Bear Lake, Minn.) singled, stole second and moved up to third on a throwing error by the Illinois catcher. Nohelty brought Herbert home with an RBI single to cut the Illinois lead to 6-4. Mee brought home Nohelty with an RBI double to bring the Golden Gophers to within one run. Illinois reliever Brian Blomquist then retired two of the next three hitters to keep Illinois ahead by a run after Stewart had been chased after giving up five runs in one and a third innings.
Illinois tacked on a single run in the top of the third to move ahead 7-5, and then scored three in the top of the fourth to take a 10-5 lead. In the fourth, Illinos got an RBI single form Davis and a two- run single from Bonadonna.
The scored remained the same until the top of the seventh when Illinois scored a single run to move ahead 11-5 on Kliment’s second sacrifice fly of the game.
Minnesota finally got to Blomquist in the bottom of the seventh inning. Blomquist came into the inning having pitched four and two thirds innings of scoreless relief. The Golden Gophers got something started with two outs when Jost delivered a two-out double to right centerfield. Baran followed with a walk to make it first and second, and MacLean singled through the left side to plate Jost to make it 11- 6. Illinois brought in Brian Long who surrendered a two-run double to Leseman to cut the lead to 11-8. Long got the final out of the inning to keep the score where it was.
Minnesota had a chance to get out of the top of the eighth inning with the score still at 11-8 when it had two outs with runners of second and third. However, Ryan Snowden delivered a two-out, two-run single to push the Illinois lead to 13-8. Roof followed with a double, and Snowden came around to score to make it 14-8 when the ball was misplayed in right field. Illinois added one more run to make it 15-8 on a Schultz RBI single.
Illinois also added one more run on Bonadonna RBI single in the top of the ninth to push the score to the final tally of 16-8.
Blomquist picked up the win in relief to move to 3-3, as he went five and a third innings, gave up five hits and three runs. Brian Long pitched two and a third shutout innings giving up three hits.
Minnesota starter Brian Bull (Omaha, Neb.) took the loss to fall to 3- 4, as he gave up six runs in one and a third innings of work.
Illinois had two hitters in its lineup record five hits in the game, as Snowden was five-for-six with two runs and two RBI, while Schultz was five-for-five with two runs and two RBI. Hastings was also four- for-five with three runs and two RBI, while Bonadona reached base five times and was three-for-three with , one run and four RBI.
Minnesota will be back in action when it finished its suspended game with St. Thomas on Tuesday, May 2 in Siebert Field at 6 p.m. The Golden Gophers will also head to North Dakota State on Wednesday, May 3 at 6:30 p.m.
The Golden Gophers will return to Big Ten play on Friday, May 5 when they begin a stretch of eight straight Big Ten road contests at Northwestern at 3 p.m. Minnesota will also face the Wildcats in a doubleheader on Saturday, May 6 at 1 p.m. and in the series finale on Sunday, May 6 at 1 p.m.
