Minnesota Defeats Illinois 8-1 in Big Ten Tournament Opener
The Minnesota baseball team (32-24) won its eighth straight game with an 8-1 win over Illinois (29-27) in the first game of the Big Ten Tournament on Wednesday, May 24 at Ray Fisher Stadium. Minnesota's eight-game winning streak is its longest since the Golden Gophers put together an 11-game winning streak from Apr. 20-May 6, 2002.
With the win, the Golden Gophers move into the winner's bracket where they will take on No. 1 Michigan on Thursday, May 25 at 6 p.m. (CT). In the earlier games, No. 5 Illinois will face No. 6 Purdue in the first elimination game of the tournament on Thursday, May 25 at 11:00 a.m. (CT). The second game of the day will feature No. 2 Northwestern against No. 3 Ohio State at 2:30 p.m. (CT).
Junior Cole DeVries (Eden Prairie, Minn.), who was named Second-Team All-Big Ten on Wednesday, gave up just one hit and one unearned run in eight innings of work for the Golden Gophers. It was lowest hit total by an opponent in his career in a start. DeVries also walked five batters and struck out five, as he picked up the win to move to 7-3 on the year. He has tallied five wins against Big Ten opposition on the season.
“I just came out wanting to set the tone for us in the tournament,' said DeVries. “I think it was important to get off to a strong start as a team in the tournament, and I think we did a pretty good job of doing that with this effort in our first game today.'
Offensively for Minnesota, eight of the nine starters had hits for the Golden Gophers, six different players registered RBI and six different players scored runs for Minnesota.
“I think in these tournaments a big part of your success is getting good pitching and timely hitting,' said Anderson. “Cole (DeVries) gave us a really strong performance on the mound today, and we overcame an early defensive mistake to play a strong game today. I thought our hitters got pretty good at-bats up and down the lineup. It was a good effort to get off on the right foot in the Big Ten Tournament.'
Junior Mike Mee (Richfield, Minn.) was two-for-four with two RBI for the Golden Gophers, while Chris Herbert (White Bear Lake, Minn.) also knocked in a couple of runs going one-for-three with two RBI.
Freshman Matt Nohelty (Rothschild, Wis.) reached base four of the five times he came to the plate, going one-for-one with two runs and an RBI officially. Nohelty singled, was hit by a pitch, walked twice and had a sacrifice fly for Minnesota. Freshman Nate Hanson (Chanhassen, Minn.) was also two-for-four with one run and one RBI on the day.
Junior Kyle Baran (Apple Valley, Minn.) was also two-for-five with a run and an RBI for the Golden Gophers, while Tony Leseman (St. Paul, Minn.) reached base twice and scored two runs.
Senior Andy Hunter was one-for-three with an RBI in his return to the Golden Gopher lineup after missing the Indiana series with an injury.
Minnesota had five players making their first appearance in the Big Ten Tournament between Dan Lyons (Rochester, Minn.), Herbert, Nohelty, Baran and Hanson. Between those five players they went 9-for-22 with five runs and five RBI.
Illinois starter Matt Whitmore took the loss, as he gave up six hits and four runs in four innings of work to take his first loss of the season to fall to 3-1. Minnesota also scored fours off Illinois' bullpen in four innings.
In the bottom of the first inning, Matt Nohelty (Rothschild, Wis.) led off with a single to left field. However, Nohelty was picked off at first for the first out of the inning. Illinois starter Matt Whitmore retired the next two batters on fly out to get out of the inning.
Illinois took an early lead with a single run to go up 1-0 in the top of the second inning. Lars Davis drew a one-out walk and moved up to third on a throwing error by Mee that allowed Ryan Hastings to reach first base. Davis came home to score on a sacrifice fly to left field by Trevor Huisinga to give Illinois the early one-run lead.
Minnesota tied the game up 1-1 with a run in the bottom of the third inning. Leseman led off the inning with a walk, and moved to third on an errant pickoff attempt by Whitmore that got away and went into right field. Nohelty delivered a sacrifice fly to center field to bring home Leseman to tie the game.
Illinois got a leadoff runner on in the top of the fourth inning when Dave Schultz drew a leadoff walk. However, DeVries got Mike Rohde to ground into a double play to erase the leadoff walk. DeVries struck out Davis to get out of the inning unscathed.
The Golden Gophers took their first lead of the game with two runs in the bottom of the fifth to move ahead 3-1. Baran led off the inning with a double down the left field line. Baran moved to third on a groundout to first base by Hunter. Baran came home on RBI single by Hanson to give Minnesota a 2-1 lead. Hanson stole second base on a strikeout by Lyons. Herbert brought Hanson home on an RBI single to the left side to give the Golden Gophers a two-run lead.
“In the fifth inning I was trying to get something started,' said Baran. “I got the double to start the inning off and then Andy (Hunter) did a good job of moving me over and Nate (Hanson) did a good job of bringing me home to give us the lead. Coming into the game we wanted to be aggressive offensively. Our goal was to try to get hitters on early in the inning and move them over and try to cash in with runners in scoring position. I think we did a good job of taking advantage of those opportunities up and down the lineup.'
Illinois threatened in the top of the fifth inning when Huisinga singled with one out and stole second base. The hit was the first off DeVries in four and a third innings. DeVries got Bonadonna to pop out, but walked Kyle Hudson to make it first and second. Ryan Snowden grounded out to end the inning, as DeVries escaped unscathed.
Minnesota added two runs to its lead in the top of the fifth inning to take a 5-1 lead. Nohelty walked to lead off the inning. Luke MacLean (Bloomington, Minn.) reached on an error when he tried to lay down a sacrifice bunt and Illinois reliever Jake Stewart pulled the first baseman, Schultz, off the bag with a high throw. Mike Mee (Richfield, Minn.) moved both runners up with a sacrifice bunt to make it second and third with one out.
Baran hit one right back up the middle off the leg of Stewart, who tried to make a late throw home that Nohelty beat out to score the fourth run of the game for the Golden Gophers. MacLean moved up to third and ended up scoring on a sacrifice fly by Hunter to give Minnesota a 5-1 lead.
The Golden Gophers added two more runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to take a 7-1 lead. Lyons led the inning off with a triple to get things started for Minnesota. Herbert delivered a sacrifice fly to left field to plate Lyons to give the Golden Gophers their sixth run of the game. Leseman and Nohelty both were hit by pitches to set up first and second with one out. Following the second out of the inning, Mee brought home Leseman with an RBI single to give Minnesota a 7-1 lead.
Illinois had a threat in the top of the eighth inning when DeVries issued back-to-back walks to Hudson and Snowden. However, DeVries came back to get the final two outs to get out of the inning without any damage.
Minnesota added one more run in the top of the ninth inning to take an 8-1 lead. With two outs, Nohelty drew a walk and moved to second on a single by MacLean to make it first and second. Mee cashed in with an RBI single to plate Nohelty to give the Golden Gophers a seven-run lead.
The Golden Gophers have now won the first game of the Big Ten Tournament in six of their last seven appearances, and have done so the last four years they have appeared in the tournament.
Huisinga had Illinois' only production of the game, as he went one-for-two with one RBI. Hudson also reached twice on a pair of walks.
The game will be broadcast on WMGT (1220 AM) and webcast on gophersports.com. There will also be a videocast of the game on the Big Ten website.
