Minnesota Claims 12-5 Win at UC Santa Barbara
The Minnesota baseball team (10-3) won for the fifth time in six games as it defeated UC Santa Barbara (7-10) 12-5 on Wednesday, Mar. 14 at Caesar Uyesaka Park. With the win, Minnesota is now 5-0 in games away from home this year.
It was also the Golden Gophers' sixth come-from-behind victory this year, and fifth time Minnesota won a game that it trailed heading into the sixth inning or later.
Minnesota had a season-high in hits (20) and runs (12) on the afternoon. It was the Golden Gophers highest hit total since Apr. 22, 2006 when they pounded out 23 hits at Michigan State in a 20-6 victory.
The Golden Gophers 10-3 start is the best since 1998 when they had an identical record.
Minnesota rallied from early deficit for second straight game against the Gauchos. After UC Santa Barbara scored a run in the bottom of the fourth it led 5-2.
The Golden Gophers scored a pair of runs in top of the fifth when Sean Kommerstad (Minnetonka, Minn.) doubled home Mike Mee (Richfield, Minn.) and Nate Hanson (Chanhassen, Minn.) to cut the Gaucho lead to 5-4.
UC Santa Barbara held onto the one-run lead until the top of the seventh when Minnesota pushed four runs across the plate to take an 8-5 lead.
Senior Dan Lyons (Rochester, Minn.) got the inning started with a leadoff double to left centerfield. Mee drew a walk to make it first and second with no outs. Both runners moved up a base on deep fly out to center field by Hanson. Sophomore Bryan Jost (Oakdale, Minn.) followed with an RBI single to left field to tie the game at 5-5.
Jost was picked off at first base for the second out, before pinch-hitter Matt Nohelty (Rothschild, Wis.) walked to make it first and third. Senior Kyle Baran (Apple Valley, Minn.) delivered a pinch-hit two-run double to left field to plate Mee and Nohelty to give Minnesota its first lead of the day at 7-5. Freshman Derek McCallum (Shoreview, Minn.) followed with an RBI single to put Minnesota ahead 8-5. The Golden Gophers ended up scoring all four runs with two outs in the inning.
Minnesota added a run in top of the eighth to make it 9-5 on an RBI single by Mee that plated Lyons.
The Golden Gophers pushed across three more runs in the top of the ninth for the final margin of 12-5 on RBI singles by McCallum, Lyons and Mee. The three runs finished off the 10 unanswered runs Minnesota scored starting from the top of the fifth inning.
Minnesota was led offensively by Mee who reached base five times, tied a career-high with four hits, and went 4-for-5 with two runs, a stolen base and two RBI. Mee also extended his hitting streak to 15 games dating back to the final two games of 2006. It was also Mee's eighth multi-hit game of the year.
Senior Sean Kommerstad (Minnetonka, Minn.) was also 3-for-3 with a run, a stolen base, a double and three RBI. Lyons was 3-for-6 with two runs and an RBI, while Hanson tied a career-high with three hits, and was 3-for-6 with two runs.
McCallum was 2-for-2 with a run and two RBI, while Baran was 1-for-2 with a run, a double and two RBI. Nohelty also reached base twice, and was 1-for-1 with two runs and a stolen base.
Sophomore Tyler Oakes (Jordan, Minn.) pitched two and two thirds shutout innings to pick up the win in relief to move to 3-1 on the season. Kyle Carr (Linton, N.D.) pitched two and a third innings, gave up one hits and struck out two batters to pick up his first career save. Minnesota's bullpen ended up pitching five scoreless innings, and gave up just one run in 11.1 innings against UC Santa Barbara.
Marcus McKenzie started and gave up five runs in four innings to get a no-decision.
Carr entered the game in the seventh with two outs and two runners on, and retired the final batter of the inning to keep Minnesota ahead 8-5.
Gaucho starter Jeff Braun gave up six runs and 12 hits in six and a third innings to take the loss to fall to 0-4 on the season.
UC Santa Barbara got on the board first with three runs in the bottom of the first inning to go up 3-0. The Gauchos got back-to-back bunt singles from Chris Fox and Mario Lewis to start the game. Fox moved up on a wild pitch, and came home to score on an errant throw by the catcher to give UC Santa Barbara a 1-0 lead. Lewis moved up to third on the play, and came home to score on an RBI groundout by Robbie Blauer to make it 2-0.
The Gauchos added another run on a Chris McMurray RBI single that brought home Mike Zuanich to make it 3-0.
Minnesota got on the board in the top of the second inning to cut the UC Santa Barbara lead to 3-1. Sean Kommerstad (Minnetonka, Minn.) led the inning off with a single to left side and moved up by stealing second base on a strikeout. Kommerstad moved to third on a single by Tom Steidl (Alexandra, Minn.), and came around to score on an RBI single by Tijl Vanderwege (St. Paul, Minn.) to cut the Gaucho lead to 3-1.
UC Santa Barbara added a single run on an RBI single by Robbie Blauer in the top of the third inning to take a 4-1 lead.
Minnesota got an RBI single in the top of the third to cut the Gaucho lead to 4-2. However, UC Santa Barbara got the run back in the bottom of the fourth on a Mario Lewis RBI single to take a 5-2 lead.
The Golden Gophers will face No. 11 Pepperdine on Friday, Mar. 16 at 5 p.m. (CT), Saturday, Mar. 17 at 3 p.m. (CT) and Sunday, Mar. 18 at 1 p.m. (CT). All three games will be webcast on gophersports.com. Saturday and Sunday's games will be broadcast on KLBB (1220 AM).
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