The Minnesota baseball team (6-7) had a season-high 17 runs as it defeated North Dakota State (3-7) 17-8 in a midweek game on Tuesday, Mar. 18 at the Metrodome. With the 17-run output, the Golden Gophers have now scored 28 runs in their last two games.
Sophomore catcher Kyle Knudson (Maple Grove, Minn.) led the way for Minnesota going 2-for-3 with a double, a triple and a career-high five RBI. The five RBI were the most by a Golden Gopher this season.
Junior Matt Nohelty (Rothschild, Wis.) had his third four-hit game of the year, going 4-for-5 with three runs, two RBI and three stolen bases. It was the first time a Golden Gopher swiped three bags in a game since Dan Lyons did so against Northern Iowa on Apr. 19, 2006. With the four hits, Nohelty has collected eight hits in the last two games.
Nate Hanson (Chanhassen, Minn.) reached base four times, and was 3-for-4 with three runs, while Derek McCallum (Shoreview, Minn.) reached base three times going 2-for-3 with two runs and two RBI. Jon Hummel (Lakefield, Minn.) was also 2-for-4 with a double, two runs and two RBI, while Tom Steidl (Alexandria, Minn.) was 1-for-4 with his first career home run, two runs and an RBI.
Minnesota freshman Dustin Klabunde (Brownton, Minn.) made his first career start, and pitched four shutout innings, before surrendering a couple of runs in the fifth inning. Klabunde ended up going 4.1 innings, giving up two hits, and two runs in his debut to get a no-decision.
Luke Rasmussen (Northfield, Minn.) pitched 2.1 shutout innings, gave up one hit and struck out two batters to pick up a win in relief to move to 2-0. Aaron Larson struck out both batters he faced, while Scott Matyas (North Prairie, Wis.) pitched a scoreless ninth inning. Matyas has not given up a run in his last four outings, which has spanned nine innings.
North Dakota State starter Matt Bowar took the loss, as he gave up six hits and eight runs in four innings.
Minnesota jumped out to a 6-0 lead, but the Bison answered with a seven-run top of the fifth inning to take a 7-6 lead. The Golden Gophers took the lead back on a two-run double by Knudson in the bottom of the fifth to make it 8-7. Eric Decker (Cold Spring,) put the Golden Gophers up 9-7 on an RBI double, and Jeremy Chlan (Apple Valley, Minn.) followed with a sacrifice fly to put Minnesota up by three runs.
Nohelty and Hummel each had RBI singles to help Minnesota complete a six-run bottom of the fifth to go up 12-7.
The two teams exchanged runs in the sixth inning to move the score to 13-8. Minnesota finished out the scoring for the night with a four-run bottom of the seventh to move ahead 17-8.
Steidl started off the inning in exciting fashion with his first career home run to make it 14-8. Hummel had an RBI double to make it 15-8, and McCallum followed with an RBI single to push it to 16-8. The final run of the game came when Jeff DeSmidt (Mahtomedi, Minn.) had a sacrifice fly to bring home McCallum.
North Dakota State was led by Ryan Langlais who was 1-for-4 with three RBI. Shannon Ekermans was also 3-for-3 with a run and an RBI, while Eric Nutzhorn went 1-for-2 with a run and two RBI.
Minnesota will be back in action on Wednesday, Mar. 19 when it faces North Dakota State at 3:05 p.m. in the Metrodome. That game can be seen live on the Gold Zone, and can be heard on gophersports.com.
