The Minnesota baseball team (16-21, 6-10) dropped a wild 9-7 game to Illinois (21-14, 9-7) in the series finale on Sunday, Apr. 20. With loss, the Golden Gophers ended up dropping three of four to the Illini in the series.
Minnesota entered the bottom of the eighth inning trailing 4-1 to Illinois. However, the Golden Gophers put together a huge rally in the inning. Jon Hummel (Lakefield, Minn.) led off the inning with a walk and Kyle Knudson (Maple Grove, Minn.) singled to right field to make it first and third with no outs. Hummel scored on a fielder's choice RBI by Matt Nohelty (Rothschild, Wis.) to make it 4-2. Eric Decker (Cold Spring, Minn.) followed with a single to center field to make it first and third with one out.
Nate Hanson (Chanhassen, Minn.) delivered an RBI single off Illini reliever Mike Sterk to cut the lead to 4-3. Jeff DeSmidt (Mahtomedi, Minn.) followed by giving Minnesota its first lead of the game, 6-4, on a three-run homer to right field. The home run was DeSmidt's seventh of the season. Sterk got out of the inning without further damage.
In the top of ninth inning, Illinois mounted a threat quickly as Craig Lutes walked and Casey McMurray singled to make it first and second with nobody out. Minnesota reliever Cullen Sexton (Plover, Wis.) entered the game and got the first out when Joe Bonadonna moved the runners up a base with a sacrifice bunt. Mike Giller and Brandon Wikoff drew back-to-back walks to cut the Minnesota lead to 6-5.
On the next play, Dominic Altobelli hit a sharp grounder to the shortstop that had a chance to be a game-ending double play. The Golden Gophers got the runner at second, but the throw to first got away allowing a pair of runs to score to give Illinois the lead back 7-6.
Ryan Hastings followed by reaching on a two-base error, which allowed Altobelli to score to make it 8-6. Nick Stockwell followed with an RBI single to plate Hastings to complete the five-run inning for Illinois to put the Illini up 9-6. In the inning, Minnesota walked three batters and had three errors.
Minnesota tried to mount a rally in the ninth. Knudson got it started with a one-out single. Nohelty made it first and second when he was hit by a pitch. Decker delivered an RBI single up the middle to put the Golden Gophers ahead 9-7. Hanson drew a walk to load the bases, and represented the winning run at first base. Illinois reliever Ben Reeser got out of the jam, by getting DeSmidt to hit into a game-ending double play.
The Golden Gophers were led by DeSmidt, who was 3-for-5 with a home run, a run and three RBI. Decker went 3-for-5 with a run and an RBI, while Nohelty was 2-for-4 with two runs and an RBI. Knudson also went 2-for-3 with a run, while Tom Steidl (Alexandria, Minn.) was 2-for-4. Hanson reached base twice and was 1-for-4 with a run and an RBI.
Sexton took the loss for Minnesota to fall to 2-2 on the season, as he gave up two unearned runs and two walks in a third of an inning. Golden Gopher starter Dustin Brabender (Oregon, Wis.) had a second straight strong outing, as he pitched 6.2 innings, gave up six hits, three runs, two walks and struck out two batters. Brabender ended up with a no-decision.
Scott Matyas (North Prairie, Wis.) ended up giving up three hits, three runs, walked one and struck out one in 1.1 innings of work, while Luke Rasmussen (Northfield, Minn.) gave up one hit and one unearned run in a third of an inning of work.
Sterk picked up the win to move to 2-0, despite giving up four hits and three runs in one inning of work. Reeser pitched two thirds scoreless innings, giving up one hit and one walk to pick up his fifth save of the year. Illini starter Aaron Martin got a no-decision as well, as he went 7.1 innings, gave up seven hits, four runs, walked one and did not strike out a batter.
The Illini got on the board first with a single run in the top of the first inning to go up 1-0. Bonadonna led off the game with a double to left field, and moved up to third on a wild pitch. Giller plated Bonadonna with an RBI single to give the Illini the one-run lead.
Illinois pushed its lead out to a 3-0 in the top of the fifth inning. With two outs, Lutes drew a walk and McMurray was hit by a pitch to make it first and second. Both runners moved up on a wild pitch, and came home to score on a two-run single by Bonadonna to put Illinois ahead 3-0.
Minnesota got on the board with a single run in the bottom of the sixth to cut the lead to 3-1. Nohelty and Decker had back-to-back two-out hits to make it first and third. Hanson hit a chopper to the left side that was bobbled by the Illinois third baseman to allow Nohelty to score to make it a two-run game.
Illinois picked up another run in the top of the eight inning to move ahead 4-1. Brandon Wikoff led off the inning with a single, but was wiped fielder's choice ground out by Altobelli. Hastings singled to left field to make it first and third, and Wikoff came home to score to give the Illini a 4-1 lead.
The Illini were led by Bonadonna who went 4-for-4 with a run and two RBI. Hastings also reached base three times, and was 2-for-4 with a run.
Minnesota will be back in action on Wednesday, Apr. 23 at 6:30 when it travels to South Dakota State. That game can be heard on gophersports.com. The Golden Gophers then travel to Purdue to face the Boilermakers on Friday, Apr. 25 at 3 p.m., in a doubleheader on Saturday, Apr. 26 at 1 p.m. and in a single game on Sunday, Apr. 27 at 1 p.m.
