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University of Minnesota Athletics
Minnesota Defeats West Virginia 5-4
2/21/2009 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Minnesota saw leads of 3-0 and 4-3 disappear before A.J. Pettersen (Minnetonka, Minn.) drew a bases loaded walk in the top of the eighth inning to put the Golden Gophers ahead for good at 5-4.
On the day, Minnesota was led by junior Derek McCallum (Shoreview, Minn.) who was 3-for-5 with two RBI and a stolen base, while Eric Decker was 3-for-5 with a run. Senior Matt Nohelty (Rothschild, Wis.) reached base three times, and was 2-for-4 with a run and an RBI.
Michael Kvasnicka (Lakeville, Minn.) was 2-for-5 with a run and a pair of doubles, while Pettersen reached base twice and was 1-for-3 with a run and an RBI.
Golden Gopher reliever Cullen Sexton (Plover, Wis.) picked up the win as he pitched 2.1 shutout innings, gave up one hit and struck out a batter. Minnesota starter Seth Rosin (Shoreview, Minn.) pitched four shutout innings, gave up four hits, walked two and struck out three batters.
Minnesota got on the board first with a pair of runs in the top of the first inning. Nohelty drew a leadoff walk, and moved to second on a wild pitch. Kvasnicka drove in Nohelty with an RBI double to left field to put the Golden Gophers ahead 1-0. Kvasnicka moved to third on a wild pitch and scored on an RBI single by McCallum to put Minnesota ahead 2-0.
The Golden Gophers manufactured a run in the top of second to take a 3-0 lead. Decker reached on an error to start of the second inning, and tagged up to move to second on a foul ball in foul territory on the first base side of the field. He then moved to third when he tagged up on a fly out to right field. Nohelty brought Decker home with an infield RBI single to put Minnesota ahead 3-0.
West Virginia tied the game at 3-3 with three runs in the bottom of the fifth. With one out, Jedd Gyorko singled to get things started. Vince Belnome singled to make it first and second, and Joe Agreste followed with an RBI double to plate Gyorko to make it 3-1. Belnome came home to score on wild pitch to make it a one-run game, and Tobias Streich brought home Agreste to tie the game at 3-3.
Minnesota scored a single run to take a 4-3 lead in the top of the seventh inning. Pettersen and Nohelty reached on back-to-back singles to start the inning. McCallum followed with an RBI single to put the Golden Gophers ahead by a run.
The Mountaineers came right back with a single run in the bottom of the seventh to tie the game a 4-4. With one out, Gyorko hit a solo home run off of Luke Rasmussen (Northfield, Minn.) to tie the game.
Minnesota reclaimed the lead with a single run in the top of the eighth to move ahead 5-4. Kyle Knudson (Maple Grove, Minn.) led off the inning with a single, and moved to second on Decker’s one-out single. Kyle Geason (Eden Prairie, Minn.) drew a walk to load the bases, and Pettersen forced the go-ahead run in when he drew a walk to bring home Knudson.
In the eighth inning, with a runner on first, Kvasnicka ended the inning with a great diving catch in right field. Minnesota ended the game on a great diving stab on a groundball by O’Shea that he flipped to Sexton at fist for the final out of the contest.
West Virginia starter Stephen Morrison gave up two hits, two runs and walked a batter, as he left in the first inning without recording an out. Justin Ellis gave up four hits, one unearned run and struck out a batter in relief for the Mountaineers. Bill Gross took the loss for West Virginia, as he gave up seven hits. Two runs, walked two and struck out four batters in 3.2 innings.
Gyorko reached base four times, and was 2-for-3 with a home run, two runs and an RBI. Agreste reached base four times, and went 3-for-4 with a run, two doubles and an RBI.
Minnesota will wrap up the Big East/Big Ten Challenge against Michigan State on Sunday, Feb. 22 at 9 a.m. (CT) the Naimoli Complex.
