McCallum Carries Minnesota Past SDSU 9-6

Derek McCAllum (Shoreview, Minn.) collected six RBI for a second consecutive game, as the Minnesota baseball team (22-10) defeated South Dakota State (5-22) on Wednesday, Apr. 15.

McCallum paced the Golden Gopher attack on the day, as he 3-for-4 with two home runs, three runs and six RBI. It was the Golden Gophers' first multi-home run game since McCallum hit two at Pacific on Mar. 16, 2008. In the past two games, McCallum has gone 6-for-8 with three home runs and 12 RBI.

Redshirt freshman AJ Pettersen (Minnetonka, Minn.) also went 2-for-4 with three runs and a double, while senior Matt Nohelty (Rothschild, Wis.) finished 2-for-5 with two runs in the game. Junior Kyle Knudson (Maple Grove, Minn.) was 1-for-4 with two RBI, and sophomore Brooks Albrecht (Hutchinson, Minn.) finished 1-for-3 with an RBI.

Minnesota starter Dustin Klabunde (Brownton, Minn.) gave up 10 hits, four runs, walked two and struck out one batter in four innings for the no-decision. Sophomore Scott Fern (Eau Claire, Wis.) pitched 3.2 shutout innings and gave up two hits to pick up the win to move to 2-1 on the season.

South Dakota State took an early 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning. Joel Blake led off the game with a double, and came home to score on an RBI single by John Lee to give the Jackrabbits an early lead.

The Jackrabbits threatened to add to their lead in the top of the second inning. With runners on first and second with two outs, Blake delivered a single to left field but Gominsky made a strong throw to the plate to get Hood at the plate to end the inning.

Minnesota tied the game at 1-1 with a single run in the bottom of the second inning. O'Shea drew a one-out walk, and Geason followed with a two-out walk to make first and second. Albrecht followed with an RBI single to left field to plate O'Shea to tie the game.

South Dakota State took the lead back at 3-1 with a pair of runs on RBI doubles by Tony Martin and Billy Stitz.

The Golden Gophers cut the lead to 3-2 with a single run in the bottom of the third inning. McCAllum drew a walk, and moved to third on a single by Kvasnicka. Knudson plated McCallum with an RBI infield single to make it a one-run game. Minnesota loaded the bases on an error by the second baseman with one out, but Mike Robinson retired the final two batters to keep the Jackrabbits up by one run.

Minnesota scored three runs in the bottom of the fourth to take a 5-3 lead. Nohelty got things started with a one-out single, and moved to second when Pettersen drew a walk. McCallum followed with a three-run homer to right field to take a the two-run lead. The homer was his second in as many games.

South Dakota State scored a single run in the top of the fifth to cut the Minnesota lead to 5-4. Jesse Sawyer led off with walk, moved to second on a walk and went to third on a single by Tony Martin. Stephen Turner greeted Fern with an RBI single to cut the Golden Gopher lead to 5-4. South Dakota State loaded the bases with nobody out, but Fern got Hood to ground back to the pitcher and threw home to start a 1-2-3 double play. Eric Cain grounded out to end the inning, as Minnesota remained ahead by a run.

Minnesota added a pair of runs in the bottom of the sixth to take a 7-4 lead. Nohelty led off with a single, and moved to second when Pettersen reached on an error by the shortstop. McCAllum followed with an RBI single to plate Nohelty to put the Golden Gophers ahead 6-4. After a strikeout, Knudson fouled out to first base, but Pettersen alertly tagged up to score the seventh run of the game.

McCallum delivered his second homer of the game in bottom of the eighth inning to push the Golden Gophers lead to 9-4.

The Jackrabbits scored a pair of runs in the top of the ninth on Beau Hanowski's pinch-hit RBI ground out and Martin's RBI single to move the score to 9-6. However, Cullen Secton (Plover, Wis.) closed out the game to give Minnesota the three-run victory.

South Dakota State was led by Martin who was 3-for-4 with a double, a run and two RBI, while Stitz was 3-for-5 with an RBI. Blake also finished 3-for-4 with two runs.

Minnseota will travel to Champaign to face Illinois on Apr. 17-19. The Golden Gophers will take on the Illini on Friday, Apr. 17 at 6:05 p.m., Saturday, Apr. 18 at 3:05 p.m. and Sunday, Apr. 19 at 1:05 p.m. All three games can be heard on gophersports.com and the final two games will be on KLBB (1220 AM).

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Players Mentioned

Brooks Albrecht

Scott Fern

Dustin Klabunde

Kyle Knudson

Matt Nohelty

AJ Pettersen

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University of Minnesota Athletics