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University of Minnesota Athletics
Minnesota Heads to Illinois
4/16/2009 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
 Minnesota travels to Champaign to play a three-game series against Illinois. The Golden Gophers will face the Illini on Friday, Apr. 17 at 6:05 p.m., Saturday, Apr. 18 at 3:05 p.m. and Sunday, Apr. 19 at 12:05 p.m. Minnesota’s final two games against Illinois will be live on KLBB (1220 AM) and all three games can be heard on gophersports.com. Illinois is 21-10 overall, and is tied for third in the Big Ten at 6-3. Last year, the Illini took three of four against Minnesota at Siebert Field. In the Golden Gopers’ last trip to Champaign, they won three of four at Illiniois and scored 48 runs in the final three games of the series.
Junior Derek McCallum had a huge midweek stretch, as he went 6-for-8 with three home runs and 12 RBI in a pair of games against UW-Milwaukee and South Dakota State. Against UW-Milwaukee, McCallum went 3-for-4 with a home run, a triple, two runs and six RBI. The next day he finished 3-for-4 with two home runs, three runs and six RBI. His 12 RBI are the most by a Golden Gopher in a two-game stretch since Matt Scanlon collected 11 in a doubleheader against Michigan on Apr. 17, 1999. McCallum also became the first Minnesota player to collect three home runs in two games since Jake Elder did so Apr. 16-17, 2004.
Minnesota’s bullpen gave up just two runs in 10 innings of work this week against UW-Milwaukee and South Dakota State. The Golden Gophers had nine straight scoreless inning out of their bullpen until the ninth inning against South Dakota State. Scott Fern and Luke Rasmussen each pitched 3.2 shutout innings out of the bullpen to pick up victories in the two games.
Freshman Austin Lubinsky gave up just one run in 7.1 innings in two outings last week. In his first outing, Lubinsky started and gave up four hits, one run, walked one and struck out one in a start against Missouri. He left the game in the fifth after meeting the pitch count that was set for him at the beginning of the game. Against Northwestern, Lubinsky entered the game with Minnesota trailing 4-1, and left with the Golden Gophers ahead 6-4. He pitched 3.1 innings, gave up one hit, walked one and struck out one to pick up his first career win.
PROBABLE STARTERS
Minnesota Opponent
Friday RHP Chauncy Handran LHP Phil Haig, ILL
(6-1, 2.73 ERA) (3-2, 3.92 ERA)
Saturday RHP Tom Buske RHP Ben Reeser 
(5-2, 2.15 ERA) (3-0, 2.61 ERA)
Sunday RHP Seth Rosin RHP Bryan Roberts
(2-1, 4.62 ERA) (3-0, 5.89 ERA)
HANDRAN WINS SIXTH STRAIGHT DECISION
Senior righthander Chauncy Handran won his sixth straight decision against Northwestern on Apr. 10 in a 5-4 victory over the Wildcats. Handran went 7.2 innings, gave up seven hits, two earned runs, walked one and struck out three against Northwestern. Handran became the first Golden Gopher starter since Glen Perkins in 2003 to win his first three starts of the Big Ten campaign. With his sixth straight win, he also became the first Golden Gopher to win six straight games since 2007 when Marcus McKenzie won his first seven games of the year. Handran is only the ninth Minnesota pitcher since 1998 to win five games in a row. He joins Glen Perkins who won 10 straight in 2003 and eight straight in 2004, McKenzie who won eight straight in 2007, Dan McGrath who won six straight in 1998 and 1999, Mike Kobow who won six straight in 2000 and five straight in 2001, Ben Birk who won six straight in 1998, Craig Molldrem who won five straight in 2004, C.J. Woodrow who won five straight in 2002 and Kai Freeman who went 5-0 in 1998.
