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University of Minnesota Athletics
Minnesota Remains in First Place with Win
5/16/2009 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
With the win, Minnesota moved to 17-5 in Big Ten play and remained in first place by a half-game with one day left in Big Ten play. Ohio State defeated Iowa to stay in second place by a half game at 17-6, while Indiana remained in the race as it stayed one game back at 16-6 with a win over Michigan State earlier today.
The Golden Gophers' victory tonight, sets up a situation where Minnesota would claim the Big Ten title if it defeats Penn State on Saturday.
Minnesota received a strong pitching performance by sophomore Seth Rosin (Shoreview, Minn.) who picked up the win to move to 6-1 on the season. Since taking his only loss of the season to TCU on Mar. 16, he has won five straight decisions and is currently 5-0 in Big Ten play. Rosin gave up four hits, two runs, did not walk a batter and struck out seven batters in a career-best seven-inning outing.
Sophomore Scott Matyas (North Prairie, Wis.) closed out the Nittany Lions in the final two innings, as he retired all three of the hitters he faced in the eighth inning and collected all three of his outs in the ninth on strikeouts. With one out in the bottom of the ninth and the Golden Gophers leading 4-2, Penn State had runners on first and second after Landon Nakata and Cory Wine collected singles. Matyas reached back and struck out Jordan Steranka and Ryan Boonie to close out the victory for Minnesota.
On the night, Matyas tied a career-high five strikeouts as he blanked Penn State for two innings. Between Matyas and Rosin, neither pitcher walked a batter as they combined to collect 12 strikeouts which tied the second-highest total for Minnesota this season.
Penn State starter Mike Lorentson took the loss, as he gave up seven hits, three runs, walked and struck out six in a career-high 7.2 innings.
Offensively, Minnesota was led by junior Derek McCallum (Shoreview, Minn.) who went 2-for-4 with two RBI and a double on the night. McCallum has collected 69 RBI in 49 games this year. Eric Decker (Cold Spring, Minn.) was also 2-for-3 with a home run, a run, an RBI and sacrifice bunt on the night.
Freshman Justin Gominsky (Mahtomedi, Minn.) went 2-for-4 with an RBI, while Nick O'Shea (Blaine, Minn.) was 2-for-4 with a run. Matt Nohelty (Rothschild, Wis.) also drew a pair of walks and scored run, while Kyle Geason (Eden Prairie, Minn.) scored the Golden Gophers other run.
Minnesota scored the first run in the top of the fourth to take a 1-0 lead. Nohelty led off with a walk, and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by AJ Pettersen (Minnetonka, Minn.). McCallum plated Nohelty with an RBI double to left field to get the Golden Gophers on the board.
In the top of the fifth, Minnesota added a single run to push the lead to 2-0. O'Shea led off with a single and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Decker. Gominsky followed with an RBI single to right center field to plate O'Shea to make it 2-0.
The score remained the same until the top of the eighth when the Golden Gophers added a single run to take a 3-0 lead. Gominsky led off the inning with a single, but was wiped out on a fielder's choice on a popped up bunt that allowed Geason to reached first base. Nohelty drew a walk to make it first and second, and Geason scored on a two-out RBI single by McCallum to move the score to 3-0.
In the bottom of the eighth, Rick Marlin hit a two-run homer to left field to cut the Minnesota lead to 3-2. Matyas came in to retire the next three batters to keep the Golden Gophers one-run lead.
Minnesota added an insurance run in the top of the ninth inning when Decker crushed a two-out solo home run to right center field to make it 4-2.
Matyas closed out the ninth to give Minnesota its 35th victory of the season.
Penn State was led by Marlin who went 2-for-3 with a home run, a double and two RBI. Boonie was also 1-for-4 with a run.
Minnesota will close the regular-season against Penn State on Saturday, May 15 at 1:05 p.m. (CT). That
game can be seen live on the Big Ten Network, and heard live on KLBB (1220 AM) and gophersports.com.
