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University of Minnesota Athletics
Minnesota Wins Big Ten Tournament Championship
5/30/2010 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
The Minnesota baseball team (30-28) defeated Iowa (30-28) 15-5 to win the Big Ten Tournament Championship on Saturday, May 29 at Bill Davis Stadium on Saturday, May 29.
With the win, Minnesota receives the automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament. The Golden Gophers will find out where they are going on Monday, May 31 at 11:30 p.m. (CT) when the selection show appears on ESPN2. This will be the Golden Gophers 30th trip to the NCAA Regionals and the 17th under John Anderson.
The Golden Gophers became only the second team to win the Big Ten Regular Season and Tournament Championships in the same season since 1995. Minnesota also pulled the double in 2004, and Michigan did so in 2006 and 2008. Minnesota's 15 runs in the championship game was the second-highest total in a Big Ten Tournament Championship game. This was the Golden Gophers ninth Big Ten title (eighth outright).
"For us it's been an interesting journey," said Minnesota Head Coach John Anderson. "The way it started and the obstacles we had, and for the guys to hang in there and not give in, I don't' think you could ask for more from this team. And then to finish it off in Columbus, Ohio with a Big Ten championship, I just have to give credit to our kids. I'm just really, really proud of our team."
Senior catcher Kyle Knudson (Maple Grove, Minn.) continued an amazing run over the last couple of weeks by claiming the tournament's Most Outstanding Player award. On May 16, Knudson completed his home career by going 5-for-5 on senior day. A little under a week later, Knudson and his teammates clinched the regular-season title at Bill Davis Stadium with a 4-3 win over Ohio State on May 21. Tonight just moments after winning the tournament title, Knudson was named the Most Outstanding Player of the tournament.
"Coach (Anderson) mentioned to me after the game that we were struggling to string two wins together let alone get any kind of streak early on in the year," said Knudson. However, we were able to get hot at the end of the season. I'm pretty excited that we won the regular season and the tournament and now we'll get a shot to move on to the NCAA tournament."
Junior pitchers Scott Matyas (North Prairie, Wis.) and Phil Isaksson (Eau Claire, Wis.) were named to the All-Tournament team for Minnesota, along with Knudson and shortstop AJ Pettersen (Minnetonka, Minn.). Pitchers Jared Hippen (Iowa), Bobby Brosnahan (Michigan) and Matt Bischoff (Purdue) were also named to the team, along with first baseman Mike Dufek (Michigan), second baseman Anthony Toth (Michigan), third baseman John Lorenz (Michigan), designated hitter Drew Madia (Purdue) and outfielders Alex Dickerson (Indiana), Kurtis Muller (Iowa) and Ryan LaMarre (Michigan).
"Iowa gave us everything we wanted," said Anderson. "Obviously we got some runs late in the game today when we wore out their pitching staff, but congratulations to them. It's tough coming through that losers bracket and we've been there before, but congratulations to them on a great tournament."
Minnesota led 4-0 heading into the top of the seventh, but scored 11 runs over the next two innings (the seventh and eighth) to blow open the game.
Isaksson stepped up and tossed a gem in the tournament clincher, as he gave up five hits, one run, walked two and struck out five on the way to tying a career-high 7.1 innings pitched. Tim Ryan (Eagan, Minn.) and Luke Rasmussen (Northfield, Minn.) combined on a scoreless ninth to finish the game.
"We struggled early in the season and just tried to get better one percent each day," said Isaksson. "My outing today was a lot better than last Saturday. I didn't do so well on the same mound against Ohio State a week ago but I prepared well all week. I felt like I let down my teammates last weekend but today I wanted to come out and attack the strike zone and it definitely worked out better than last Saturday."
Pettersen led the offense going 2-for-5 with two runs, a double and four RBI. Matt Puhl (North St. Paul, Minn.) went 4-for-5 with two runs and a double, while Michael Kvasnicka (Lakeville, Minn.) went 3-for-5 with two runs, two doubles and an RBI. Kurt Schlangen (Albany, Minn.) knocked in three runs in two plate appearances, and Troy Larson (Maplewood, Minn.) finished 2-for-5 with two runs and two RBI. As a team, Minnesota had five different players with multi-hit game, nine different players collect hits, seven different players score runs and seven different players collect RBI.
Iowa starter Nick Brown took the loss to fall to 5-7, as he gave up eight hits, four runs, three walks and five strikeouts in 4.2 innings. Minnesota pushed home 11 runs in 5.1 innings against the Hawkeye bullpen.
Minnesota got on the board with a single run in the top of the first inning to take a 1-0 lead. With two outs, Kvasnicka delivered a double to right field and scored on an RBI double by Knudson
The Golden Gophers pushed the lead out to 3-0 with two runs in the top of the second inning. Puhl led off the inning with a single, stole his first base of the year and moved to third when Schultz reached on an error.
Pettersen delivered an RBI single to plate Puhl, and Henkemeyer followed with an RBI single to extend the lead to 3-0. Minnesota pushed the lead to 4-0 with a single run in the top of the fifth inning. With two outs, Geason and Schultz drew back-to-back walks and Larson plated Geason with an RBI single to push the Gopher lead to 4-0.
The Golden Gophers exploded for four runs in the top of the seventh to take an 8-0 lead. Puhl led off with a single, but was wiped out when Geason reached on a fielder's choice. Schultz and Larson drew back-to-back walks to load the bases with one out. Pettersen cleared them with a three-run double to left field that pushed the lead to 7-0. Kurt Schlangen (Albany, Minn.) drew a walk, and Kvasnicka followed with an infield RBI single to make it 8-0.
Iowa scored a single run in the bottom of the seventh to move the score to 8-1 on a Tyson Blaser RBI single. The Golden Gophers exploded for seven runs in the top of the eighth to move out to a 15-1 lead. O'Shea pushed the lead to 9-1 when Nick O'Shea (Blaine, Minn.) scored on a wild pitch. Larson delivered an RBI single to make it 10-1, and Schlangen delivered a three-run double to push it to 13-1. Knudson pushed home a run on an RBI ground out, and O'Shea delivered an RBI single to finish Minnesota's scoring for the night.
The Hawkeyes pushed home three runs in the eighth and one in the ninth for the final tally. The Hawkeyes were led by Kurtis Muller who was 2-for-4 with a run, an RBI and a double. Dallas Burke also collected two RBI.
