University of Minnesota Athletics
Gophers Move Into Tie for First Place
5/8/2010 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
The Minnesota baseball team (21-26, 9-7) defeated Michigan (28-16, 9-7) 14-7 in the series opener at the Metrodome on Friday, May 7 to move into a three-way tie for first place in the Big Ten with the Wolverines and Northwestern at 9-7.
Minnesota continued its strong offensive performances in series openers in the Metrodome as it pounded out 17 hits and 14 runs. In the past two Friday games at the Metrodome, the Golden Gophers have scored 28 runs and collected 41 hits.
Michael Kvasnicka (Lakeville, Minn.) paced the Gopher offense as he went 4-for-5 with a home run, a double, three runs and five RBI. Kvasnicka matched his career-high in runs (3), RBI (5) and hits (4) in the game. Sophomore Nick O'Shea (Blaine, Minn.) stayed hot in the month of May, as he reached base four times and was 3-for-4 with two runs, two RBI and a double. AJ Pettersen (Minnetonka, Minn.) also reached base four times, and was 1-for-3 with a home run, three runs, two RBI and three walks.
Kyle Geason (Eden Prairie, Minn.) reached base four times, and was 2-for-3 with two RBI and a pair of walks. Troy Larson (Maplewood, Minn.) finished 2-for-5 with three runs and a stolen base, while Matt Puhl (North St. Paul, Minn.) went 1-for-4 with an RBI to extend his hitting streak to 14 games. The Golden Gophers top five hitters scored 13 of their 14 runs on the night, and 10 different players collected hits.
Golden Gopher starter Seth Rosin (Shoreview, Minn.) picked up the win to move to 5-4, as he pitched six innings, gave up six hits, three runs, walked two and struck out 10 batters. Rosin's 10 strikeouts gave him a second double-digit strikeout performance this season. His first came against Harvard on Mar. 12.
Cullen Sexton (Plover, Wis.) gave up three hits and three runs in two innings of relief, and Tim Ryan (Eagan, Minn.) finished with a scoreless ninth innings.
Michigan starter Eric Katzman took the loss to fall 4-2, as he gave up five hits and four runs in four innings of work. The Golden Gophers scored 10 runs and had 12 hits in four innings against the Wolverines' bullpen.
Michigan got on the board in the top of the first inning to take a 1-0 lead. Ryan LaMarre reached on a two-out walk, and moved to second on a balk. Chris Berset plated him with an RBI single to give the Wolverines the early lead.
Kvasnicka answered with a solo home run to left center field in the bottom of the first inning to tie the game at 1-1. Nick Urban put the wolverines back ahead 2-1 with a solo home run to center field in the top of the second.
Michigan pushed its lead to two runs at 3-1 in the top of the fourth John Lorenz delivered an RBI single to plate Mike Dufek.
The Golden Gophers cut the Wolverine lead to 3-2 with a single run in the bottom of the fourth. O'Shea got things started when he was hit by a pitch with one out. Puhl singled to make it first and third, and Geason drew a walk to load the bases. Schlangen plated O'Shea with a sacrifice fly to make it a one-run game, but Katzman struck out Brooks Albrecht (Hutchinson, Minn.) to keep the Wolverines ahead.
Minnesota took its first lead of the game when it pushed four runs across the plate in the bottom of the fifth. Larson led off the inning with a single up the middle, and Pettersen followed by delivering a two-run homer to left field to give the Golden Gophers a 4-3 lead. Kvasnicka singled, moved to second on a Knudson single and came home to make it 5-3 on an O'Shea RBI single through the left side. Geason followed with an RBI single to center field to plate Knudson to give Minnesota a 6-3 lead.
Michigan threatened to cut into the lead in the top of the sixth when Dufek delivered a one-out double. With two outs, Lorenz singled to center field, but Kvasnicka came up with a strong through from right field to get Dufek trying to score to end the inning.
The Golden Gophers added three runs in the bottom of the seventh to take a 9-3 lead. Larson led off with a single, and moved to second when Pettersen drew a walk. Kvasnicka plated both runners to make it 8-3 with a two-run double to left center field, but was thrown out trying to stretch it to a triple. Kyle Knudson followed with a walk, moved to third on an O'Shea double and scored on a sacrifice fly by Puhl to make it 9-3.
Minnesota stretched the lead to 14-3 with five runs in the bottom of the seventh. Kvasnicka got the scoring started with a two-run single that plated Andy Henkemeyer (Sauk Rapids, Minn.) and Larson to make it 11-3. O'Shea, Geason and Trip Schultz (Forest Lake, Minn.) also collected RBI singles to stretch out the Gopher lead.
Michigan pushed four runs across the plate in the top of the eighth to cut the Gopher lead to 14-7.
The Wolverines were led by Berset who went 2-for-4 with a run and an RBI. Urban also reached base three times, and was 1-for-2 with a home run and two runs. Lorenz finished 2-for-3 with an RBI on the night as well.
Minnesota will resume its series with Michigan on Saturday, May 8 at 2:05 p.m. and finish it on Sunday, May 9 at 1:05 p.m. Both games will be on KLBB (1220 AM) and in the Gold Zone. On Saturday, May 8, Minnesota will honor the 1960, 1970 and 2000 teams prior to the game.
