University of Minnesota Athletics
Minnesota Falls to Cal State Fullerton 9-5
6/8/2010 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
The Minnesota baseball team (32-30) saw its season end at the hands of Cal State Fullerton (45-16) 9-5 in the NCAA Regional Championship game at Goodwin Field in Fullerton, Calif. on Monday, June 7.
With the appearance in the NCAA Regional championship game, Minnesota became one of only 19 programs in the nation to appear in an NCAA Regional championship game in 2009 and 2010.
Minnesota had three players named to the NCAA Regional All-Tournament, as Kyle Knudson (Maple Grove, Minn.), Michael Kvasnicka (Lakeville, Minn.) and Seth Rosin (Shoreview, Minn.) all claimed the honors. Nick Ramirez (First Base - Cal State Fullerton), Corey Jones (Second Base - Cal State Fullerton), Christian Colon (Shortstop - Cal State Fullerton), Kenny Diekroeger (Third Base - Stanford), Stephen Piscotty (outfield - Stanford), Tyler Gaffney (Outfield - Stanford), Carlos Lopez (Designated Hitter - Cal State Fullerton) and Colin O'Connell (Pitcher - Cal State Fullerton) also received the honors. Jones claimed the Regional's Most Outstanding Player honors.
Knudson, who also claimed Big Ten Tournament Most Outstanding honors a little over a week ago, ended up batting .444 (8-for-18) with three runs, a home run and three RBI in the NCAA Regionals. Kvasnicka batted .421 (8-for-19) with two runs, a home run, two doubles and four RBI in the tournament. Rosin handed Cal State Fullerton its only loss, as he gave up only three hits, one run and struck out seven in the victory in the regional opener.
"I am proud of our team," said Minnesota Head Coach John Anderson. "They battled and fought the whole way here. We battled until the end and did not give up, and I am proud of our kids and the way they competed. We put together a run the last five or six weeks and just came up a little short in the end. I congratulate Cal State Fullerton. I thought they did a great job as a host, and I wish them luck in the upcoming NCAA Regional."
Minnesota jumped out to a 4-2 lead after an RBI triple by Knudson and an RBI single by O'Shea in the bottom of the third inning. However, Cal State Fullerton scored a pair of runs in each of the next three innings to eventually move out to an 8-4 lead. Minnesota scored in the bottom of the seventh, and the Titans scored in the top of the eighth for the final tally.
The Golden Gophers were led by Kvasnicka who went 3-for-5 with a double, a run and two RBI. Kvasnicka finished the season fifth on the Golden Gophers' single-season list in doubles with 25 and seventh in walks at 46. He also collected 51 runs, 50 RBI and reached base 136 times this season.
"I thought it was a different game than yesterday, said Kvasnicka. "I thought we got more offense going tonight. Obviously you could tell by the scoreboard in the first couple of innings it was more of an offensive game than last night. It was the same story as yesterday where once they started playing their type of baseball it was hard to stop their momentum. They got in their comfort zone, and that is really obviously when they are playing their best."
O'Shea went 2-for-4 with an RBI in the game, and finished the season with team-leading 60 RBI. He has collected 24 home runs and 104 RBI his first two season with the Golden Gophers. Pettersen was also 2-for-5 with two runs, while Kyle Geason (Eden Prairie, Minn.) was 1-for-4 with a home run and an RBI. Knudson also finished 1-for-5 with a triple, a run and an RBI. He finished his senior season batting .342 with 48 RBI.
Minnesota starter Austin Lubinsky (LaCrosse, Wis.) took the loss to fall to 1-3, as he gave up eight hits, four earned runs, walked one and struck out two in 4.2 innings. Luke Rasmussen (Northfield, Minn.) gave up one hit and two runs in an inning of work.
Billy Soule (Hamel, Minn.) gave up one hit, one run and struck out a batter in 1.1 innings. Soule pitched a team-high six innings in relief in the NCAA Regionals, as he gave up five hits, three runs, one walk and struck out three batters in two appearances.
Junior Scott Matyas (North Prairie, Wis.) pitched 1.2 shutout innings, gave up two hits and struck out three. In three appearances in the NCAA Regionals, Matyas went 1-0 with a save, pitched 5.2 shutout innings, gave up two hits, walked one and struck out 12. Dating back to the 2009 NCAA Regionals, Matyas has gone 1-0 with two saves, given up five hits and struck out 17 batters in 8.2 innings (spanning five appearances). In five postseason appearances in 2010 (spanning the NCAA Regionals and Big Ten Tournament), Matyas went 2-0 with two saves, gave up one run in 9.2 innings and collected 19 strikeouts.
"It was another hard fought game between both teams," said Anderson. "We went back and forth at each other pretty good in the first three innings. We withstood some of the push they made and we made a push back at them. It was a pretty tight ballgame, and we hit a guy with two strikes, missed location on the home run to the next batter and they got the momentum back. It seemed like when we made mistake or missed location they took advantage of it and that is the sign of a really good baseball team. They have a system that works and they can make it difficult when they are executing."
Minnesota got to Cal State Fullerton starter Dylan Floro for seven hits and four runs in 3.2 innings, as he had a no-decision. Raymond Hernandez picked up his first win of the year in relief, as he pitched three innings, gave up one run and struck out three. Noe Ramirez gave up two hits and struck out three in 1.1 innings. Nick Ramirez closed the game out with a scoreless ninth inning.
Cal State Fullerton struck for an early run in the top of the first to take a 1-0 lead. Colon was hit by a pitch, moved to second on a balk and advanced to third on a ground out. Jones followed with a hustle double that plated Colon to put the Titans on the board first.
Minnesota tied the game at 1-1 with a single run in the bottom of the first. Pettersen led off with a single, moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Henkemeyer and scored on an RBI double by Kvasnicka to tie the game. Cal State Fullerton cut down Kvasnicka at third on a fielder's choice ground out by Knudson, and Floro retired O'Shea to end the inning.
The Titans threatened to score in the top of the second when Billy Marcoe led off the inning with a double, and moved to third on a ground out. However, Minnesota brought the infield in and Pettersen cut down Marcoe coming home on a ground out to hold Cal State Fullerton off the scoreboard in the inning.
Minnesota took its first lead of the night at 2-1 when Geason led off the bottom of the second with a solo home run. However, Cal State Fullerton evened the score at 2-2 with a solo home run by Jones.
The Golden Gophers pushed across a pair of runs to take a 4-2 lead in the bottom of the third. With two outs, Kvasnicka delivered a single to center field and came around to second on an RBI triple by Knudson to give Minnesota the lead back at 3-2. O'Shea followed with an RBI single to put the Golden Gophers ahead by two runs 4-2.
Cal State Fullerton tie the game at 4-4 with two runs in the top of the fourth. Marcoe drew a one-out walk, and moved to second when Carlos Lopez reached on an error. Joey Siddons chopped an infield single over third base to load the bases with one out. Lubinsky bounced back to strike out Walker Moore, but Colon delivered a two-run single to tie the game at 4-4. Minnesota caught Simmons taking a wide turn at third, and tagged him on a rundown to end the inning.
The Titans reclaimed the lead at 6-4 with a pair of runs in the top of the fifth. Minnesota got the first two outs of the inning, but hit Tyler Pill on a 1-2 count. Nick Ramirez made them pay with a two-run homer to put Cal State Fullerton ahead 6-4.
Cal State Fullerton pushed the lead to 8-4 with two runs in the top of the sixth. Moore drew a leadoff walk to get things starter. It appeared Colon had grounded out in the next at-bat, but a balk was called to move more to second. Colon took advantage of his second chance with an RBI double to make it 7-4. Jones plated Colon with a sacrifice fly.
Minnesota cut the lead to 8-5 with a single run in the bottom of the seventh inning. With one out, Larson singled to left field. However, he was wiped out at second when Pettersen reached on a fielder's choice. Henkemeyer followed with a single through the right side, and Kvasnicka plated Pettersen with an RBI single against reliever Noe Ramirez. Ramirez struck out Knudson with runners on first and third to get out of the inning.
The Titans got the run back in the top of the eighth when Richie Pedroza delivered an RBI triple to plate Colon to make it 9-5. Cal State Fullerton was led by Colon who went 3-for-4 with two doubles, three runs and three RBI. Jones finished 2-for-4 with a home run, and three RBI, and ended up homering in the final three games of the tournament. Nick Ramirez was also 1-for-4 with a home run and two RBI.
