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University of Minnesota Athletics
Gophers Drop Season Opener to St. John's
2/18/2011 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
The Minnesota baseball team (0-1) dropped its season opener to St. John's (1-0) 14-1 at Jack Russell Stadium in Clearwater, Fla. on Friday, Feb. 18 in its first game of the Big Ten/Big East Challenge.
Junior third baseman Kyle Geason (Eden Prairie, Minn.) went 2-for-3 with an RBI, while Nick O'Shea (Blaine, Minn.) also finished 2-for-3 in the game. Trip Schultz (Forest Lake, Minn.) also reached base twice, and was 1-for-1 with a run and a triple.
Sophomore TJ Oakes (Jordan, Minn.) took the loss to fall to 0-1, as he gave up five hits, one earned run, walked three and struck out four batters. Luke Rasmussen (Northfield, Minn.) gave up seven hits, four earned runs, walked one and struck out two in 1.1 innings of work, while Dustin Klabunde (Brownton, Minn.) surrendered five hits, five runs, walked one and struck out one in 2.2 innings. Redshirt freshman Alex Tukey (San Diego, Calif.) gave up one hit and struck out one in a scoreless inning of work.
St. John's starting pitcher Sean Hagan pitched five shutout innings, gave up three hits, walked one and struck out four to pick up the win. Kyle Hansen gave up four hits, one run, walked one and struck out two batters in four innings of work to pick up a save.
Heading into the bottom of the third, the game was still scoreless. Joe Witkowski got a threat started when doubled and moved to third on a wild pitch. Jimmy Brennan hit slow chopper through the left side of the infield for an RBI single to give the Red Storm at 1-0 lead. With two outs, Joe Panik doubled and scored to make it 2-0 when Jeremy Baltz reached on an error.
Rowan Wick pushed the lead to 3-0 in the bottom of the fourth with a solo home run. St. John's blew the game open with six run bottom of the fifth inning that saw the Gophers commit an error and lose a ball in the sun. With one out, Joe Witkowski plated Sean O'Hare with double to put the Red Storm ahead 4-0. After an error loaded the bases, Matt Wessinger delivered an RBI single to move it to 5-0. Panik followed with a bases-loaded walk and Baltz followed with a two-run double to make it 8-0. Paul Karmas finished the scoring in the inning with a sacrifice fly.
St. John's added three runs in the sixth and two in the seventh to make it 14-0. Minnesota got on the board in the top of seventh when Schultz led off with a triple and scored on a sacrifice fly by Geason.
The Red Storm had 11 different players collect hits on the afternoon. Baltz and Panik each knocked in two runs, while O'Hare, Witkowski, Schwindel, Panik and Brennan each had two runs in the game.
Minnesota will be back in action when it faces No. 9 Connecticut on Saturday, Feb. 19 at 3 p.m. (CT). That game can be heard live in the Gold Zone.
