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University of Minnesota Athletics
Seven-Run Second Paces Gophers' Doubleheader Sweep
4/24/2011 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
The Minnesota baseball team (13-15, 5-6) used a seven-run second inning to move on to a 12-1 win over Indiana (25-14, 6-5) in the second game of a doubleheader to claim a sweep at Sembower Field in Bloomington, Ind. on Saturday, Apr. 23.
Minnesota won the first game 3-2, and completed the doubleheader sweep with its highest run total of the season. It was the Gophers' first doubleheader road sweep since Apr. 28, 2007 at Illinois when Minnesota won 19-4 and 14-5 in Champaign.
The Gophers had nine different players score runs, eight players collect RBI and six players with two hits. Nick O'Shea (Blaine, Minn.) finished 2-for-4 with a home run, two runs and two RBI, while David Bettenburg (St. Paul, Minn.) was 2-for-5 with a home run and two RBI. Troy Larson (Maplewood, Minn.) also finished 2-for-4 with a run and two RBI, while Matt Puhl (North St. Paul, Minn.) was 2-for-5 with two runs.
AJ Pettersen (Minnetonka, Minn.) was 2-for-6 with a double, a run and an RBI. Pettersen was 5-for-10 with four runs, a home run and two RBI in the doubleheader. He has now collected a hit in 27 of 28 games for the Gophers this year, and has reached safely in all 28 games this year. Dating back to last year, he has reached in 41 straight contests.
Dan Olinger (Great Falls, Mont.) was also 2-for-5 with a double, a run and an RBI.
Minnesota starter Phil Isaksson (Eau Claire, Wis.) had another strong outing to pick up a win to move to 2-4, as he pitched seven innings, gave up seven hits, one run, walked one and had a career-high seven strikeouts. Cullen Sexton (Plover, Wis.) came in and also pitched two shutout innings to finish the game.
Isaksson, Sexton, TJ Oakes (Jordan, Minn.) and Tom Windle (Maple Grove, Minn.) combined to limit an Indiana team that was second in the conference in batting average in Big Ten play to only three runs in two games on the day.
Indiana starter Chad Martin took the loss to fall to 2-3, as he gave up seven hits, seven runs, walked one and struck out a batter in 1.1 innings.
Indiana got on the board with a single run in the bottom of the first to go up 1-0 when Alex Dickerson delivered an RBI double to plate Dustin DeMuth to make it 1-0.
The Gophers answered in a big way with a seven-run top of the second in which they sent 11 batters to the plate. Kyle Geason (Eden Praire, Minn.) started things off when he was hit by a pitch. With one out, Puhl single to make it first and second and Andy Henkemeyer (Sauk Rapids, Minn.) plated Geason to tie the score at 1-1. Minnesota loaded the bases when Pettersen reached on a fielder's choice and the Indiana shortstop made an error to allow Henkemeyer to reach second to load the bases.
Larson came through with a two-run single to give Minnesota the lead at 3-1. Justin Gominsky (Mahtomedi, Minn.) followed with a scorching shot that took a nasty hop over the second baseman for an RBI single that made it 4-1.
O'Shea and Olinger followed with RBI singles to push the lead to 6-1. With two outs and runners on first and third, O'Shea scored on a wild pitch to finish out the scoring in the second inning.
Minnesota added an RBI single by Pettersen in the top of the third and O'Shea's second homer of the year in the top of the fourth to move ahead 9-1.
The score remained the same until the top of the seventh when Bettenburg crushed a two-run homer to center field for his second of the season to put the Gophers ahead 11-1. Minnesota finished the scoring when Olinger led off the ninth with a double, and came home to score on an RBI single by Geason.
Indiana was led by DeMuth who went 2-for-3 with a double and a run, and Dickerson who was 1-for-3 with an RBI.
Minnesota will finish up the series with Indiana on Sunday, Apr. 24 at 11 a.m. (CT) in a game that will be broadcast live on the Big Ten Network.
