University of Minnesota Athletics
University of Minnesota
12-7
UT Arlington
6-9
UT Arlington Stays Hot at Gophers' Expense
3/14/2018 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
ARLINGTON, Texas - The Gopher Baseball team could not keep pace with UT-Arlington, falling 13-5 in the team's second stop during its Texas swing at Clay Gould Ballpark on Wednesday evening.
While Minnesota (12-7) scored first, UT-Arlington (6-9) hit a two-run home run in each of the second and fourth innings, the latter to cap off a seven-run rally against a pair of freshman pitchers for the Gophers. Toby Hanson continues to be effective for Minnesota at the plate, driving in Luke Pettersen with a sacrifice fly in both the first and third innings, but the Maroon & Gold were looking up at a 9-2 deficit after four.
The Gophers made their first dent in the scoreboard in the top of the fifth as they loaded the bases with singles by Alex Boxwell and Micah Coffey around a walk by Pettersen. A walk by Terrin Vavra brought home Minnesota's third run, and Pettersen would score on a groundball off the bat of Hanson. Ben Mezzenga skied a two-out triple down the left field line in the sixth, and Boxwell followed that up with a single to further trim the lead to 9-5.
The Mavericks were not done scoring as they took advantage of nine Gopher walks on the day, scoring twice more in the sixth and the eighth. Minnesota used four rookie pitchers on the day, with Joshua Culliver (1-2) talking the loss after allowing four earned in 3.2 innings, striking out two. David Moffat (1-4) was awarded the win on the mound after allowing just one earned on one hit, striking out four in 4.0 innings.
"The whole game is about pitching. If you don't pitch well, the game breaks down," said head coach John Anderson. "When you have games like this, it's a product of us playing a lot of games in a short timeframe. The last two and a half weeks, we've played a lot of games and thrown a lot of pitches. It catches up to you at some point. We found out a lot about our team tonight."
Boxwell's return to the line-up was a highlight for Minnesota as he finished his day 3-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored.
QUOTABLE
"The best thing that happened tonight was that Alex Boxwell got back into the line-up. We had a couple guys that have been sick, and they got back on the field. That was good. I didn't play Riley Smith tonight because he was a little stiff from yesterday. I'd like to have him available this weekend so I didn't push him. I'm hoping this weekend we can get both Alex and Riley back and they can be in their normal rotations." - John Anderson on the team getting healthy ahead of this weekend's series
NOTABLE
Drew Hmielewski made his season debut on the mound for the Gophers, getting both of the batters he faced with the bases loaded in the eighth.
UP NEXT
Minnesota opens a three-game series against No. 9 TCU in Ft. Worth on Friday evening. First pitch is set for 6:30 p.m.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: D. Moffat (1-4)
L: Culliver, Josh (1-2)
Batting:
3B: Mezzenga, Ben 1
RBI: Vavra, Terrin 1 ; Hanson, Toby 2 ; Boxwell, Alex 1
SF: Hanson, Toby 2
Base Running:
RUNS: Pettersen, Luke 3 ; Mezzenga, Ben 1 ; Boxwell, Alex 1
SB: Pettersen, Luke 1 ; Boxwell, Alex 1
Batting:
2B: W. Olson 1
3B: N. Vaughan 2
HR: C. Hollie 1 ; J. Nunez 1
RBI: RJ Williams 1 ; N. Vaughan 3 ; C. Hollie 3 ; O. Salinas 1 ; J. Nunez 3
SF: O. Salinas 1
Base Running:
RUNS: RJ Williams 3 ; N. Vaughan 2 ; C. Hollie 1 ; O. Salinas 2 ; J. Nunez 2 ; Z. Cook 1 ; A. Funk 2
CS: J. Minjarez 1
HBP: N. Vaughan 1
