May 25, 2005
CHAMPAIGN, ILLINOIS - Three late-inning homers including a grand slam off the bat of Jake Elder, powered sixth seeded Minnesota to a 14-7 victory over third seeded Iowa here Wednesday (May 25) in the opening round of the 2005 Big Ten Conference Baseball Tournament at Illinois Field on the campus of the University of Illinois.
With the win, the Golden Gophers advance to play the top seeded Fighting Illini at 7:05 p.m. central time on Thursday (May 26) and improves their record to 30-27 on the season.
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Loberg then fell behind 3-0 to Andy Lytle who - after fouling off a pair of Loberg offerings - singled though the left side to score the fourth run of the game with runners still on the corners. The senior then got Nate Yoho to hit into a fielders choice to get out of the inning.
With a runner on third in the top of the fourth, Iowa starter Jeff Maitland surrender a two out single to Mike Mee which scored Jake Elder to put Minnesota on the board and make the score 4-1 in favor of the Hawkeyes.
Loberg's troubles would continue in the fourth inning when he loaded the bases and was pulled by
Maitland would encounter similar troubles in the top of the fifth inning. After plunking two batters and issuing a walk, the Golden Gophers had the bases loaded with only one down. Andy Hunter couldn't get the job done however as the junior hit into a 3-6-1 double play to end the
With runners on first and second in the top of the sixth Iowa Head Coach Jack Dahm made the call to the pen for Travis Sweet. The freshman right-hander would walk pinch hitter Taylor VanderAarde to load up the bags with the top of the order coming up. Sweet would get David Hrncirik to ground out to second to preserve the
In the bottom of the sixth, it was
After a walk to Joe Maciej, Jake Elder doubled down the leftfield line to score Maciej all the way from first and make the score 5-2 Iowa with Minnesota threatening a big inning. That would be all for Travis Sweet as Chris Zinn was called from the pen. Zinn would stumble into trouble as well after Kevin Carlson found the left field corner with a shot down the line for a double to score Elder for the third run of the game for
Aaron Reasland was then brought in as the third pitcher of record in the inning. After recording the second out, Luke MacLean reached on an error by shortstop Andy Lytle that also plated Carlson to make it a 5-4 game in favor if Iowa.
The inning continued as Reasland hit VanderAarde with a 2-2 pitch to load the bases. Hrncirik then laid down a drag bunt single toward third base that caught the Hawkeyes off guard. Mee crossed the plate to tie the game with the bases still loaded. Reasland then issued a bases loaded walk to the 10th batter of the inning, Maciej, to give
With the bags still full Elder stepped up and got a hold of the first pitch he saw and belted it over the fence in left for a grand slam to make the score 10-5 Gophers. After and Andy Hunter single, Carlson cracked the second homer of the inning with a shot to left field to score UM's 10th and 11th runs of the stanza.
Overall in the top of the seventh,
The Hawkeyes would pick up two runs on a pair of infield singles in the bottom of the eighth off the bats of Welker and Napoleon to cut the
But, the Gophers would answer back on a two-run shot to left-center by Andy Hunter to go up 14-7.
The Golden Gophers continue in the winner's bracket and are set to play
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