University of Minnesota Athletics
University of Minnesota
Campbell
Balanced Hitting Leads Gophers to Series Win
2/28/2016 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Box Score: Minnesota 7, Campbell 5 
Ten different players had at least one hit to pace Minnesota to a 7-5 win against Campbell on Sunday. The Gophers (5-2) collected hits from eight spots in the lineup and had a pair of hits in pinch-hitting roles to nab the series, 2-1.
Austin Athmann, Riley Smith, Matt Stemper and Terrin Vavra each contributed two hits in the series-clinching win. The biggest hit of the afternoon, however, came off the bat of Eddie Estrada who laced a single up the middle that plated two in the eighth and gave Minnesota all the run support it needed.
The Gophers used the trio of Tyler Hanson, Ty McDevitt and Jordan Jess to go the distance on the mound. Hanson improved his record to 1-0 after hurling 6.0 innings with three earned runs and four strikeouts.
Both teams got off the schneid early and scored on their opening at-bats. Minnesota scored when Matt Fiedler brought in Dan Motl on a sacrifice fly. Athmann added to the scoring with an RBI-double that plated Vavra and gave the Gophers a 2-0 lead.
The Camels (3-4) erased the advantage in the home half of the first frame when they scored three runs on a bases-clearing double with no outs. Hanson buckled down and got out of the inning with minimal damage.
In fact, after the run-producing double, the right-hander retired 17 of the next 20 batters he faced, including a stretch of 11 straight from the third to the sixth inning.
Micah Coffey tied the game back up with a leadoff homer over the left-field wall in the fourth to make it 3-3. The Gophers then took the lead in the same stanza when Connor Schaefbauer netted an RBI-single through the right side.
The scoring subsided for both teams until the eighth inning. Following a hit and a walk from Jordan Smith and R. Smith, Schaefbauer moved them over with a sacrifice bunt to set up what would be the biggest at-bat in the game.
Estrada then came on and drilled a single up the middle that scored two and made it a 6-3 ballgame. Ben Mezzenga was brought in to pinch-run and worked his way around the bases before scoring the team's final run on a wild pitch.
Trailing 7-3, Campbell brought the deficit down to two following an RBI-double down the left-field line and a groundout that plated another. Jess worked his way out of the jam in the eighth and slammed the door shut in the ninth on a strikeout.
In total, Minnesota's pitching staff held Campbell to just six hits and produced six strikeouts on the day.
The Gophers' have now started 5-2 in two of the past three seasons and will look to improve their mark when they travel to Georgia State next weekend. The three-game series is set to take place in Atlanta, Ga., March 4-6.
