University of Minnesota Athletics
University of Minnesota
Seattle
Minnesota's Comeback Falls Short at Seattle
3/13/2016 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Box Score: Seattle 5, Minnesota 4 
Minnesota battled, but was unable to complete the comeback in a 5-4 defeat at the hands of host Seattle University on a rainy Saturday evening. The middle of the Gophers (7-5) lineup combined for five of the team's eight hits in the loss, while the pitching staff tallied a season-best 13 strikeouts.
Matt Fiedler led the charge at the plate with a 2-for-4 performance that included a double. The duo of Austin Athmann and Micah Coffey notched three RBI on a pair of extra-base hits in the contest.
On the mound, Dalton Sawyer got the start and scattered seven hits and four runs in 5.0 innings pitched. The southpaw also tied a career-high with seven strikeouts.
Both teams raced off to fast starts in the opening frame. First, the Gophers plated two on a triple to the right-center gap by Coffey.
Seattle (10-4) responded on a two-out flare to left that scored two and tied the game up at 2-2.
The bats cooled along with the temperature until the bottom of the fifth when the Redhawks got another damaging hit with two outs. This time, a double to left field scored a pair and netted the home team a 4-2 lead.
Seattle added to that in the sixth when it tallied another run that was aided by two Minnesota errors, making the score 5-2.
The Gophers did not go quiet into the night, as the road team tallied four hits across the final three innings of play.
In the eighth, Alex Boxwell led off the stanza with a double that hit off the wall in left field. Following a Terrin Vavra walk and a fly out from Fiedler to put runners at first and third base, Athmann laced a double to right-center that immediately scored Boxwell. On the relay home, an error on the throw from center field plated Vavra and brought the deficit down to one.
However, despite a pinch-hit single by Eddie Estrada in the ninth, the Redhawks bullpen shut the door and earned their second win of the series in as many days.
Also in the game, Brian Glowicki tied a career-high with four strikeouts in 2.1 innings of work.
Minnesota will look for its first win of the non-conference series tomorrow when it is scheduled to play at Seattle at 4 p.m.
