University of Minnesota Athletics
University of Minnesota
Northern Illinois
Minnesota Outslugs Northern Illinois for Win
4/6/2016 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Box Score: Minnesota 12, Northern Illinois 10 
On its home turf for the sixth straight game, Minnesota captured a 12-10 decision against Northern Illinois on Wednesday afternoon. The Gophers (16-10) tallied 14 hits marking the 18th time they have notched double-digit hits during the 2016 campaign.
Dan Motl and Terrin Vavra led the way at the plate by each putting up 3-for-3 performances with three RBI as the top two hitters in the lineup. Vavra netted his first career home run and crossed the plate twice as well.
Two others produced multi-hit games as Matt Fiedler and Matt Stemper each had two base knocks, while Fiedler added an RBI.
Minnesota used eight different pitchers in the game to seal the victory. Tim Shannon earned the start and went 2.0 innings. Ty McDevitt earned his first win of the season after tossing 2.0 innings and striking out two in relief. Jeff Fasching, Nick Lackney and Jake Stevenson all threw flawless innings of relief and combined for three strikeouts on the day.
The Maroon and Gold opened the scoring by plating their highest run total in a frame this season. The Gophers used six hits to score seven in their first at-bat. After Motl and Vavra netted back-to-back singles, Fiedler drilled a ground-rule double to left-center to score one. Jordan Smith then laced a single to right field that plated two more to make it 3-0. Later on, Connor Schaefbauer drew a bases-loaded walk with zero outs and it was 4-0 in favor of the home team.
Minnesota batted around and the results stayed the same. Motl smacked a single up the middle to bring in two, while Vavra added an RBI single. Northern Illinois (7-21) got out of the inning on the next batter, but the damage proved to be insurmountable.
The Huskies scored two on a pair of RBI doubles to bring the margin down to five in the top of the second.
The Gophers kept the pressure on in the bottom of the third. Eddie Estrada led off with a single to left and then stole second base on the next pitch. Motl then tallied an RBI ground-rule double in right-center, scoring Estrada. Next, Vavra took a pitch over the heart of the plate and hit a two-run blast off the scoreboard in right field for his first career home run. Schaefbauer brought in the team's final run of the stanza with his team-leading sixth sacrifice fly to make the score line 11-2.
Northern Illinois found life in the fifth as it scored five runs on as many hits, highlighted by two RBI singles. The home team still found itself ahead at that point, 11-7.
Cole McDevitt capped the scoring output when he took the first pitch of the sixth inning and drilled a solo home run over the left field wall.
The Huskies made things interesting in the ninth when they scored three runs and had ducks on the pond with two outs, but Brian Glowicki closed it out with a strikeout, sending Minnesota to its 11th win in 12 tries against Northern Illinois all-time.
The Gophers drew a season-high nine walks in the contest, led by Micah Coffey who had four, which was the highest total they have produced since 2013 against Penn State.
Minnesota returns to action this weekend it heads to Ann Arbor, Mich. for a showdown with fellow top-40 RPI member and Big Ten rival Michigan.
