University of Minnesota Athletics
University of Minnesota
Michigan
Minnesota Sweeps Doubleheader at Michigan
4/8/2016 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Box Score: Minnesota 8, Michigan 1 
| Box Score: Minnesota 5, Michigan 3
The University of Minnesota baseball team won the opening two games of the series on Friday at No. 25 Michigan. The Gophers (18-10, 4-1 Big Ten) clinched their second straight series victory over a ranked opponent on the road as they took two of three from No. 23 Missouri State less than two weeks ago.
The Maroon and Gold outscored the Wolverines (21-8, 3-2) by a margin of 13-4 across 18 innings of play. Minnesota was led at the plate by Austin Athmann and Connor Schaefbauer who each tallied four hits, including a double each, on the day. Matt Fiedler and Terrin Vavra chimed in with RBI doubles to help guide the Gophers.
As a team, Minnesota drew 20 walks in the two games and reached on base at a .467 clip.
On the mound, the pitching staff got two impressive outings from the top two arms in the rotation in Fiedler and Dalton Sawyer. Both threw 6.0 innings and combined for 14 strikeouts and surrendered just one run and eight hits.
The bullpen trio of Toby Anderson, Lucas Gilbreath and Tyler Hanson added 6.0 flawless frames and totaled six strikeouts.
Minnesota and Michigan are set to return to action on Sunday at 12 p.m. Due to inclement weather, Saturday's scheduled game was moved to a doubleheader on Friday.
Game No. 1 - Minnesota 8, Michigan 1
The Gophers collected five two-out hits to highlight the 8-1 series-opening win at No. 25 Michigan on Friday. Minnesota (17-10, 3-1 Big Ten) was paced offensively by Micah Coffey, who went 3-for-4 with one RBI in the game and hit 2-for-2 with two outs.
Alex Boxwell came on as a pinch-hitter and secured two RBI to lead the team in that respective category. Austin Athmann tied a career-high with three runs and added a 2-for-3 performance at the dish, including a double and an RBI.
The duo of Matt Fiedler and Tyler Hanson went the distance on the mound. Fiedler earned the win and improved his record to 5-2 after tossing 6.0 innings with one earned run and four strikeouts. Ty. Hanson threw 3.0 shutout innings and added three strikeouts to help lock down the win.
The Maroon and Gold opened the scoring in the second stanza behind a two-run, three-hit inning. With runners on second and third base, Jordan Smith and Toby Hanson drilled back-to-back RBI singles to give the Gophers a 2-0 lead.
In the home half of the third, Michigan (21-7, 3-1) got a run back with a rundown on a fake steal attempt.
With the score at 2-1, the next three innings flew by scoreless before the Gophers busted the game open in the seventh.
Athmann laced a run-scoring double to the left-center gap to score Dan Motl, who reached on a walk and was moved over on a sacrifice bunt from Terrin Vavra. On the ensuing at-bat, Boxwell brought in another on a sacrifice fly before Micah Coffey put the game out of reach when he gave Minnesota a 5-1 lead on an RBI single to left field.
The Gophers raced across three more runs in their final chance in the top of the ninth, keyed by three hits and two Michigan errors. Boxwell secured an RBI single. The Wolverines then had one crucial error at second base to give Minnesota another run. Boxwell then scampered home on a passed ball to cap the scoring at 8-1.
Michigan totaled three hits in the bottom of the ninth, but was unable to plate a run as Ty. Hanson shut the door to send the Gophers to their third conference win of the season and third victory over a ranked team in 2016.
Minnesota accumulated 11 hits in the opening game, which marked the 19th time in 27 games it has recorded 10-plus hits this season.
Game No. 2 - Minnesota 5, Michigan 3
The Gophers kept their momentum from winning the opening game of the day at No. 25 Michigan and used it to complete the doubleheader sweep on the back end of the twin bill, 5-3. Minnesota (18-10, 4-1 Big Ten) got a career outing from senior pitcher Dalton Sawyer to guide it to its fourth win over a ranked opponent in 12 days.
Sawyer worked a masterful 6.0 innings while striking out a career-high 10 batters. Where Sawyer excelled was limiting the opposition's bats as he held Michigan (21-8, 3-2) to just two hits on the outing.
At the dish, Austin Athmann, Matt Fiedler and Connor Schaefbauer each contributed two hits and combined for a pair of RBI. The top four hitters in the lineup - Dan Motl, Terrin Vavra, Fiedler and Athmann - were responsible for six of the team's 10 hits and the quartet added four RBI.
The Gophers were held in check through the first five innings, but they did have a fair number of chances.
Minnesota loaded the bases in the second, third and fifth stanzas, and had two on in the first inning, but all 11 runners were left stranded as the Gophers were missing the crucial hit.
Not much offense was needed, however, as Sawyer was dealing blanks all afternoon. Sawyer retired nine of the first 10 batters he faced, including seven strikeouts in that span.
The Maroon and Gold finally broke the 0-0 deadlock in the top of the sixth. Jordan Smith began with a leadoff single to the left side and then stole second base during the next at-bat. Motl then stepped to the plate and flared a single to right field, which was enough to score the speedy Smith from second base and made it a 1-0 score line.
The Gophers found life again in their next chance at the dish. Schaefbauer began with a single up the middle and worked his way around the bases by a sacrifice bunt from Micah Coffey and a ground out. Schaefbauer later scored on a wild pitch to double the team's lead at 2-0. Vavra then netted an RBI double down the line in left that scored Motl. On the next pitch, Fiedler smoked another RBI double over the center fielder's head and traded places with Vavra. Athmann capped the scoring with an RBI single to center and brought the advantage up to 5-0.
The Wolverines did not go quiet as they plated three on two hits in the home half of the seventh frame.
With the score at 5-3 in favor Minnesota, Toby Anderson came on for the final two innings of relief. With runners on second and third, Michigan tried a squeeze bunt that backfired as Athmann popped from his catcher's stance to snag the failed bunt attempt and fired a dart over to third base which doubled up the runner trying to score on the play.
That play proved to put the home team to rest as Anderson worked a three-up, three-down inning in the bottom of the ninth to send the Gophers to their second straight series win over a ranked opponent.
