Are we in for a third straight pitchers’ dual today? After the first two games, I wouldn’t be at all surprised. No significant lineup changes today, just a little mind game being played by Purdue’s coaches. They have yesterday’s starting pitcher Matt Jansen in the DH spot to keep Minnesota in the dark about who will actually hit from that slot. I don’t suspect it will concern the Gophers too much.
Minnesota starting pitcher – RHP Seth Rosin, 3-1, 4.81 ERA
Purdue starting pitcher – RHP Matt Morgan, 3-3, 4.47 ERA
Minnesota batting order
1) DH Matt Nohelty
2) SS AJ Pettersen
3) 2B Derek McCallum
4) RF Michael Kvasnicka
5) C Kyle Knudson
6) 1B Nick O’Shea
7) CF Eric Decker
8) LF Justin Gominsky
9) 3B Kyle Geason
Purdue batting order
1) CF Brandon Haveman
2) 2B Eric Charles
3) C Dan Black
4) 1B John Cummins
5) 3B David Blount
6) DH Tyler Spillner
7) LF Jonathan Lilly
8) RF Alex Jaffee
9) SS Barrett Serrato
Early signs indicate this may not be quite the pitchers dual of Friday and Saturday. Matt Nohelty slapped a two-out, bases loaded single that scored a couple in the bottom of the 2nd to give Minnesota an early lead. Then again, maybe it will be. Or at least a big day for Seth Rosin. He’s thrown a lot of pitches through 4 innings, but he’s already racked up a career-high eight strikeouts, including five in a row at one point. His back is helping out on defense too. A well hit shot back up the middle caromed off his back and straight to AJ Pettersen, who collected it and threw out Tyler Spillner at first. A bit of a goofy play in the bottom of the fifth. After doubling home Matt Nohelty, AJ Pettersen got caught in a rundown between second and third on a chopper back to the pitcher. The ball beat him to third but the third baseman dropped the ball as he tried to lay the tag on the diving Pettersen. Failing to get an out from a rundown always irks a coach, but fortunately for the Boilermakers, the error didn’t cost them; Kyle Knudson grounded into an inning-ending 6-4-3 double play just after the play. Alright this is just getting absurd. Obviously don’t have the stats on it, but I can’t imagine there have been many (if any) times that Minnesota has gotten out of two rundowns in one game, but that’s what happened. Matt Nohelty was caught dead off first base by Matt Morgan’s lightning-quick pickoff move, but on his second dash toward second, the throw hit him in the back and he made it safely to second. If one failed rundown irks a coach, I don’t even want to know what two does, especially because this one made a difference. With Nohelty on second, Derek McCallum sent a towering shot into the right field upper deck to extend the Gophers lead to 5-2
