Greetings once again from the Metrodome.  Not much to talk about today, this afternoon’s lineup is almost identical to last night’s, with the exception of freshman Sam Ryan replacing senior Jon Hummel in left field and in the eight spot.  It’ll be interesting to see if starter Seth Rosin can provide Minnesota with its third outstanding pitching outing of the weekend.  Without further ado, here are the lineups:

Minnesota starting pitcher – RHP Seth Rosin, 0-0, 1.80 ERA
South Dakota State starting pitcher – LHP Caleb Thielbar, 0-3, 13.11 ERA

Minnesota starting lineup
1) DH Matt Nohelty
2) 3B Kyle Geason
3) 2B Derek McCallum
4) RF Michael Kvasnicka
5) C Kyle Knudson
6) CF Eric Decker
7) 1B Nick O’Shea
8) LF Sam Ryan
9) SS AJ Pettersen

South Dakota State starting lineup
1) LF Beau Hanowski
2) DH Joel Blake
3) CF Billy Stitz
4) C Tony Martin
5) 3B Jesse Sawyer
6) RF John Lee
7) 2B Scott Hood
8) SS Eric Cain
9) 1B Stephen Turner

As they’ve done all weekend, the Gophers strike first. Third baseman Kyle Geason pounded a ground rule double over the wall in left center and second baseman Derek McCallum drove him in with a sharp single up the middle. Rosin has been threatened by runners in scoring position in the first and third innings but has worked calmly each time to keep the Jackrabbits of the board. He’s attacking with his fastball but he’s locating his breaking ball well and I’d like to see him use it a bit more. South Dakota State gets on the board in the fourth thanks to a Scott Hood single and has men on second and third with one out, but Rosin fires home on a Stephen Turner bunt, Kyle Knudson chases down Hood near third, and then catches Turner trying to sneak an extra base. Heads up double play to end the inning and keep the Jackrabbits from taking the lead. Minnesota mounted a nice little two-out rally in the bottom of the fifth. McCallum, who’s having quite a day at the plate, started it with a triple to the wall in right-center that brought home Matt Nohelty. After a Michael Kvasnicka walk, Knudson dropped a triple of his own just inside the right field line to score two more and stretch the lead to 4-1. Freshman Sam Ryan’s first career hit, a double, moved Nick O’Shea to third, allowing O’Shea to score on a groundout to second by AJ Pettersen. But from third, Ryan watches Nohelty and Geason strikeout to end the inning. Seth Rosin was not going to be outdone. He watched Chauncy Handran allow two earned in seven innings Friday and Tom Buske allow no earned in eight innings Saturday, so naturally, he went six innings and allowed just one earned run on Sunday. If Minnesota continues to get starts like that from its weekend rotation, opponents are in for quite a year. Austin Lubinsky replaced Rosin in the seventh and immediately found himself in a no-outs, bases loaded jam. But he’d force a shallow fly ball to Decker, a ground ball which the Gophers nearly turned two on and a groundout to third to escape the inning with minimal damage, a lone run.