The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Minnesota
Baseball earns 5-4 win in 10 innings at Minnesota
03.23.2013 | Baseball
March 23, 2013
MINNEAPOLIS - Junior first baseman Alex Silver delivered three RBI Saturday, including the game-winning RBI single in the 10th, as the Texas Longhorns evened its non-conference series with a 5-4 win against the Minnesota Golden Gophers in the Metrodome. Corey Knebel threw two no-hit innings with three strikeouts to get the win for the Longhorns (13-9), who snapped a three-game losing streak.
Silver finished with a 3-for-5 day while Mark Payton also registered three hits. Kurt Schlangen led Minnesota (14-10) with four hits while Troy Larson went 3-for-4. Billy Soule took the loss after allowing the run in the 10th.
The Golden Gophers used three straight singles by Schlangen, Dan Olinger and Michael Handle to produce the first run of the game in the first. With two outs in the top of the fourth, Silver hit a two-run single to put the Longhorns ahead, 2-1.
Erich Weiss led off the top of the fifth with a walk, followed by Payton's bunt single to third. C.J Hinojosa then hit an RBI single to left before Collin Shaw's ground out to second scored Payton as Texas took the 4-1 lead.
Minnesota responded with two runs in the bottom of the fifth. In the Minnesota sixth, Andy Henkemeyer hit a double to right center and advanced to third on center fielder Weston Hall's error. Schlangen then tied it with the single to left.
A two-base error allowed Brooks Marlow to reach second in the top of the ninth as a walk to Weiss and intentional walk to Payton loaded the bases with two outs for Hinojosa, but a ground out ended the threat.
Shaw walked to lead off the top of the 10th. Junior catcher Jacob Felts, who entered the game as a defensive replacement in the ninth inning, failed on two bunt attempts. He then hit a 1-2 pitch into right field for the single before Silver hit an RBI single to left to score Shaw from second for the go-ahead run. Knebel then registered two strikeouts in a perfect 10th inning to secure the win for the Longhorns.
The series concludes tomorrow with a 1:05 p.m. start. The game will feature live radio on AM 1300 The Zone. Gametracker live stats will be available on TexasSports.com with live Twitter updates @Texas_Baseball.
Notes: Mark Payton extended his hitting streak to 11 games...Payton is currently hitting .416 in his bid to become only the eighth player in Texas history to hit .400 or better on the season...today was the first extra-inning win by the Longhorns since March 24, 2012, with a 6-4 win in 11 innings at Kansas State...18 Longhorns played in today's game (14 position players)...Jeremy Montalbano is batting .353 (6-for-17) during his current five-game hitting streak.
TEXAS 000-220-000-1---5-12-1 MINN 100-021-000-0---4-13-1
Records: Texas (13-9), Minnesota (14-10) WP - Knebel (3-1) LP - Soule (0-2) T - 3:20 ATT - 1013
D. Peters, T. Marlow (5), Culbreth (8), Knebel (9) and Montalbano, Felts (9). Meyers, Sawyer (6), Soule (9), Thonvold (10) and Schlangen.
