Fetter Shutout Gains Doubleheader Split at Minnesota

Saturday, April 8

Minneapolis, Minn.

3:05 PM CT

Michigan

14-11, 2-4

Minnesota

14-11, 3-3

Michigan

Minnesota

Nate Recknagel

4/8/2006 12:00:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

• Boxscores: Game 1 | Game 2

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. -- University of Michigan sophomore/freshman RHP Chris Fetter (Carmel, Ind./Carmel) pitched a four-hit shutout to beat Minnesota 2-0 to gain a split in Saturday's (April 8) Big Ten Conference baseball doubleheader in the H.H.H. Metrodome.

Minnesota (14-12, 3-4 Big Ten) scored four times in the bottom of the eighth inning in the opener for a 6-5 win, with a two-out, two-run double by SS Dan Lyons off Fetter completing the extra-inning comeback win.

The Wolverines (15-11, 3-4 Big Ten) had scored once in the seventh to tie the opener at 2-2 to send the first game into extra innings and scored three times in the top of the eighth for a 5-2 lead, but Minnesota won the game with the four-run rally. Freshman 2B/RHP Jason Christian (Loveland, Ohio/Loveland) took the loss, and second-game starter Fetter faced two batters and suffered a blown save.

The second game lasted just an hour and 39 minutes, the fastest game of the year, as Fetter matched up with Minnesota LHP John Gaub. Fetter (2-0) had three 1-2-3 innings in the win, his first complete game as a Wolverine, and faced just four batters in the other four innings, getting a 4-3 groundball double play from sophomore Doug Pickens (West Bloomfield, Mich./Brother Rice) in the third inning.

Michigan grabbed a 1-0 lead in the second inning of the second game as sophomore 1B Nate Recknagel (Lake Orion, Mich./Lake Orion) launched a drive, estimated at 370 feet, into the seats in left for his second homer of the season. The homer proved to be Recknagel's third game-winning RBI of the season to tie him for the team lead with Pickens and freshman 2B Kevin Cislo (Novi, Mich./Novi).

Gaub (0-1) allowed at least one runner in each of the first five innings but had double play help in the first and third innings.

Senior LF Mike Schmidt (Saginaw, Mich./Heritage) opened the fifth inning with a single, took second with his fifth stolen base of the season, and moved to third on a sacrifice bunt by fifth-year senior catcher Jeff Kunkel (Oak Forest, Ill./Oak Forest). RHP Josh Oslin replaced Gaub, and senior 3B A.J. Scheidt (Bloomfield Hills, Mich./Lahser HS) hit a sac fly to make the score 2-0.

Fetter issued his only walk of the game with one out in the seventh inning and faced the tying run twice, but he retired the final two batters of fly balls to junior CF Brad Roblin (Wayland, Mass./Rivers School).

In Saturday's opener Michigan fifth-year senior Paul Hammond (Mason, Ohio/Mason) faced Minnesota sophomore RHP Dustin Brabender. Brabender, second cousin of former Major League pitcher Gene Brabender, retired the first six Wolverines before senior 3B Scheidt doubled to left-center to open the third inning. Freshman 2B Cislo bunted Scheidt to third base, and senior LF Schmidt hit a sac fly to center for the first run of the game.

Hammond allowed one hit, a double by CF Tony Leseman in the second inning, and had five strikeouts in the first three innings. He escaped a bases loaded two-out jam in the fourth with his sixth strikeout.

Hammond came out for the fifth inning and went 2-0 to 3B Jeremy Chlan and had to leave due to injury. He was replaced by sophomore/freshman RHP Ben Jenzen (Grosse Pointe, Mich./South HS), who worked a 1-2-3 inning with two grounders and a flyout.

Minnesota took the lead in the sixth inning as LF Mike Mee singled to right-center off Jenzen and, after a strikeout, fifth-year senior Ali Husain (Ypsilanti, Mich./Ypsilanti) replaced Jenzen to face lefty 1B Andy Hunter and walked him.

Freshman Zach Putnam (Ann Arbor, Mich./Pioneer) entered in a save position for the second straight day but after he got the second out on a fly to center, pinch-hitter Taylor VanderAarde singled to left to tie the game and DH Baran singled to put the Gophers ahead 2-1.

Senior RHP Jeff Niemiec (Livonia, Mich./Catholic Central) replaced Putnam with a 2-1 count on pinch hitter Aaron Larson and fanned him with two pitches.

VanBuskirk singled with one out in the seventh and was replaced by pinch runner Roblin, who advanced to second on a wild pitch. After DH Recknagel lined a sharp single to left and Roblin had to stop at third, Brabender was replaced by LHP Andy Peters. Scheidt tied the game with an infield grounder as he beat the double play relay at first and Roblin scored to make it 2-2.

Niemiec worked a 1-2-3 seventh with three fly balls to CF Eric Rose (Blissfield, Mich./Blissfield) to send the opener into extra innings.

Rose reached on a fielding error with one out in the eighth, moved to second on a single by SS Leif Mahler (Columbus, Ohio/St. Charles Prep), and scored on a single by Kunkel to make the score 3-2 for the Wolverines. Pickens followed with a single to make it 4-2, and Roblin put down a bunt to make it 5-2 and was credited with a single on the play.

With a 5-2 lead, the bottom of the eighth was strange as Niemiec walked the first batter and was replaced by Christian, who gave up a single to 1B Andy Hunter to put the tying run at the plate with no outs.

Christian responded with a pair of strikeouts but walked DH Baran to load the bases and allowed a two-run single to 2B Luke MacLean, the ninth hitter all game, who batted in the eighth position in the eighth inning. Fetter was summoned from the bullpen to face defensive replacement Joe Maciej and walked him and allowed the game-winning hit to Lyons.

MacLean singled in the two runs while the thought was he was hitting out of order, and then Maciej hitting ninth drew a walk off Fetter to load the bases also thought to be out of order.

Ironically Minnesota had been batting out of order for the first seven innings of the opener with actual at-bats by the wrong batters in the third, fifth, sixth and seventh innings, and each of the six at bats resulted in outs. When the Wolverines checked on the apparent misorder in the game-winning rally in the eighth it was determined that by then the Gophers were in the proper order. The press box had been issued one lineup, while Minnesota presented another lineup to the umpires during the pregame meeting and had not noticed their own error until the eighth inning.

Freshman DH Adam Abraham (Grosse Pointe Park, Mich./South HS) had a two-hit game in the nightcap of the doubleheader, while Recknagel and Mahler had hits in both games to account for six of the 12 Michigan hits in the doubleheader.

The Wolverines conclude the weekend series inside the Metrodome facing Minnesota on Sunday (April 9, 1 p.m. CDT) with junior RHP Andrew Hess (Kalamazoo, Mich./Central HS) on the mound with a 1-0 record and 6.58 ERA.

Notes

Former Wolverine Mike Watters (1983-85), an All-America OF and a second-round pick of the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1985, was on hand at the Metrodome Saturday afternoon. Watters, who holds Michigan records for triples in a season (10, 1985) and in a career (19) and the single-season mark for runs scored (81, 1985), resides in the Twin Cities.

In Big Ten action on Saturday including the Michigan-Minnesota split, Ohio State swept Illinois 4-1 and 5-1 in the first games of the weekend series, while Northwestern defeated Indiana 4-2 in a single game. Iowa swept Penn State 11-3 and 2-1 to take the first three games of the weekend series, while Michigan State won the second game 4-0 to gain a split after Purdue won the first game 6-1.

Big Ten Standings (includes 4/8/06 action): 1. Ohio State, 5-1 (.833), 2. Northwestern 4-1 (.800), 3. Iowa 4-3 (.571), Michigan State 4-3 (.571) and Purdue 4-3 (.571), 6. Michigan 3-4 (.429) and Minnesota 3-4 (.429), 8. Illinois 2-4 (.333), 9. Penn State 2-5 (.286) and 10. Indiana 1-4 (.200).

Chris Fetter's four-hit shutout at Minnesota in the second game Saturday was the first Michigan complete-game blanking in Big Ten play since April 10, 2004, when Derek Feldkamp and Michael Penn threw back-to-back shutouts in a doubleheader at Iowa, winning 6-0 and 4-0. Fetter's overall ERA dropped to 2.00 and his Big Ten ERA is 0.00 in his three outings covering 11.0 innings.

Junior CF Eric Rose went 0-for-4 in the opener, and even though he started the three-run rally in the eighth with his speed as he reached on a fielding error, he had his hitting streak snapped at six games.

With hits in each game Saturday 1B/C/DH Nate Recknagel extended his hitting streak to five games and SS Leif Mahler moved his streak to four games.

Fifth-year senior LHP Ali Husain made his 67th career appearances in the opener of Saturday's doubleheader vs. Minnesota, snapping his tie with Tyler Steketee (66, 1995-98) for sixth place on U-M's all-time pitching appearance list. Former teammate Phil Tognetti (69, 2002-05) is two ahead in fifth place on the list.

Michigan's leading hitters after 26 games are: SS Leif Mahler (30-for-84, 357), CF Eric Rose (27-for-79, .342), 1B/OF Derek VanBuskirk (29-for-89, 326), 1B/C/DH Nate Recknagel (28-for-86, .326), 2B/ OF Doug Pickens (29-for-90, .322) and C Jeff Kunkel (26-for-87, .299).

Contact: Jim Schneider (734) 763-4423