The Twins might have played a clunker Friday night in Toronto, but the home team in the 2011 opener at Target Field came out on top earlier in the day.
Dan Olinger drove in a career-high four runs to lead the Gophers baseball team to a 9-5 victory over Purdue in the Big Ten opener for both teams.
The game was the first played at Target Field in 2011 and the Gophers' first home game of the season, as they had played the first six weeks in Florida, North Carolina, Arizona or California with the Metrodome unavailable because of the collapsed roof.
Starter TJ Oakes picked up the victory for the Gophers (9-8, 1-0 Big Ten), giving up 10 hits and four runs in six innings. Matt Morgan, who entered the game 2-0 with a 1.29 ERA for the Boilermakers (16-9, 0-1), took the loss, giving up five hits and six runs in 4 1/3 innings.
Nick O'Shea, playing in his first game since suffering an oblique injury March 13, was 2-for-4 with a run and an RBI.
Matt Puhl and Justin Gominsky also had a pair of hits for the Gophers, with Puhl getting a double and a triple and driving in a run. A.J. Pettersen, the shortstop and leadoff hitter, collected a hit in his final at-bat to increase his hitting streak to 17 games this season, and 20 overall extending to 2010.
The Gophers scored single runs in the first two innings, then broke the game open with six runs in the bottom of the fifth to make it 8-0. The big hit was a bases-loaded double by DH Olinger that drove in three runs.
The two teams play a doubleheader Saturday at Target Field starting at 1:05 p.m.
