Gopher Softball - 2016

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Nice way to open the season especially the win over Oklahoma who has been a pretty regular WCWS participant in recent years. Looks like Groenewegen was dominant and the Gophers got a big hit from an unexpected source in a Dwyer.
 

Texas Tech, Gophers next opponent, sits at 2-1. They beat UNLV on Thursday 7-3 and came back Friday and won over Long Beach State 5-1. Later in the day were hammered 14-5 by Washington in their 3rd game.

Side note: Washington all over Oklahoma in the Sooners second game yesterday, 10-3. Huskies obviously pounding the ball.
 

Results from other Big Ten teams.
Michigan with a couple of wins. 15-3 over South Carolina and 12-0 over Illinois State. Both games 5 innings. Catch #1 Florida on Saturday.
Northwestern goes 2-0 with wins over UC Riverside and Virginia. 15-3 and 22-4.
Iowa beat Louisville 1-0 and lost to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 2-1.
Nebraska beat Northern Iowa 7-4 in 8 innings.
Wisconsin split a couple. Beat #21 Cal 4-2 and lost to BYU 5-4.
Michigan State won a couple. 3-2 over Middle Tennessee State and 2-1 over Florida Gulf Coast.
Indiana dropped a couple. Lost to University of Nevada 5-3 and Fresno State 7-0.
Purdue with two wins. 8-1 over Southern Utah and 10-9 over UC Santa Barbara.
Rutgers drops two. 5-0 loss to James Madison and 4-1 loss to UCF.
Illinois split a couple. Losing 6-4 to LIU Brooklyn and beating Valpo 6-1.
Penn State went 0-2. Lost to Wright State 2-0 and SIUE 4-3.
Maryland split, losing to Boston College 9-1 and beating Boise State 9-4. Catch #6 Oregon tomorrow.
Ohio State went 1-1. Beat Pacific 4-2 and lost to LSU 9-0.
 

Lineup for the TT game.
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Right back with Groenewegen.
 



LeMay singles in Parlich. Gophers grab a 1-0 lead in the top of the 1st.

Tell you what, that CBSSports.com GameTracker is like getting news from pony express.

Gophers now up 5-0 in the top half of the 3rd. Dwyer with 3 hits in her last 3 at bats.

LeMay with another RBI, make it 6-0 Gophers going into the bottom of the 3rd.

Groenewegen with 8 strikeouts as Gophers come up to hit in the top of the 4th.

Maryland loses to Oregon 7-2. (Ducks didn't throw their ace

TT inches closer. It's now 6-4 as Gophers come to bat in the top of the 7th. 12 strikeouts for Sara. Suspect she's tiring as TT has scored in the last 3 innings.

Gophers with 7-4 lead , but TT has runners on 2nd and 3rd with 1 out.

Gophers bang out 12 hits in the 7-4 win. Sara with 13 strikeouts, giving up 9 hits.

Next up Long Beach (1-2) with a victory over South Dakota and losses to Syracuse and Texas Tech. (Wonder if Anderson gets the call?)
 

Looks like Stober gets the start again.

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LBSU up 6-0 so far in the top of the 1st.

Anderson enters to pitch in the 2nd inning down 7-0 with the bases loaded and 2 out. She records a strikeout to end it. Interesting.

Gophers now down 10-0. (Count me as someone who did not see this coming.)

A Macken home run makes it 12-1 going into the 4th.
 


Well Ignatius, Gophers needed a couple of touchdowns to get back in this one and it just wasn't happening. Final score Long Beach State 13-2 over the Gophers.
Oh well, get back on track tomorrow.
 



Gophers with 6 errors in the LBSU game. 2 each by Dwyer(SS) and Parlich(2b). 1 by Macken(3B) and 1 by Wagner(RF). Not at all trying to make excuses for them, but they had just played a couple of games with Sara G in the circle and with her, when she is on, a fielder can occasionally be looking at the clouds and it isn't going to cost the team. With Stober and Anderson the ball is way more likely to get moved and sometimes moved hard. Anderson had 3 plus innings and 1 earned run in her outing. Plus Anderson relies on that drop quite a bit, so ground balls are the result. Neither one is going to K people like Groenewegen, so defense really comes into play. (Way too much pontificating.)
 

Gophers hook up with Washington tomorrow at 1:15 in their final game in Las Vegas. The Huskies are sitting at 3-0. They've scored in double figures in all their games. Hammered Texas Tech 14-5 in 6 innings. Beat Oklahoma 10-3 in a full game and also were victorious 14-3 today against South Dakota in 6 innings.
Led by lead off hitter and SS Ali Aguilar. They've used 3 different pitchers in the 3 games. Taran Alvelo threw their opener so she might be the one the Gophers see tomorrow. (Interestingly, they have a junior pitcher/hitter named Casey Stangel. Not quite the exact spelling, but close enough.)
 

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Washington picks up a run in the bottom of the first grabbing an early 1-0 lead.
McGregor yanks a 2 run homer to put the Gophers up 2-1 in the second inning.
Washington up 6-2 in the bottom of the 6th.
Gophers fall to the Huskies. Final score 7-2. Rough couple of games.
 

Looking at the box score for the Udub game, Sara G wasn't her normal self. Only 2 strikeouts, surrendered 12 hits, 2 walks and it appears her control was lacking. 90 pitches and only 56 strikes. Couple more unearned runs given up. Believe that's 11 in the last 2 games. Macken, Palkovich and Wenner each with 2 hits and McGregor with a HR.
Next Friday in Tallahassee for the B1G/ACC Challenge. Gophers play Virginia Tech on Friday and again on Saturday. Another game Saturday against Florida State and Florida State again on Sunday.
 



So how far does everyone think they'll fall in the rankings? into the mid 20's? late teens?
 

Well the Gophers dropped 6 spots. They are now #20. Oklahoma is now #14.
 

Gophers with an 8-0 lead over Virginia Tech in the bottom of the 5th with Tech at bat.
Groenewegen with 9 strikeouts and she's tossing a no-hitter. (Is it ok to say it if you aren't at the game?)
It's over. 10 strikeouts and a 5 inning no-hitter.

Checking out the box score and it appears Sara just missed a perfect game. She walked one batter.
Palkovich hit a home run and 3 RBI's.
Macken and Houlihan both had two hit games.
Virginia Tech at 1:30 tomorrow and Florida State at 6:30.
 

BIG TEN/ACC Challenge

Illinois over Boston College 9-1
Michigan over Florida State 6-2
Minnesota over Virginia Tech 8-0
Nebraska over NC State 6-1
Northwestern lost to North Carolina 5-2
Ohio State beat Georgia Tech 6-0
Purdue beat Syracuse 4-3
Wisconsin lost to Louisville 7-1

Caught some of the Michigan and Ohio State games. (Difficult viewing on the computer.) Betsa looks tough as ever. The Ohio State pitcher, Hursh, looked really good. For somewhat of a slight physique, she throws hard and looks to have good movement on the ball.
Michigan with a serious one-two punch in the circle again this year. Lost Wagner, but it appears Driesenga is a capable replacement. Sat out last year with an injury. Came in yesterday's game against #13 Florida State in a 2-1 game with runners on, so they must not have any doubts about her. Romero hit one over the fence in the 7th to seal it.
 

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Thought it might be Stober in the first game today.
Gophers with a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the 3rd and are the home squad in this one.
Gophers up 7-0 heading to top of the 5th. Palkovich with bases loaded double. Pitching change to start the inning. Stober to the circle.
Gophers now up 8-3 going into the bottom of the 6th.
(Side note: the FSU game at 6:30 is on ESPN3)
Gophers beat VT 9-3.
 

Anderson gets the start against Florida State.
FSU scores a couple in the 1st. Umpire really squeezing Anderson. Top of the 2nd, 2-0 Seminoles.
A Macken home run just inside the right field foul pole cuts the lead to 2-1. (Listening to the announcers is like being tortured.)
3-1 now, start of the 4th.
3-2 now, bottom of the 6th.
Florida State scored 1 in the bottom of the 6th to go up 4-2. Gophers score 2 in the top of the 7th to tie it up.
Florida State gets a walk off home run from their lead off batter in the bottom of the 7th to win it 5-4.
 

And the gophers piss another one down their legs. Sara G has been terrible this season at the plate. Gophers shouldv'e at least of split with FSU. We need to get the bats going or this could be a long season. These last two games have been really frustrating to watch :mad:
 

Groenewegen Earns B1G Pitcher of the Week

For the seventh time in her career, Sara Groenewegen has been named the Big Ten Pitcher of the Week, the conference announced Monday.

Groenewegen was nearly untouchable on the mound this past weekend. She threw an ERA of 0.88 and only gave up five hits in 16 innings of play. In those 16 innings, she threw 15 straight without allowing a run. She threw two complete games including her fourth career no-hitter against Virginia Tech. She was just one walk away from a perfect game. She stuck out 20 batters and now has 52 this season. Her opponents only managed a .096 batting average against her.

So far in the early season Groenewegen, the reigning Big Ten Player of the Year, is 4-2 on the mound with an ERA of 2.14 and has thrown five complete games.

Minnesota returns to the diamond this weekend in Tempe, Ariz. At the Diamond Devils Tournament taking on Mount St. Mary's, Arizona State, Saint Francis (PA) and Houston twice.
 

Gophers schedule for this weekend's tourney.

Friday-Mount St. Mary's at 2:30 (Just the second game of the year for The Mount, their first is earlier that day)
Arizona State at 5:30. 11-1 so far this year. (Sun Devils ranked #17 in one of the polls)
Saturday-St Francis (PA) at 11:00. Red Flash are 6-5.
Houston at 1:30. Cougars are 6-4.
Sunday-Houston at 10:00

Just glancing over the Sun Devil stats it appears that red shirt junior Kelsey Kessler, a transfer from Kansas, is the staff ace. 33 strikeouts in 27 innings. They have divided up the 12 starts equally among 3 pitchers. Kessler with 4 relief appearances to go with her 4 starts.
Be nice to hang a loss on the 11-1 Arizona State squad at their place. (They have yet to leave the confines of their home field this season. Nice perk, game is streamed live. http://pac-12.com/live/arizona-state-university)
 

B1G results so far

Michigan 8-1
Nebraska 8-1
Purdue 6-3
Ohio State 5-3
Michigan State 6-4
Illinois 5-4
Indiana 5-4
Minnesota 5-4
Northwestern 5-4
Wisconsin 5-4
Penn State 5-5
Iowa 3-7
Maryland 3-7
Rutgers 1-8

Biggest wins so far.
Michigan handling Florida State a couple of times, 6-2 and 10-3. Were beaten handily by #1 Florida. Hutchins chose to go with Blanco in that game as opposed to her #1 or #2 starter.
Nebraska, despite the 8-1, haven't beaten any big teams. Beat Louisville a couple of times and split with NC State in the Challenge.
Gophers with the win over Oklahoma being a big one.
Wisconsin beat California in the season opener.
Maryland lost a 1-0 game to #5 Alabama.
Really not much else. Indiana gave California a good game, but lost 6-5.

Northwestern takes on three ranked teams this weekend in Georgia, Fresno State and UCLA.
 

Stober getting the start.
Little shifting in the middle of the order.

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Gophers with a 3-0 lead after 1 inning.
Gophers were in a 7-7 game, bottom of the 4th and Houlihan hit a grand slam to make it 11-7.
Anderson came in to pitch during the top half of the 4th.
Top of the 5th now. Need a goose egg.
12-7 at the start of the 6th.
Gophers win 12-7.
 

So much for me and my big mouth dissing the Huskers. Nebraska beat #7 Oregon today, 6-5. Besides Oregon, Nebraska catches Florida and Washington this weekend. Meat grinder type of weekend.
Michigan scoring like crazy in a 16-9 win over #12 Oklahoma.
Purdue lost to Cal Poly 3-2.
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Gophers grab a 2-0 lead in the top half of the 1st.
Still 2-0 after 2 innings. Groenewegen with 5 strikeouts and drove in the 2 runs.
Gophers end up winning 10-1. Macken with a 3 run homer and a 2 run double. Palkovich with a solo home run. Groenewegen finishes with 10 strikeouts and gives up 4 hits with 1 base on balls.
 

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Anderson gets the call.
Team scoring some runs in the last 2 games since the tweaking of the batting order.

4-0 Gophers in the bottom of the 4th. Houlihan hit a solo to start off the inning.
4-2 Going into the bottom of the 5th.
7-2 with Groenewegen pitching in the 6th.
Evavold in to pitch the 7th with a 9-2 lead.
Final, 9-2.
 

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Gophers fall behind Houston 2-0 in the bottom of the 2nd. Two run homer.
Gophers with a 3-2 lead, Minnesota batting in the top of 6th.
Palkovich goes deep for the second time in two days. This one a 2 run shot giving the Gophers a 5-2 lead.
Gophers win 5-3.
 

Michigan 11-1
The Wolverines just keep pounding teams. Beat Ok State yesterday 11-2 and followed it up with a 9-1 thrashing of NC State. Play #9 Washington and Long Beach State today.
Nebraska 10-2
Beat San Diego State yesterday 3-1. Their ace, McClure, thew a dandy. The also play #9 Washington today.
Ohio State 9-3.
Beat Morehead State and Virginia Tech yesterday. The Hokies are fodder for Big Ten teams. Play USC Upstate today.
Minnesota 9-4.
Since the move of Parlich to the 3 spot in the order, they've started to score some runs. 36 scored in the last four games. Gophers with only 46 errors in 60 games last year. This year it's 17 in the 13 games. Really need to clean that up. Play Houston again this morning.
Purdue 8-5,
Lost to Cal Poly and beat Pacific yesterday. Same results they had on Friday. Play CSU Bakersfield today.
Penn State 7-5.
Beat Yale and Fordham yesterday. Play Notre Dame today.
Michigan State 8-6.
Beat Boston U and lost to Florida Atlantic. Play Columbia today.
Illinois 7-6.
Lost to Texas and Weber State yesterday. Play Tulsa today. Did have a 5-1 win against Florida State earlier in the season. I guess you never know.
Indiana 7-6.
Hoosiers split a couple yesterday. Beat Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and lost to a good Texas A&M team 4-2. Play UTEP today.
Northwestern 6-7.
Wildcats on the losing end against a couple of ranked teams yesterday, #8 Georgia and #20 Fresno State. Catch another today in #11 UCLA. Had the Georgia game 4-1 till the 7th. Went 8 innings with Fresno State in the 6-4 loss. Probably end up playing around 10 ranked teams in their 25 game out of conference schedule. Gophers catch the Wildcats in the second weekend of the conference at Evanston.
Wisconsin 6-7.
Split a couple with University of South Florida yesterday. Play UNLV today.
Maryland 5-9.
Lost to Columbia and beat Florida Atlantic yesterday. Play Stony Brook today.
Iowa 4-10.
Lost a couple yesterday. Have a rematch with Coastal Carolina today.
Rutgers 2-11.
Split yesterday, beating Alcorn State and losing to #6 UL Lafayette 8-0.
 

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Gophers with an early 1-0 lead. Parlich with an RBI single, driving in Macken after her lead off double.
Houlihan with a 3 run homer to extend the Gophers lead to 4-0 in the top of the 5th.
Dwyer follows suit in the next at bat. Gophers up 5-0.
Heading into the bottom of the 5th, Groenewegen with 8 strikeouts, 1 hit allowed, 3 base on balls and 1 HBP.

Notre Dame over Penn State 6-2.
Coastal Carolina over Iowa 6-5.
Maryland losing to Stony Brook 4-1 in the 4th.
Purdue with an early 1-0 lead over CSU Bakersfield.

Start of the 6th finds the Gophers up 5-1.
Gophers up 6-1, bottom of the 6th. Parlich drove in a doubling Wenner. Parlich now 10-18 since moving into the #3 spot in the batting order.
Groenewegen has been walked 14 times already this season in the 15 games thus far. In comparison, 60 games last year and 27 walks total. Teams are working around her and taking their chances.
Start of the 7th, Groenewegen with 12 strikeouts.
Nikki Anderson in to toss the 7th.
NiKKKi fans the side in the 7th to end it.
Nice weekend.
 


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