University of Minnesota Athletics
SOFTBALL TEAM OFF THIS WEEK BEFORE PURDUE TOURNAMENT
3/13/2001 12:00:00 AM | Softball
Minnesota Team Notes
Scoring first and scoring often has been the bellwether for the 2001 Minnesota softball season to this point. Minnesota has scored first in 12 of the 25 games it has played and has an 11-0-1 record when it does score first, including a 9-0 record when scoring in the first inning. The Gophers are 4-9 when the opposition scores first, but have lost their last seven games in that situation. Two runs has been the magic number for Minnesota offensively. The Gophers are 15-1 when they score two runs or more, with the only loss coming against Pacific in the final game of the Worth Invitational (Pacific 5, Minnesota 3). Minnesota is 0-8-1 when they score one run or fewer, including five shutouts. The numbers are not quite as significant from a defensive point of view. The Gophers are 9-2-1 when allowing one run or fewer, including three shutouts. Minnesota is 6-7 when allowing two runs or more, but the Gophers have lost their last six games in that situation.
Minnesota Individual Notes
Senior infielder Angel Braden (Chino, Calif./St. Lucy's) leads Minnesota with a .348 batting average, a .477 on-base percentage, a .696 slugging percentage, seven doubles, five home runs and 27 runs batted in. She has already matched her career high for home runs in a season and is two RBI shy of her 2000 total of 29 runs batted in. Braden is now fourth on Minnesota's all-time list with 14 home runs and is fifth on the Gophers' all-time list with 97 runs batted in.
First-year pitcher Piper Marten (Farmington, N.M./Farmington) has been the winning pitcher in 11 of Minnesota's 15 wins this season. She leads Minnesota in just about every pitching category, including appearances (22), innings pitched (106), strikeouts (113) and opponent batting average (.157). She is averaging 7.46 strikeouts per 7 innings.
Junior outfielder Tammi Hays (Hastings, Minn./Hastings) leads Minnesota in hits (27), runs (19), stolen bases (7) and is second on the team with a .411 on-base percentage. She had five hits at the Creighton Tournament, matching teammate Veronica Roberts (San Diego, Calif./Mt. Carmel) for the team lead, and hit .357 for the weekend.
Sophomore Allie Fisk (Orono, Minn./Orono) was moved to the leadoff spot for Saturday's three games and had a very successful weekend. Fisk hit .333 (4-for-12) and led Minnesota with five sacrifices. She has quadrupled her hit total of last year and has 20 hits, which is third among Gophers.
Up Next
The Gophers begin their 10-game spring break road-trip to Indiana with the Boilermaker Invitational on March 24-25 in West Lafayette, Ind. The trip concludes with Big Ten road games at Purdue (March 29) and Indiana (March 30, April 1).
