University of Minnesota Athletics
Softball Heads to Lone Star State
2/18/2009 12:00:00 AM | Softball
A week after playing host to the annual Minnesota Softball Metrodome Classic, the Gophers are back on the road. This weekend, the team heads to Corpus Christi, Texas, where it will play in the Islander Invitational hosted by Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. Minnesota will play a pair of games on Friday afternoon, two more on Saturday and will wrap up its trip to the Lone Star State with one more game on Sunday morning. The tournament field also includes the University of Dayton, the University of Pittsburgh and Loyola-Chicago.
Gophers fans can watch both of Minnesota’s Friday games, aswell as Sunday’s game, live in the Gold Zone. Live stats will be available for all of this weekend’s action at gophersports.com.
Gophers Turn Page After Rough Classic
For the second consecutive season, Golden Gopher softball hosted its mid-winter invitational last weekend at the Metrodome. The four-day, round-robin competition included 16 games featuring six different teams from around the country. Minnesota played six games during the tournament, posting a 1-5 record. The Gophers struggled offensively for the majority of the weekend, but the Minnesota coaching staff did find some bright spots. Freshman center fielder Dannie Skrove showed consistency at the plate, posting a pair of multi-hit games and playing solid defense in the outfield.
Senior pitcher Briana Hassett and sophomore first baseman Malisa Barnes also had solid weekends for Minnesota and earned spots on the all-tournament team. Hassett recorded her third complete game shutout of the young season in a 4-0 win over Northern Iowa on Friday, and struck out an eye-popping 50 hitters in just 30 1/3 innings during the tournament. Barnes led the Gophers offensively, hitting .412 (7-for-17) over the weekend, including a 3-for-4 performance against Western Illinois in an 11-3 loss on Feb. 12.
The weekend at the Metrodome included a special Golden Gopher Softball Hall of Fame induction ceremony honoring former Minnesota great Jordanne Nygren and longtime umpire and Minnesota softball supporter Les Novak. The pair became the 49th and 50th members of the elite group.
Metrodome Classic Highlights Busy Spring
After playing host at the Metrodome, Minnesota is scheduled to play in high-level tournaments during each of the next four weekends, meeting some of the nation’s most storied programs. The Gophers will tangle with No. 5 Stanford and No. 17 Nevada, along with established softball programs UC Riverside and Oregon State, in a tournament hosted by Cal State-Fullerton in Fullerton, Calif., during the final weekend in February.
One week later, the team heads to the Hillenbrand Invitational in Tucson, Ariz. There, the Gophers will meet perennial NCAA title contender Arizona for a doubleheader on March 6. The Wildcats are ranked 11th in the most recent USA Today/NFCA poll, and Arizona is the alma mater of Minnesota co-head coaches Lisa Bernstein and Julie Standering.
“We’ve designed this schedule to test ourselves right from the beginning,” Bernstein said. “All the tournaments early in the season are important for us to establish what we want to be about this season. If we play the way we think we can, we’ll be in good shape and we’ll be more than ready for Big Ten play.”
The Gophers will wrap up tournament play with a trip to Louisville, Ky., for the Courtyard by Marriott Cardinal Invitational. Host school Louisville made its debut in the USA Today/NFCA national rankings this week at No. 25. The Gophers will also meet Loyola-Chicago for the second time this season in Louisville after getting a first look at the Ramblers this weekend in Corpus Christi.
Neal Earning Expanded Role
Sophomore Natalie Neal entered the season projected to be one of many possible contributors in a designated player role. Through the season’s first two weekends, Neal’s penchant for making hard contact and taking good at-bats has earned her a bit of extra playing time.
In Minnesota’s 4-0 win over Northern Iowa on Feb. 13, Neal came off the bench to deliver an RBI double down the left field line in the sixth inning. As a result, the Minnesota coaching staff penciled Neal into the starting lineup as the designated player in each of the team’s final two games in Minneapolis. Entering play this weekend, the Frisco, Texas, native is tied with teammate Dannie Skrove for the team lead with a .278 average.
Pair of Gophers Make Homecoming
Sophomores Mallory Mitchell (Forney, Texas) and Natalie Neal (Frisco, Texas) are each natives of the Lone Star State, and will be be playing in their home state this weekend for the first time at the collegiate level. Both players hail from Dallas/Ft. Worth suburbs, roughly 400 miles north of Corpus Christi.
Head coaches Lisa Bernstein and Julie Standering have furthered their recruiting inroads in Texas, inking a third Texan - pitcher Lacey Middlebrooks - out of Texarkana to a National Letter of Intent in November. Middlebrooks will join the program next fall.
Hassett Carrying Pitching Staff
After recording the third-highest single-season strikeout total in school history last year with 276 K’s, senior Briana Hassett has started the 2009 season where she left off a year ago.
Through just two weekends, Hassett has already racked up 79 strikeouts in just 52 1/3 innings. She has completed each of the seven games she has started this year and has notched complete-game shutouts in three of those games.
Last weekend at the Metrodome Classic, her two-hit shutout over eventual tournament champion Northern Iowa highlighted Minnesota’s 4-0 win. In the Gophers’ 2-1 loss in extra innings to Drake on Feb. 15, Hassett recorded 15 strikeouts and allowed just one hit.
