University of Minnesota Athletics
University of Minnesota
Troy
Home Runs Propel Gophers Past Troy, 4-2
3/16/2014 12:00:00 AM | Softball
March 16, 2014
|
CONWAY, S.C. - The No. 18/21 Minnesota softball extended its winning streak to five games with a 4-2 victory over Troy Sunday morning in its final game at the Chanticleer Showdown in Conway, S.C. With their second win over the Trojans in as many days, the Gophers finished the weekend with a perfect 4-0 record and improved to 21-3 on the season, marking the best 24-game start in the program's history.
As she had in her previous two starts on the weekend, Sara Moulton dazzled in the circle, hurling 11 strikeouts and conceding two hits and an unearned run in six innings of work. The effort was enough to secure her 99th career win and up her 2014 ledger to 14-2.
Moulton now has 141 strikeouts on the season and 1,081 in her career, leaving her 41 behind pitching coach Piper Ritter for the school's all-time record.
Sunday's contest was a pitcher's duel for the first four-plus innings as Moulton and TU starting pitcher Ashley Rainey exchanged scoreless frames.
The Trojans ended the defensive stalemate in the top of the fifth after Amanda Winters doubled to lead off the inning and pinch runner Leah Brundidge came around to score after a throw home following a Taylor Smartt single was mishandled at the plate.
TU was unable to add runs in the inning and the Gophers answered in the bottom half of the stanza.
After Sydney Fabian smacked a leadoff single to right, Tyler Walker got a hold of a Rainey delivery and blasted her second home run over the season to give Minnesota a 2-1 advantage. Erica Meyer made it back-to-back home runs to up the Maroon and Gold's lead to two.
Walker's homer was the 23rd of her career, tying her for fourth on the school's all-time list.
Fabian gave the Gophers more insurance in the sixth with a solo shot, her second of the year.
Winters capped the scoring with a home run off Sara Groenewegen in the seventh inning, but the freshman pitcher closed out the game to earn her first collegiate save by striking out the side.
Minnesota's final game before Big Ten action kicks off is Wednesday at South Carolina at 5 p.m. CT. The team will then head straight to No. 17/14 Nebraska to open league action with a Friday-Saturday-Sunday series.
###
