University of Minnesota Athletics
University of Minnesota
South Carolina
Moulton Stifles Gamecocks for 100th Win
3/19/2014 12:00:00 AM | Softball
March 19, 2014
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COLUMBIA, S.C. - Minnesota softball pitcher Sara Moulton turned in a scintillating performance in the pitching circle Wednesday night to become the first player in program history to record 100-career wins. The No. 16/19-ranked-ranked Gophers defeated South Carolina on the road, 1-0, to improve upon its best-ever start by upping its record to 22-3 heading into Big Ten play later this week.
The win was Minnesota's sixth in a row and was the fourth in that span that came via shutout. The Gophers have held their opponent scoreless in 13 of their 22 wins this year.
Contrary to its first contest against South Carolina, an 11-4 victory, Wednesday's game was a pitcher's duel.
Tyler Walker led the game off with a single that turned out to be the team's only hit of the game. Excluding a pair of walks to Kaitlyn Richardson and a hit by pitch drawn by Sara Groenewegen, Julie Sarratt did not allow another base runner until the seventh inning.
Moulton hit a pair of batters and walked one in the second frame, but cruised the rest of the night, racking up nine strikeouts and scattering three hits over seven innings of work.
Minnesota broke the scoreless stalemate in the seventh after Richardson drew her third walk of the night and moved to second two batters later when Bree Blanchette got hit by a Sarratt pitch. With two outs, a dropped by Gamecock shortstop Codee Yeske off the bat of Sydney Fabian allowed Richardson to score.
The game was secured with a 1-2-3 inning by Moulton in the bottom half of the stanza when the senior hurler induced two ground-ball outs before striking out Yeske to finish it.
The shutout was the ninth of the season for Moulton and 44th of her career in her 101st complete game. Both career marks are school records. She now has 150 strikeouts on the season and 1,090 at Minnesota, 32 behind pitching coach Piper Ritter for the all-time record.
The Gophers begin Big Ten play with a three-game series at No.17/15 Nebraska this weekend. The teams play Friday at 6 p.m. CT and have games at 1 p.m. CT Saturday and Sunday.
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