University of Minnesota Athletics
University of Minnesota
Illinois
Gophers Cap Sweep of Illini With Pair of Wins
3/29/2014 12:00:00 AM | Softball
March 29, 2014
Game 1 Box Score | Game 2 Box Score
ST. PAUL - The 15th-ranked Minnesota softball team took both games of a doubleheader at South Field at the University of Thomas in St. Paul Saturday to complete a weekend sweep of Big Ten opponent Illinois. The Gophers downed the Fighting Illini, 8-0, in six innings in the first game before posting another shutout in the second game, winning 7-0. The Maroon and Gold, off to its best start ever at 27-4, is 5-1 in conference play.
Fifteen of the Minnesota's 27 wins this season have come via shutout. The team added a pair of home runs in each game to run its season total to 39, the most in the league.
As they did Friday when they posted five runs in the first inning, the Gophers got off to a fast start in the opening frame. Thanks in part to an error in the field and four wild pitches by Illinois starter Shelese Arnold, Minnesota was able to score four runs.
Kayla Wenner extended the Gophers' lead in the second with her second home run of the weekend.
The teams went scoreless in the third, fourth, and fifth innings before the Gophers tacked on three runs in the sixth to end the game. Starting pitcher Sara Groenewegen launched her seventh home run of the season to make it 6-0 and Bree Blanchette made it home from third on passed ball. After the Illini intentionally walked the hot-hitting Tyler Walker to load the bases, Erica Meyer drew another base on balls to bring home the eighth run, ending the game.
Groenewegen went the distance for her third complete game of the season, improving to 7-0. She registered 10 strikeouts and now has 85 on the season.
After only being able to record one out in Friday's series-opener before being pulled, Brandi Needham threw a complete game in Saturday's finale. Through four innings, the only run scored for either team was a solo home run by Minnesota's Taylor LeMay in the second inning.
LeMay's long ball was her eighth of the year, the most on the team.
Kaitlyn Richardson opened up the scoring in the fifth inning when she drilled a bases-clearing double to right field to make it 4-0. The Gophers completed the scoring in the next inning when Blanchette knocked home Groenewegen with a double and Hannah Granger hit a two-run homer, here second of the weekend, to make it 7-0.
Sara Moulton was stellar in the circle, earning her 18th victory of the season and 103rd of her career by tossing six innings, conceding just one hit and allowing two total baserunners while striking out five. Moulton now has a Big Ten-leading 171 strikeouts on the season, pushing her career total to 1,111. She is 11 Ks shy of pitching coach Piper Ritter for the school's all-time record of 1,122.
The Gophers are scheduled to host Wisconsin next week in a Friday-Saturday-Sunday series at Jane Sage Cowles Stadium.
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