University of Minnesota Athletics
Gophers Seeded Third in Big Ten Tournament
5/4/2014 12:00:00 AM | Softball
May 4, 2014
Big Ten Release | Tournament Bracket
ROSEMONT, Ill. - The No. 12/14 Minnesota softball team has been seeded third in the Big Ten Conference Tournament, which begins Thursday at Sharon J. Drysdale Field in Evanston, Ill. The tournament champion will earn the conference's automatic berth to the NCAA Championship. It will be a three-day single-elimination tournament.
The Gophers, who earned a bye to the quarterfinal round with a top-four finish, will open play Friday at 11 a.m. and will face the winner of a Thursday contest between No. 6 seed Purdue and No. 11 seeded Indiana.
Should they advance to the semifinal round, they would face the winner of Friday's quarterfinal matchup between second-seeded Nebraska and the winner of No. 7 Ohio State and No. 10 Penn State's first-round matchup at 2:30 p.m. Saturday.
The championship game is slated to start at 7:30 p.m. Saturday.
Minnesota finished the regular season with a 38-9 record and a 16-6 record in the Big Ten, recording its highest win total since 2002 and its highest league win total since 1999. The team's win percentage of .809 is the highest in school history.
The Gophers advanced to the Big Ten title game in 2013 at Bowlin Stadium in Lincoln, Neb. with a 4-0 win over Penn State and a 1-0 victory against host Nebraska before falling to Wisconsin in the championship, 9-3.
Against Purdue, the Gophers are 23-21 all-time after defeating the Boilermakers twice in a three-game road series to close out the regular season. Minnesota is 51-42 all-time against Indiana after sweeping the Hoosiers in the final series of the teams' 2013 seasons in Minneapolis-the teams haven't met this season.
The Big Ten Network will provide live coverage of the Big Ten Softball Tournament quarterfinals, semifinals and final.
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