University of Minnesota Athletics
Iowa to Visit for Weekend Series
4/23/2015 12:00:00 AM | Softball
| Iowa at No. 12/10 Minnesota | |
| Dates and Times | Friday, April 24, 2015 · 6:00 p.m. CT (BTN+) Saturday, April 25, 2015 · 1:00 p.m. CT (BTN+) Sunday, April 26, 2015 · 12:00 p.m. CT (BTN+) |
| Location | Jane Sage Cowles Stadium· Minneapolis, Minn. |
| Live Blogs | Game 1 | Game 2 | Game 3 |
| Notes/Previews | Minnesota | Iowa |
| Official Sites | Minnesota | Iowa |
| Social Media | @GopherSoftball | Facebook | Instagram |
MINNEAPOLIS - The No. 12/10 Minnesota softball team will pick up play with a three-game Big Ten series against Iowa this weekend. The teams will play Friday at 6 p.m., Saturday at 1 p.m. and Sunday at noon at Jane Sage Cowles Stadium. The Gophers enter the series with a 38-8 record that includes a 12-3 mark in conference play, while the Hawkeyes come to town at 16-34 and 7-10 in league action.
LAST TIME OUT
Minnesota finished its non-conference schedule Wednesday by splitting a doubleheader with North Dakota State. The Gophers won the first game, 8-0, in five innings, but dropped the second game by a 5-4 score. Iowa fell to No. 15 Missouri in a midweek game on the road.
AGAINST THE HAWKEYES
Iowa owns a 58-43 edge in the all-time series against the Gophers, but Minnesota has a 7-3 ledger against the Hawkeyes under current head coach Jessica Allister after sweeping a midweek doubleheader in Iowa City last season.
NO PLACE LIKE HOME
Minnesota enters Wednesday's game with a 416-207 mark at home in 41-plus seasons. The Gophers, 6-3 at home this year, are 103-88 at Jane Sage Cowles Stadium after going 9-3 there last year.
NO HITS FOR NU, NDSU
Sophomore Sara Groenewegen threw her second and third-career no-hitters 10 days apart against Northwestern and North Dakota State. She struck out 19 batters in 10 innings of work in those two games. Entering the week, Groenewegen had allowed the 20th-fewest hits per seven innings in the nation at 4.49. That mark in the second-best in the Big Ten thus far.
MILESTONE GAME
Wednesday's 8-0 win over North Dakota State marked the 500th shutout win in Minnesota's program history. Hannah Granger's inside-the-park home run was the Gophers' 68th homer of the year, tying a school record.
STRIKING THEM OUT
Sara Groenewegen, who led the nation with 11.6 strikeouts per seven innings last season, has kept fanning hitters in 2015. The reigning Big Ten Pitcher of the Year has 267 strikeouts in 170.1 innings (11 strikeouts per seven innings) so far. She has had 12 double-digit strikeout showings and set a new career-high for strikeouts in a game with 15 against Northwestern and Michigan State.
RUN RULE WINS
The Gophers have piled up 14 run-rule wins in their first 44 games. Last year, 11 of the Gophers' 44 wins were by run-rule decision.
GOOD FIRST IMPRESSION
Danielle Parlich has made an impact in her first season in Maroon and Gold. The Queen Creek, Ariz. native has started all 46 games and has reached base in 43 of them. She leads the team with a .399 batting average and has been named a top-25 finalist for the NFCA National Freshman of the Year Award.
IN THE RANKINGS
After starting the season with its highest preseason ranking in program history at No. 15 (in both polls), Minnesota is now No. 12/10 after starting 37-7. The Gophers are currently No. 10 in the ESPN.com/USA Softball Collegiate Top 25 Poll, a program-best.
HAVE A WEEK
Three Gophers have combined for seven Big Ten weekly accolades. Sara Groenewegen was named the Big Ten Pitcher of the Week three times, while Danielle Parlich has been named the conference's top rookie three times. Erica Meyer became Minnesota's first Big Ten Player of the Week since 2013 the week of Feb. 23.
RECORD ROLL
Before dropping a 5-3 contest to Nebraska March 29, the Gophers had won a program-record 15 straight games. Previously, their longest win streak was 12 games. The Gophers are currently on their third win streak of seven or more games this year. Before dropping the second game of their doubleheader against North Dakota State, they were riding their third win streak of eight or more games this year.
LEADING THE CHARGE
Gopher senior Kaitlyn Richardson was selected in the first round, fifth overall by the Dallas Charge in the National Pro Fastpitch College Draft April 1. She was the second pick in the franchise's history and is set to become Minnesota's seventh player to play professionally once she plays for Dallas. Sara Moulton, a 2014 senior All-American, was drafted fifth overall last season and plays for the Chicago Bandits.
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