University of Minnesota Athletics
University of Minnesota
Iowa
Gophers Blank Hawkeyes to Secure Sweep
4/26/2015 12:00:00 AM | Softball
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April 26, 2015
MINNEAPOLIS - The No. 12/10 Minnesota softball team completed a weekend sweep of Iowa with a 9-0 win in five innings Sunday at Jane Sage Cowles Stadium. The Gophers' 17th run-rule win of the season upped their record to 41-8 with a 15-3 mark in Big Ten play.
Dating back to last season, the Maroon and Gold has held Iowa scoreless in five-consecutive meetings after limiting the Hawkeyes to just six hits on the weekend.
Sara Groenewegen, who threw her second no-hitter in 10 days Wednesday against North Dakota State and hurled a one-hitter Saturday, conceded just two hits Sunday in her third-straight shutout win. She struck out nine to bring her season strikeout total to 285. The White Rock, B.C. native is now 25-4 on the year.
Sam Macken got Minnesota on the board in the second inning with a two-out double of the wall that plated a pair of runs. Danielle Parlich scored another with an RBI single that extended her team-best hit streak to 17 games. Parlich has now reached base in 46 of the Gophers' 49 games.
Entering the third with a 3-0 lead, Minnesota padded its advantage with a two-run single by Paige Palkovich and a three-run home run by Sam Macken.
All eight of the Gophers' runs in the second and third innings were scored with two outs.
Kayla Wenner completed the scoring for the day with a solo home run off the scoreboard in right field in a pinch-hit opportunity in the fourth. It was her first long ball of the season, making her the 14th different Minnesota player to go deep on the season. The team increased its school-record season home run total to 74.
The Gophers will travel to Border Battle rival Wisconsin for a doubleheader Wednesday on the Big Ten Network before capping its regular season at home next weekend versus Purdue.
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