University of Minnesota Athletics
Minnesota Opens NCAA Tournament in Tucson
5/14/2015 12:00:00 AM | Softball
| No. 15/11 Minnesota (46-9) at the Tucson NCAA Regional | |
| Dates and Times | Friday, May 15, 2015 • 6:30 p.m. CT Saturday, May 16, 2015 • Play begins at 2:30 p.m. CT Sunday, May 17, 2015• Play begins at 6:00 p.m. CT Complete Interactive Bracket |
| Location | Hillenbrand Stadium • Tucson, Ariz. |
| Live Blogs | Minnesota Tournament Central |
| Notes | Minnesota Notes | Big Ten Release |
| Official Sites | Minnesota | Arizona | New Mexico State | St. John's Tucson Regional Tournament Central |
| Social Media | @GopherSoftball | Facebook | Instagram |
May 14, 2015
TUCSON, Ariz. -- The No. 15/11 Minnesota softball team is set to make its third-consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance. The Gophers will open its tournament with a 6:30 p.m. Friday showdown with New Mexico State Friday in Tucson, Ariz. No. 12 overall seed Arizona and Big East champion St. John's round out the region.
LAST TIME OUT
After earning a bye through the first round of the Big Ten Tournament, the second-seeded Gophers fell, 2-0, to Iowa in the quarterfinal round in Columbus, Ohio.
GOPHERS IN THE NCAA TOURNAMENT
Minnesota will make its 10th NCAA Tournament appearance this week in Tucson, Ariz. All-time, the Gophers are 10-15 at the event. They reached the super regional round for the first time ever in 2014.
ON THE DOCKET THIS WEEKEND
Minnesota and New Mexico State will play at 6:30 p.m. CT Friday before Arizona and St. John's meet at 9 p.m. in the nightcap. Friday's winners will play at 2:30 p.m. Saturday while Friday's non-winners will play at 5 p.m. in an elimination game. Game 3's non-winner and Game 4's winner will play at 7:30 p.m. Saturday. Sunday's regional championship will begin at 6 p.m. with the if-necessary second game set to begin at 8:30 p.m.
GOPHERS IN THE DESERT
In 95 all-time games in the state of Arizona, Minnesota is 44-50-1. Before head coach Jessica Allister arrived, the Gophers were 26-44-1, but they have gone 18-6 since, including a 5-0 trip to Tempe last season.
ROAD WARRIORS
Minnesota has excelled on the road thus far in 2015. The Gophers spent their first eight weeks of the season away from home and are 19-1 in true road games. They enter the week second in the nation in road wins and own school record for road wins in a season.
HOME SWEET HOME
Minnesota has two Arizona natives on its roster, senior Kaitlyn Richardson and freshman Danielle Parlich. In 19 career games in her home state, Richardson has hit .481 with a .537 on-base percentage and a .796 slugging percentage aided by five doubles and four home runs. She has also driven in 21 runs and registered a 1.000 fielding percentage.
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 55 games and has reached base in 52 of them. She leads the team with a .410 batting average and was named a top-10 finalist for the NFCA National Freshman of the Year Award.
ALL-CONFERENCE
The Gophers had their most All-Big Ten selections since 1991 with five this season. Big Ten Player of the Year Sara Groenewegen, Tyler Walker and Danielle Parlich were first-team honorees, while Sam Macken and Kaitlyn Richardson made the second team. Parlich and Richardson were also named to the conference's all-defensive team.
LIMITING THE HITS
Sophomore Sara Groenewegen threw her second and third-career no-hitters 10 days apart against Northwestern and North Dakota State April 12 and 22. She struck out 19 batters in 10 innings of work in those two games. Entering the week, Groenewegen has allowed the 10th-fewest hits per seven innings in the nation at 4.05.
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 2014 Big Ten Pitcher of the Year has 344 strikeouts in 209.1 innings this season, good for the nation's second-best strikeouts per seven innings rate at 11.5.
TWO BASES
Kaitlyn Richardson leads Minnesota with 15 doubles this season and has a school-record 63 for her career. That total is the second-most among active NCAA Division I players.
RUN-RULE WINS
The Gophers have piled up 19 run-rule wins in their first 55 games. Last year, 11 of the Gophers' 44 wins were by run-rule decision.
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. They have had four winning streaks of eight or more games this season.
IN THE RANKINGS
After starting the season with its highest preseason ranking in program history at No. 15 (in both polls), Minnesota now stands at 15/11. The Gophers reached as high as No. 9 in the ESPN.com/USA Softball Collegiate Top 25 Poll, a program-best.
###
