University of Minnesota Athletics
University of Minnesota
Colorado State
Dwyer Notches Seven RBIs In Victories
2/11/2017 12:00:00 AM | Softball
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The No. 16/14 University of Minnesota Gophers picked up two more big victories at the Texas Classic topping Colorado State 5-1 and using a big seventh inning to beat Texas 11-6 today.
It was a true team effort all the way with different players stepping up throughout the day but Sydney Dwyer shined with a career day. She went 6-7 with seven RBIs and is leading all Gophers through four games. She has a .636 batting average with seven hits, three doubles, eight RBIs and a .909 slugging percentage.
First Game: Minnesota 5, Colorado State 1
The Gophers drilled 10 hits while holding off the Rams to just two in a 5-1 victory behind the combined performance of Amber Fiser and Sara Groenewegen in the circle.
Fiser moved to 2-0 on the season picking up a win in her first career start. She went four innings with six strikeouts and only allowed two hits. Groenewegen is now sixth all-time in program history for saves after picking up the eighth of her career. She pitched the final three innings not allowing a hit while striking out five.
The Rams lone run of the day came in the bottom of the first inning after a hit by pitch and a double. The Gophers quickly took the lead back to start the second and would never relinquish it.
Freshmen Kendyl Lindaman and MaKenna Partain started it off with back-to-back hits. Dwyer recorded her first RBI of the day to score Lindaman with a single to center. Dani Wagner would later bring in Partain with a sacrifice fly to deep right field.
The Gophers added an insurance run in the sixth courtesy of another Dwyer RBI single and put up two more in the seventh thanks to Lindaman and Danielle Parlich RBI singles.
Lindaman and Dwyer led all batters with three hits each.
Second Game: Minnesota 11, Texas 6
The Gophers and the Longhorns traded blows throughout the game but the Gophers used a big seventh inning to secure their fourth victory of the weekend. Lindaman and Allie Arneson both hit their first home runs as Gophers in the win.
The Longhorns scored the first run of the game in the second inning but Minnesota took momentum to start the third scoring five runs. The tying run came when Arneson slid under a tag at home as Maddie Houlihan reached on a fielder's choice.
The Gophers were able to load the bases and break the tie in the form of a Partain RBI single. Next one crack of the bat from Dwyer put the ball to right center and cleared the bases for a three-RBI double.
The Longhorns hit right back in the bottom of the third scoring four runs. They had a chance to do more damage with the bases loaded but Sam Macken came up with a huge catch in right field to get the Gophers out of the jam.
At the end of the third the Gophers made a pitching and left field change. That change put Carlie Brandt into left field and she came up with two big catches in the fourth inning to keep the game tied.
The tie was broken in the fifth by Lindaman's first career home run when she hit a one out solo shot over the left center wall.
In the bottom of the sixth it looked like Texas had a chance to get back some momentum with a deep shot toward the warning track in center but Dani Wagner hustled it down and came up with the catch. The Maroon and Gold came out swinging in the seventh to cushion the one run lead.
After two quick outs Lindaman drew a walk and Partain singled to shallow center. They were both brought home by another Dwyer double. Wagner hit a single beating out a throw from the shortstop to put runners on first and second.
Arneson, Aledo, Texas native, put the exclamation point on the victory with a three run home run over the left field wall. The home run was also her first hit as a Gopher.
The Longhorns scored one in the bottom of the seventh but Groenewegen shut them down and picked up her second win of the season. She pitched the final 4.1 innings of the game after Finucane got the start and put in 2.2 innings of work.
Groenewegen has a 0.98 ERA with two wins, one save and 15 strikeouts this weekend. The Gophers will finish out play at the Texas Classic with 10 a.m. matchup against Maryland tomorrow.
