University of Minnesota Athletics
Saturday, February 15
Clearwater, FL
4:00 PM
University of Minnesota
4-4
1
vs
2
Virginia Tech
6-3
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
R
H
E
Minnesota
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
1
5
1
Virginia Tech
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2
0
0
0
X
2
8
0
Photo by: Brad Rempel
Comeback Effort Falls Short Against Virginia Tech
2/15/2020 7:24:00 PM | Softball
The No. 14/13 University of Minnesota Gophers (4-4) attempted to comeback against an ACC foe for the second straight evening, but fell 2-1 to Virginia Tech (6-3) this evening.
One night after coming back against No. 5/5 Florida State, the Gophers took on the defending ACC regular season champions in Virginia Tech. It was the first time in three straight games that Minnesota did not take on a ranked opponent, but Virginia Tech entered the weekend receiving votes in both major polls.
The Hokies struck in the third inning with back-to-back home runs. They positioned themselves to continue the scoring by loading the bases with no outs, but Amber Fiser and the Gophers field settled in and got out with two strikeouts and a groundout.
The Gophers appeared to cut into the lead in the fifth inning when MaKenna Partain flied out deep to center and Brooke Vander Heide tagged all the way home from second, but Vander Heide was called for leaving second base early.
Minnesota again went on the attack in the sixth. Natalie DenHartog knocked a deep double to left and was brought home by an Emily Hansen single up the middle. Hansen leads the Gophers with nine RBIs this season.
Josey White walked to start the seventh. Ali Lindner came in to pinch run and moved to second but the Gophers couldn't scrape her across.
Fiser took the loss in the circle and drops to 2-4 on the season. She went six innings with 11 strikeouts. She has hit double-digit strikeouts in four games already this season and has 63 on the year.
Quoteable
"It's disappointing. We have had a couple games now where we feel like we are one or two things away," head coach Jamie Trachsel said. "They are little things. We know those add up to big things and those are the difference between winning and losing the game. We put ourselves in position to score some runs but just didn't get those hits with people in scoring position."
Notable
MaKenna Partain notched two hits this evening and continues to lead the Gophers this season with a .429 batting average.
Up Next
Minnesota will close out play at the St. Pete/Clearwater Elite Invitational against Missouri at 8:30 a.m. CT tomorrow. Missouri topped the Gophers 7-4 in eight innings a week ago. The game can be viewed on ESPN3.
One night after coming back against No. 5/5 Florida State, the Gophers took on the defending ACC regular season champions in Virginia Tech. It was the first time in three straight games that Minnesota did not take on a ranked opponent, but Virginia Tech entered the weekend receiving votes in both major polls.
The Hokies struck in the third inning with back-to-back home runs. They positioned themselves to continue the scoring by loading the bases with no outs, but Amber Fiser and the Gophers field settled in and got out with two strikeouts and a groundout.
The Gophers appeared to cut into the lead in the fifth inning when MaKenna Partain flied out deep to center and Brooke Vander Heide tagged all the way home from second, but Vander Heide was called for leaving second base early.
Minnesota again went on the attack in the sixth. Natalie DenHartog knocked a deep double to left and was brought home by an Emily Hansen single up the middle. Hansen leads the Gophers with nine RBIs this season.
Josey White walked to start the seventh. Ali Lindner came in to pinch run and moved to second but the Gophers couldn't scrape her across.
Fiser took the loss in the circle and drops to 2-4 on the season. She went six innings with 11 strikeouts. She has hit double-digit strikeouts in four games already this season and has 63 on the year.
Quoteable
"It's disappointing. We have had a couple games now where we feel like we are one or two things away," head coach Jamie Trachsel said. "They are little things. We know those add up to big things and those are the difference between winning and losing the game. We put ourselves in position to score some runs but just didn't get those hits with people in scoring position."
Notable
MaKenna Partain notched two hits this evening and continues to lead the Gophers this season with a .429 batting average.
Up Next
Minnesota will close out play at the St. Pete/Clearwater Elite Invitational against Missouri at 8:30 a.m. CT tomorrow. Missouri topped the Gophers 7-4 in eight innings a week ago. The game can be viewed on ESPN3.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Kaylee Hewitt (3-0)
L: Fiser, Amber (0-0)
S: Keely Rochard (1)
Batting:
2B: DenHartog, Natalie 1
RBI: Hansen, Emily 1
SH: Kemmetmueller, Katelyn 1 ; Vander Heide , Brooke 1
Base Running:
RUNS: DenHartog, Natalie 1
SB: Partain, MaKenna 1
Batting:
2B: Ashley Whitley 1
HR: Olivia Lattin 1 ; Maddi Banks 1
RBI: Olivia Lattin 1 ; Maddi Banks 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Olivia Lattin 1 ; Maddi Banks 1
CS: Darby Trull 1
Game Leaders
AB
4
R
0
H
2
RBI
0
AB
3
R
1
H
1
RBI
0
AB
2
R
0
H
1
RBI
1
AB
2
R
0
H
1
RBI
0
Players Mentioned
UT
/ Softball
RHP
/ SoftballUT
/ Softball
OF
/ SoftballINF
/ SoftballOF
/ Softball
UT
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