University of Minnesota Athletics
University of Minnesota
Rutgers
Gophers Pick Up a Pair of Wins Over Rutgers
3/11/2021 3:31:00 PM | Softball
Minnesota earned a pair of wins against Rutgers, today in Leesburg, Fla., at the Sleepy Hollow Sports Complex. With the win, the Golden Gophers improve to 5-3 overall and in Big Ten play. They play Rutgers again tomorrow at 10:20 a.m. CT.
On the day, MaKenna Partain went 3-6 and hit .500 with a double and a triple. Emily Hansen was 3-7, had three RBIs and one run scored. Sara Kinch went 2-5 with two runs scored, while she and Natalie DenHartog each homered today.
Both Amber Fiser and Autumn Pease both picked up a win in the circle.
Game One Recap
Minnesota opened the second weekend of play with an 8-5 win over Rutgers. Kinch went 2-3 with two for three with an RBI and two runs scored. Carlie Brandt went 1-2 with two RBIs and two walks, while Emily Hansen added two RBIs, went 1-4 with a run scored.
Minnesota and Rutgers each added a solo home run in the fourth inning to break the scoreless tie. Sarah Kinch scored her first collegiate home run off her first collegiate hit.
The bats came alive in the fifth when Emily Hansen doubled down the right field line to plate two. Sydney Strelow followed with a single to left as she scored Hansen. As Strelow attempted to steal second and succeeded, Chloe Evans stole home in the same attempt to take a 5-1 lead.
Rutgers responded with a four-run inning to tie the game at 5-5 off an unearned sac fly, a two-RBI triple to right and an infield single.
The Gophers, however, put the game away in the top of the seventh and produced three runs. Kinch started things off with a single, followed by another by Ali Lindner. MaKenna Partain delivered a RBI double to score Kinch. Carlie Brandt plated the last two when she singled and brought home Partain and Lindner for the final runs.
Amber Fiser picked up the win, her second of the season. She went the full seven innings, allowed five hits, five runs, one earned run and struck out nine.
Game Two Recap
Minnesota garnered the day's sweep off a 4-0 shutout win over the Scarlet Knights. Partain went 2-3 with two runs scored, while DenHartog went 1-3 with a home run and 2 RBIs. Hansen also went 2-3 with an RBI.
Minnesota opened the game with a run in the bottom of the first when Partain singled and later scored on a Hansen double.
In the fourth inning, DenHartog belted a two-run home run. Hansen got on base with a single through the right side, while Evans came in to pinch run. DenHartog hit her first home run of the 2021 season to plate two and take a 3-0 lead.
The Gophers cushioned their lead in the bottom of the fifth to add another run. Partain led off with a triple and scored off an Ellee Jensen RBI putout.
The one run in the first inning would be all that Autumn Pease would need to gain her third win of the season. She pitched six innings, allowed just two hits, accomplished the shutout and faced 22 batters.
