Courtesy of Minnesota Athletics
MINNEAPOLIS – The University of Minnesota softball team swept its first fall softball doubleheader of 2014 Saturday afternoon at Jane Sage Cowles Stadium, defeating North Dakota State by 7-5 and 11-5 scores. Seventeen different Gophers made plate appearances and the team used three pitchers in the pair of wins.
In the first game of the day, the Bison jumped ahead 3-0, but Minnesota rallied in the fourth inning when Kaitlyn Richardson and Taylor LeMay belted solo home runs.
After tying the game before the end of the inning, the Gophers tacked on four more runs in the fifth to pull away from NDSU. LeMay and fellow junior Sydney Fabian paced the Maroon and Gold in the opener, collecting two hits apiece.
In the circle, Nikki Anderson pitched a complete game and struck out five Bison batters to earn the win.
The second game of the day saw the Gophers score in each of the first three innings to build an early lead. After Minnesota staked itself to a 5-1 advantage through three frames, neither team found the scoreboard in the fourth or fifth innings.
The Bison made it a three-run game by scoring in the top of the sixth, but the Gophers negated that with six runs of their own in the bottom of the inning. NDSU scored three more times in the seventh to make it an 11-5 final.
Freshman Dani Wagner led the way offensively in Game 2, going 3-for-3 with two runs. The Hayfield, Minn. also stole two bases on the day. Fellow first-year player and Minnesotan Kylie Stober of Lakeville nabbed a win, pitching five solid innings of one-run ball. She struck out four.
In total, 11 different Minnesota players collected hits on the day against the Bison, one of the team’s opponents in the 2014 NCAA Minneapolis Regional.
