(Photo Courtesy of Minnesota Athletics)
ROSEMOUNT, Ill. – For the second time in three weeks to start the 2014 season, Minnesota softball senior Sara Moulton was named the Big Ten Pitcher of the Week, the conference office announced Monday afternoon. It is the second weekly conference honor for the Gophers in 2014 and is the 10th Pitcher of the Week Award the Eagan, Minn. native has earned in her career.
For the second of three weeks on the season, senior pitcher Sara Moulton pitched three times without conceding a run. The senior went 3-0 to improve to 8-1 with a 0.92 ERA on the year and gave up just three hits and a walk in 17 innings of work.
Moulton recorded 28 strikeouts, including the 1,000th of her career (she finished the week with 1,016) and threw her fifth no-hitter as a Gopher against Hampton Saturday. She is now tied with pitching coach Piper Ritter for the most career no-hitters in school history. Friday against George Washington, she was perfect through 6.2 innings.
On the weekend, the Eagan, Minn. native yielded just one extra-base hit and held opponents to a .056 batting average. Moulton now has 93 wins in her career and has thrown 98 complete games, of which 42 have gone for shutouts. All of those marks are school records.
Minnesota is off to best start in school history at 12-1.
Next weekend, the Gophers will compete in the Louisville Slugger Classic in Tempe, Ariz. On that trip, Minnesota will open play Friday with games versus Detroit and South Carolina before playing Ball State and Florida International Saturday. The weekend will conclude with a showdown against No. 4-ranked host Arizona State.
