BATON ROUGE, La. – The Minnesota softball team walked off against Oklahoma State to grab a 1-0 win in its final game at the Tiger Classic in Baton Rouge, La. With the win, the Gophers won the tournament and improved to 5-0 on the season for the first time since 2003.
Senior pitcher Sara Moulton led the way for the Gophers, tossing her third straight shutout in a row to begin the season. She now has 88 career wins, tying pitching coach Piper Ritter for the most all-time at Minnesota. With her first three of 12 strikeouts on the day, Moulton passed Briana Hasset for second on the school’s all-time strikeouts list. She now has 972, with 32 on the first weekend of the 2014 season.
The game was a pitcher’s duel, featuring just three combined hits in the first six innings. The Gophers have to shut out four-straight opponents and have surrendered just two runs in their first five games.
Kayla Wenner scored the offense-depraved game’s only run after singling in the seventh inning for the Gophers’ fourth hit of the day off Cowgirl pitcher Simone Freeman. She advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Taylor LeMay and ended the game by stealing third and coming around to score on an errant throw by the catcher.
Minnesota is now 7-7 against Oklahoma State all-time.
The Gophers will next hit the field in Las Vegas, N.V. in UNLV’s Easton Desert Classic. After beginning play in the desert against the host Rebels, Minnesota will sandwich a contest against Boise State between games against two 2013 NCAA Tournament teams, BYU and Florida. The Gators advanced to the Women’s College World Series and entered 2014 ranked third in the nation.
