Gophers shut out North Dakota State in NCAA softball regional

When Amber Fiser stepped into the circle Friday at Jane Sage Cowles Stadium, she knew she had a responsibility. Ultimately, to win. But immediately, to establish the tone for the Gophers.

She struck out North Dakota State's first batter and sent her team on its way to a postseason victory.

"Just being able to go there and be confident in the defense behind me," the junior righthander said. "It's really kind of what set the energy for the game."

The No. 7-seeded Gophers shut out North Dakota State 3-0 in their NCAA regional in front of an announced crowd of 1,158. They will face Georgia, which beat Drake 6-4 in eight innings earlier, at 3 p.m. Saturday. Drake and NDSU will play at 5:30 p.m., with the loser eliminated. Another elimination game will follow at 8 p.m.

Fiser ended the game with a 12 total strikeouts and gave up just three hits. That was especially helpful when her offense got only one hit the first half of the game.

"We're proud of our composure. We didn't panic. We didn't start to press a little bit. We had really good discipline," Gophers coach Jamie Trachsel said. "[Fiser] gave us a chance to make plays. Our defense did their job. And then our offense found a way to keep kind of putting pressure on the defense and find a way to score in three innings."

Trachsel added that while the Gophers lacked one big hit to break open the game, her players accomplished some atypical feats such as drawing walks and getting infield singles to keep chipping away.

North Dakota struggled with several mistakes from its third baseman, shortstop and pitcher, and one of those errors in the bottom of the fifth inning helped the Gophers double their lead when Maddie Houlihan's sacrifice fly scored Carlie Brandt.

The Gophers did load the bases later in the same inning but left all three runners stranded. They loaded the bases again the next inning, and North Dakota State pitcher KK Leddy walked Hope Brandner to force in a run before escaping by striking out the next batter.

Neither team was perfect. While the Gophers eventually ended with six hits, they faltered a bit under pressure in the final inning and even committed an error. North Dakota State batted just .120 (3-for-25) and made two errors.

"That first game in playoffs, in postseason or regionals, that's a tough game," Trachsel said. "There's a lot of emotions. There's a lot of nerves. There's a long week heading into it. We knew this would be a tough battle."

Coming out of it, though, the coach said her team is simply "solid" and ready to face the rest of the weekend. The team advancing to the super regional team will be decided Sunday.

"We can't believe we're already this far," Fiser said.

Georgia 6, Drake 4 (8): Ciara Bryan's two-run homer in the eight inning gave Georgia (41-17) a walkoff win. The SEC power had tied the score in the seventh on Justice Milz's solo shot with one out. Nicole Newman of Drake (42-25) struck out nine, including her 400th batter this season and the 1,300th of her career.