Sports

Gophers softball team loses to Northwestern in eight innings

March 25, 2018 at 5:09AM

The Gophers softball team lost to Northwestern 11-10 in eight innings on Saturday in the second game of their Big Ten series.

Catcher Kendyl Lindaman's second homer of the game — a solo shot — gave Minnesota a 10-9 lead in the top of eighth. But the Wildcats (19-8, 0-2n), who scored two runs in the bottom of the seventh, scored twice again in the eighth to win their 10th game in a row.

Lindaman had a three-run homer in the fourth and Maddie Houlihan a two-run shot as the Gophers (17-13, 0-2) took an 8-3 lead.

U men's gymnasts peaking

The No. 3 Gophers posted their highest score of the season with a 419.100 total Saturday in a victory over No. 9 Iowa (411.050) and No. 4 Nebraska (389.550) in Lincoln, Neb. Minnesota is only the second NCAA gymnastics team this season to earn three event scores above 70 in the same meet. It was the second-highest score by any team this season.

"It was a high-energy meet," Gophers coach Mike Burns said. "… We kept fighting, and it was just a great night for the Gophers."

Tristan Duran, in the final regular-season meet of his Gophers career, won the all-around title with an 84.150 score.

Teammate Shane Wiskus, a freshman, won two events, parallel bars and floor exercise, with an NCAA high score this season of 15.000 in the latter event.

U women gymnasts land sixth

The Gophers women's gymnastics team finished sixth in the Big Ten Championships in Champaign, Ill., with a score of 196.225. Michigan (197.200) took first. Lexy Ramler of Minnesota was named the conference freshman of the year and tied for fourth in the all-around (39.375).

Ivy Lu of the Gophers tied for first on bars (9.950) and Paige Williams tied for fourth in vault (9.850) and in floor exercise (9.900).

U loses in baseball

The Gophers baseball team lost 8-2 to defending Big Ten champion Nebraska in the second game of their series in Lincoln.

Minnesota (15-9, 1-1 Big Ten) surrendered at least a run in each of the first five innings, and Nebraska (13-10, 1-1) got two home runs from Scott Schreiber.

Matt Waldron worked seven innings for the Huskers, surrendering just one earned run while scattering eight hits and striking out five.

Ben Mezzenga went 2-for-4 and Cole McDevitt 2-for-3 for the Gophers while reliever Bubba Horton threw three scoreless innings.

Etc.

• Nikki Fennern, the athletic director at St. Mary's, is one of four finalists for the director of athletics at Augustana.

• North Dakota senior goaltender Cam Johnson agreed to a one-year, entry-level contract with the New Jersey Devils. He will travel to Binghamton and sign an AHL amateur tryout agreement.

• Former Gopher Noora Raty was named the Canadian Women's Hockey Legue's goaltender of the year. She led the Kunlun Red Star to the Clarkson Cup final with a 1.60 goals-against average.