The Gophers' softball doubleheader with visiting North Dakota State on Wednesday was canceled by rain. Minnesota, 32-12 and ranked No. 23 in the ESPN.com/USA Softball rankings, concludes regular-season play with two Big Ten series. The Gophers host Maryland this weekend and then play at Iowa.

Etc.

• The Big Ten men's tennis tournament, hosted by the Gophers at the Baseline Tennis Club, will open with four matches Thursday starting at 9 a.m. Minnesota, the 10th seed, will play seventh-seeded Purdue at 2 p.m.

• Ron Craven, a pitcher on the University of Minnesota's first NCAA baseball championship team in 1956, died Tuesday. Craven, who was living in Pine River, Minn., was 82. A Fairmont (Minn.) High School graduate, Craven played one season of basketball and lettered three times in baseball. In the Gophers' first game at the College World Series, Craven pitched a two-hit shutout in a 4-0 victory over Wyoming.

• Gophers hammer thrower Sean Donnelly was named the Big Ten co-field athlete of the week. His toss of 240 feet, 6 inches at the Virginia Challenge was his and the nation's second best.

• St. Cloud State's Bob Motzko was named the head coach of the U.S. hockey team that will play in the 2017 IIHF junior world championship starting in late December in Montreal and Toronto.

• Wild forward Jordan Schroeder was named to the U.S. team which will compete in the IIHF world championship May 6-22 in Moscow and St. Petersburg, Russia.

• Junior Coley Ries of Minnesota State Mankato was named the NSIC softball pitcher of the year and teammate McKenzie Paap, an outfielder, the rookie of the year. Ries went to high school at Mankato East, Paap at Minnetonka. Lori Meyer of the Mavericks was coach of the year after her team's fourth conference title in five years.

• St. Cloud State (23-4) is rated No 1 in the first NCAA Division II Central Regional baseball rankings this season.