Minnesota Scene: Moulton reaches milestone in U softball loss to Northwestern

Northwestern scored at least one run in six of seven innings to defeat the No. 14-ranked Gophers 13-9 on Friday in a Big Ten softball game at Jane Sage Cowles Stadium.

Hannah Granger hit a three-run homer for Minnesota in the bottom of the seventh, but the rally ended with that.

Sara Moulton started the game for the Gophers and got two strikeouts in the first innings to become the program's all-time career strikeout leader. She passed Piper Ritter, the team's pitching coach, who had 1,122.

But Moulton, who came into the game with a 1.16 ERA, was hit hard. The No. 23 Wildcats (23-9, 6-4) came in averaging 6.9 runs per game — eighth best in the county — and led 8-3 after 3½ innings. They outhit the Gophers 17-9.

Tyler Walker and Kaitlyn Richardson of the Gophers each had two-run homers.

Nebraska scored two runs in the top of the ninth inning to edge the Gophers 8-6 on Friday in Big Ten baseball at Siebert Field.

The winning run scored on a wild pitch, the insurance run on Austin Darby's single.

The Gophers (17-12, 5-5) rallied for four runs in the fifth, two scoring on Tony Skjefte's single. Michael Handel's run-scoring double in the seventh tied the score at 6-all. Handel was 4-for-5.

Four men's gymnasts for the Gophers advanced to Saturday's individual event finals in the NCAA meet in Ann Arbor, Mich., with strong performances. Ellis Manon was fifth on the pommel horse (15.150) in Friday's preliminaries. Zach Chase tied for fifth on vault (15.150), Steve Jaciuk tied for sixth on high bar (14.800) and Matt Frey tied for ninth on parallel bars (15.100).

Michigan won its second NCAA team title on its home floor Friday led by Sam Mikulak, who repeated as the all-around champion.

• Junior Devin Stanford took second in the hammer throw with a career-best toss of 196-7 at the Specs Towns Invite in Athens, Ga. Sophomore Becci Osterdyk also took second in the shot putt (45-5¼).

• Laura Ryan of Elk River and teammate Abby Johnston won the women's 3-meter event Friday at the USA Diving World Cup synchronized diving trials in Tallahassee, Fla.