The Gophers baseball team opens its season this weekend against three nationally ranked teams at the third Big East/Big Ten Challenge in Florida.
The Gophers will play No. 23 St. John's at noon Friday and No. 9 Connecticut at 3 p.m. Saturday in Clearwater, and No. 20 Louisville at 10 a.m. Sunday in St. Petersburg. The starting pitchers will be sophomore TJ Oakes, junior Austin Lubinsky and senior Phil Isaksson. Oakes will be the first underclassman to start the season opener since Glen Perkins in 2004.
The Gophers advanced to the NCAA regional finals last season and have been picked by Big Ten coaches to finish first this year. But the schedule will be a challenge, because the collapse of the Metrodome roof means the Gophers will play all 20 of their pre-Big Ten nonconference games on the road. The Gophers originally had been scheduled to play 15 pre-Big Ten games at the Metrodome.
Puga named golfer of the week Gophers senior Teresa Puga was named women's golfer of the week in the Big Ten after her strong performance at the UCF Challenge in Sorrento, Fla. Puga shared medalist honors in the event after shooting a school-record low 208 for 54 holes. Her 6-under-par 66 in the final round tied for the lowest 18-hole score in program history.
National honors for Star Tribune The Star Tribune's daily sports section received top-10 honors for papers over 175,000 circulation in the 2010 Associated Press Sports Editors' section and writing judging.
The Star Tribune also received honorable mentions for its Sunday section and for a special section on Target Field.
Staff writer Phil Miller received a top-10 award for game-story writing. Miller covers Gophers football.
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