Amber Fiser leads Gophers past conference-leading Northwestern in 10 innings

Sydney Strelow's single in the top of the 10th inning drove in the winning run as the Gophers edged No. 22 Northwestern 3-2 on Friday in Evanston, Ill., in Big Ten softball.

Amber Fiser pitched nine innings, threw 156 pitches and got the win; she is 8-4. The fifth-year righthander gave up two runs and six hits and struck out 12 for Minnesota (16-5).

Autumn Pease pitched the 10th for her fourth save this season. The conference-leading Wildcats (18-3) scored two runs in the sixth to tie it.

Natalie DenHartog hit her seventh homer for the Gophers in the third inning, and MaKenna Partain hit her first in the fifth.

This series continues with a doubleheader starting at 10 a.m. Saturday.

The U.S. locked up a spot in men's curling at the 2022 Beijing Olympics on Thursday, when Team John Shuster earned a playoff berth at the world men's curling championships in Calgary.

Shuster, the 2018 Olympic gold medalist from Duluth, skipped the U.S. team to a 10-3 record as the round robin of the world championships concluded Friday. That put it in third place, with the top six teams moving on to the playoffs and qualifying for the Olympics.

Though Shuster and his teammates — Chris Plys and John Landsteiner of Duluth and Matt Hamilton of McFarland, Wis. — are representing the U.S. at the world championships, they are not guaranteed a return trip to the Olympics.

The winner of the Olympic curling trials Nov. 13-21 in Omaha will go to Beijing.

RACHEL BLOUNT

• The Gophers baseball team lost 7-1 to Iowa in Iowa City. Peyton Williams hit a grand slam for the Hawkeyes in their six-run, fifth inning. Minnesota's record falls to 4-15 overall/conference.

• Bethany Hasz broke her own Gophers record in the 5,000-meter run at Big Ten Indiana Invite #2, winning the race in 15 minutes, 43.58 seconds.

• Gophers redshirt senior and four-time NCAA diving champion Sarah Bacon was named one of four finalists for the Honda Sports Award in her sport.