Madison, Wis. – The Gophers softball team put itself one victory away from a third straight Big Ten tournament championship with a 9-4 comeback win over Indiana in the semifinals on Saturday afternoon.
But the deciding game was put on hold.
Scheduled for 6 p.m. vs. fourth-seed Northwestern, a second day of bad weather in the area put another damper on play. Three hours after scheduled first pitch of the championship game, tournament officials cited ongoing lightning in the area and the threat of severe weather later in the night for reasons to postpone the game.
It will be now be played at 10 a.m. on Sunday morning - weather permitting, of course.
The Wildcats had already played twice on Saturday, beating 12th-seeded Iowa 2-1 in eight innings and no-hitting Michigan State 11-0 in five innings. The Iowa game was a quarterfinal that did not get played Friday because of weather delays.
The second-seeded Gophers (38-15), with 21 victories in their past 23 games, are already on solid footing for a sixth straight NCAA tournament appearance, but a title game victory would make it automatic — and give them an outside chance of hosting a regional, something that eluded them last year.
Despite a 54-3 record, the Gophers were sent to Tuscaloosa, Ala., in 2017 and did not advance.
Coming out of a 1-hour, 45-minute rain delay and with pitcher Amber Fiser struggling with her footing, the Gophers gave up four runs to the third-seeded Hoosiers (26-30) in the top of the fifth inning and fell behind 4-3. But they scored two runs in the bottom of the inning and added four more in the sixth.
