Gophers baseball, softball teams lose

The Gophers baseball team lost its season opener 3-2 to Georgia Tech on Friday afternoon in the Atlanta Challenge.

Sophomore third baseman Jordan Kozicky hit two solo homers, in the first and third innings, for the Gophers on his 21st birthday. But that was it for their offense; Minnesota had only three other hits.

Reggie Meyer started for the Gophers and allowed all three runs, two earned, on four hits in four innings. Reliever Brett Schulze held the Yellow Jackets scoreless on four hits the rest of the game.

Georgia Tech improved to 24-1 in home openers under coach Danny Halls, who got his first win with the Yellow Jackets against Minnesota on Feb. 11, 1994 and now his 989th.

The No. 14 Gophers softball team lost 3-2 to No. 8 Florida State in Tallahassee in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge. Minnesota (5-1) took a 1-0 lead in the second on Carlie Brandt's RBI double, but the Seminoles (6-0) scored one run in the fifth on a hit batter with the bases loaded and two more runs in the sixth.

Brandt doubled again in the seventh and scored on MaKenna Partain's sacrifice fly for the Gophers' second run.

Sophomore Amber Fiser, who was 17-0 in her career, took her first loss. She gave up seven hits, struck out four, walked two and hit that one batter.

Three members of the Gophers swimming and diving team placed second in individual events on Day 3 of the Big Ten Championships in Columbus, Ohio.

Danielle Nack took second in the 100 butterfly (51.15); it was her fifth silver medal in the meet, three in relays. Lindsey Kozelsky placed second in the 100 breaststroke (57.91). Both set program records.

Sarah Bacon was the runner-up in 3-meter diving (383.40) after winning the 1-meter event earlier in the meet.

Going into the meet's final day, the Gophers were third in the team competition with 742 points, trailing Michigan (926) and Indiana (787).

The Gophers women's gymnastics team won its session in at GymQuarters Invitational in St. Louis, led by sophomore Ivy Lu, who had a 10.000 on the beam — only the second perfect score in program history — and tied another program record with a 9.975 on the beam to win both events.

The Gophers wrestling team got a technical fall and three pins in beating Rider 32-12 in Lawrenceville, N.J., in its final regular-season dual meet.

Ethan Lizak got the technical fall at 125 pounds and Mitch McKee followed with his team-leading eighth pin of the season at 133 to put the Gophers (10-8) ahead 11-0.

Brandon Krone at 184 and Dylan Anderson at 197 had the Gophers' other pins.

In the only match between top-10-rated wrestlers, No. 6 Chad Walsh of Rider (12-5) pinned No. 8 Nick Wanzek in the third period at 165.

• Members of the Gophers men's track and field team won 10 events at the team's final home meet, the Snowshoe Open, including the 600-meter run which Ben Psicihulis won in a meet record 1:18.15.