The Gophers softball team lost to Fresno State 3-0 on Friday night in the opening game of its NCAA regional at UCLA. Shuylar Broussard's two-out, bases-loaded single off Amber Fiser made it 2-0 in the top of the sixth inning for the Bulldogs (37-10).

Minnesota (29-12) threatened in the bottom of the inning when MaKenna Partain singled for the Gophers' second hit and Natalie DenHartog was hit by a pitch with nobody out.

But Hailey Dolcini stranded those runners, getting the third out on her 11th strikeout of the game.

"She's throwing to good spots — good pitches to good spots," Gophers coach Piper Ritter said between innings midgame when asked about Dolcini on the TV broadcast. "We just have to keep working on getting good swings at them and not letting strikes go by."

The Gophers never could solve Dolcini. They did get their first two hitters of the game on base when Ellee Jensen singled and Partain walked, but Dolcini got out of that jam.

Fiser gave up double in the first and the Bulldogs had two on and only one out in the third, but she stranded all runners. Until the pivotal sixth. She also gave up another run in the seventh on Keahilele Mattson's double.

Of Fiser, Ritter said: "She is working her corners … She just works on attacking them."

Fiser (15-9) gave up 11 hits, struck out seven and walked none.

Dolcini improved to 22-4, lowered her 1.01 ERA a bit, and got her 14th shutout.

The Gophers will face Long Beach State, which lost 8-0 to UCLA, the No. 2 overall national seed, at 6 p.m. Saturday. Whoever loses that game will be eliminated.

Minnesota, the Big Ten regular-season runner-up, was the second seed in this regional but was coming off a 4-1 loss at Penn State, the Big Ten's cellar-dweller, last Sunday. Fiser started against the Nittany Lions but was taken out after 1⅔ innings after giving up four runs.

South Dakota State 7, Stanford 1: Cylie Halvorson hit two homers and had five RBI and Grace Glanzer pitched a three-hitter as the Jackrabbits beat the Cardinal, coached by former Gophers coach Jessica Allister, in a first-round game in Fayetteville, Ark.

Mississippi 5, Villanova 1: Ole Miss, coached by Jamie Trachsel, the Gophers coach last season, won its first-round game in Tucson, Ariz.