The Gophers extended their winning streak to 15 games by beating Nebraska 8-3 on Saturday in Big Ten softball in Lincoln behind hot-hitting Tyler Walker.

The senior shortstop hit a solo homer in the fifth inning that gave No. 12 Minnesota (29-4, 5-0 Big Ten) a 4-3 lead. Then in the sixth, she doubled to drive in two more runs. Walker has six homers in her past six games. Since March 8, when she was hitting .257, Walker has raised her average to .349.

Hannah Granger had a two-run double in the third for the Gophers and Danielle Parlich a two-run single in the seventh.

Freshman Kylie Stober (6-1) started for the Gophers and went four-plus innings. Nikki Anderson relieved her and Sara Groenewegen came in in the seventh with two on and nobody out and retired the Cornhuskers (17-14, 5-2) without damage.

U baseball falls in 13th

Northwestern edged the Gophers 2-1 in 13 innings on Saturday in Big Ten baseball at Siebert Field. The go-ahead run scored after a walk, a single and an error.

Until then, the pitching staffs of both teams dominated. After a scoreless first inning, both team got a run in the second. The Wildcats (6-19, 1-1) scored without a hit on a hit batter, a walk and two sacrifice bunts.

Minnesota (8-14, 1-4) answered as Toby Hanson doubled and later came home on Tony Skjefte's sacrifice fly.

Starting pitchers Toby Anderson for Minnesota and Joe Schindler for Northwestern each allowed one run in six innings of work. Reed Mason (1-6) took over for Schindler and got the win with nine strikeouts in six shutout innings.

Minnesota used six relievers, with Brian Glowicki's 3⅓ scoreless innings being the Gophers' longest stint out of the bullpen. Matt Fiedler, Jordan Jess, Glowicki, Tyler Hanson, Lucas Gilbreath and Ty McDevitt split the last seven innings.

Mannon repeats

Senior Ellis Mannon won the pommel horse competition for the second consecutive year in the Big Ten gymnastics meet at Penn State. Mannon, the defending NCAA champion in the event, had a score of 15.525. Freshman Yaroslav Pochinka of the Gophers took second in the vault (15.250) and Steve Jaciuk was third in parallel bars (15.325).

Etc.

• Matt Barnard of the Gophers placed third in platform diving (473.80) in the NCAA men's swimming and diving meet on Saturday in Iowa City.

• The Gophers men's golf team was 17th in The Goodwin tournament in Stanford, Calif. The team's top individual was Jon Du Toit, tied for 24th at 210.

• James Moulsoff, the interim head wrestling coach at Augsburg, was given the job permanently after leading the Auggies to their 12th NCAA Division III title earlier this month.