Minnesota Scene: Gophers top Nebraska in Big Ten baseball opener

Senior center fielder Alex Boxwell had two-run singles in both the second and sixth innings to lead the Gophers to a 5-1 victory over Nebraska on Friday in Lincoln in the Big Ten baseball opener for both teams.

Reggie Meyer got the win for Minnesota (15-8), giving up one run and eight hits in eight innings. Cole McDevitt had the fifth RBI for the Gophers against the defending conference champion Cornhuskers (11-10) on a sacrifice fly in the seventh.

Northwestern scored three runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to edge the Gophers 3-2 in Evanston, Ill., in the Big Ten softball opener for both teams.

The Wildcats (18-8) loaded the bases with one out on two singles and a walk by sophomore Amber Fiser and tied the score on an infield single and a throwing error. Another single by Marissa Panko brought home the winning run as Northwestern won its ninth game in a row.

MaKenna Partain had a two-run double for the Gophers (17-12) in the second.

Josh Thurow resigned as the Minnehaha Academy girls' basketball coach on Thursday.

Matt Pryor, a Minnehaha Academy alumnus who has been the girls' basketball coach at Concordia Academy the past four seasons, will replace Thurow.

Senior Nate Mason, who recently finished his Gophers basketball career, will play in the inaugural Dos Equis 3X3U National Championship.

The new event will pit 32 four-man teams consisting of players from every Division I college basketball conference against each other in a three-day, 3-on-3 tournament. The teams, composed of seniors without collegiate eligibility, will compete for a $100,000 prize pool in games viewable live on Twitter and ESPN2 next Friday through April 1, at St. Mary's University in San Antonio.

• The 2018 Mr. Basketball winner will be announced Wednesday during the second quarter of the Timberwolves-Atlanta Hawks game at Target Center. The finalists are Tre Jones of Apple Valley, Gabe Kalscheur of DeLaSalle, Owen King of Caledonia, Daniel Oturu of Cretin-Derham Hall, and Calvin Wishart of Delano.

• North Dakota forward Shane Gersich, a junior from Chaska, signed a two-year entry-level contract worth $925,000 annually with the NHL's Washington Capitals. He was a fifth-round pick of Washington in the 2014 draft, 134th overall. Gersich had 13 goals and 16 assists for 29 points this season.

• No. 29 Michigan defeated the host Gophers 5-2 in women's tennis. Caitlyn Merzbacher won at No. 5 singles and at No. 1 doubles with Mehvish Safdar for Minnesota.