Minnesota Scene: Sara Groenewegen's gem leads Gophers past Nebraska in softball

The No. 23 Gophers cruised to a 6-0 home victory over Nebraska on Friday evening behind a one-hitter by Sara Groenewegen.

"Great win against a really good team," coach Jessica Allister said. "We came out and took aggressive swings on great pitches. We pitched great and played good aggressive defense. The crowd was good and gave us a lot of energy."

Kayla Wenner hit a solo homer in the second inning and Sydney Fabian a two-run homer in the fourth for the Gophers (31-12, 12-3 Big Ten), who had nine hits.

The only hit for Nebraska (28-14, 9-6) was a leadoff single in the second inning.

Groenewegen struck out nine and walked none. She threw only 62 pitches and 42 were strikes.

Connor Schaefbauer hit a solo homer and Toby Hanson a two-run shot to lead the No. 25 Gophers to a 6-5 victory over Northwestern in Evanston, Ill., in Big Ten baseball.

Minnesota (23-11, 7-2 Big Ten) took a 6-1 lead with four runs in the sixth inning on Hanson's homer, Micah Coffey's RBI triple and Eddie Estrada Jr.'s sacrifice fly. But the Wildcats rallied for four runs in the seventh, knocking Matt Fiedler out of the game.

"But the bullpen did a great job to keep it right there."

"It's been awhile," said Hanson, referring to his third home run of the season. "Going back to the first weekend, I haven't hit one. We finally had the wind blowing out for once.

"We deserve those, so we will take it."

• The Gophers men's golf team was in 12th place after the first round of the Big Ten tournament in Newburgh, Ind., after shooting a combined 15-over 303.

Jon DuToit and Runar Arnorsson had the lowest rounds, shooting 74s and are tied for 30th.