Gophers

Minnesota scene: Shutout gives Gophers baseball sweep of Northwestern

April 25, 2016 at 4:39AM

Austin Athmann hit a pair of two-run homers to boost the Gophers baseball team to an 8-0 victory over Northwestern and a weekend sweep of the Wildcats on Sunday in Evanston, Ill. Athmann also ran his on-base streak to a team-high 25 games. File photo courtesy of the University of Minnesota. For more Gophers photos, go to gophersports.com. (Brian Wicker — File photo courtesy of University of Minnesota/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Toby Anderson threw a five-hitter and Austin Athmann hit a pair of two-run homers to boost the Gophers baseball team to an 8-0 victory over Northwestern and a weekend sweep of the Wildcats on Sunday in Evanston, Ill.

Athmann ran his on-base streak to 25 games as the Gophers (25-11, 9-2 Big Ten) won their fifth game in a row.

Anderson, a righthander, improved to 5-0 after striking out four while walking one against the Wildcats (10-30, 2-13).

Micah Coffey and Dan Motl each contributed two hits, and Matt Fiedler and Coffey each drove in a run.

Minnesota's ninth conference victory matched last season's total, with 12 league games remaining.

Big Ten golf

The Gophers men posted their best team score of the three rounds — a 12-over 300 — and tied for 11th with Rutgers at the conference meet in Newburgh, Ind. Senior Jon DuToit was the Gophers' best finisher, at 11-over 227 after a closing 74, good for 27th place. Riley Johnson shot 73 for the Gophers' third-round low.

Illinois ran away with the championship at 835, 16 shots ahead of Iowa. The Gophers totaled 910.

• The Gophers women also closed out their Big Ten tournament with their best round of the three days, a 6-over 294, and placed 11th in Indianapolis with an 878 total. Sophomore Heather Ciskowski carded a second consecutive 1-under 71 and tied for 30th at 4-over 220.

Northwestern and Ohio State were co-champions, at 12-under 852.

U.S. under-18 team skates to bronze

The US. Under-18 men's hockey team took a five-goal lead in the first period and routed Canada 10-3 in the bronze medal game of the U18 world championships in Grand Forks, N.D.

Logan Brown and Roseville's Joey Anderson scored two goals each for the United States, which captured a medal for the 12th consecutive year.

Canada, which last won gold in 2013, finished without a medal for the first time since 2011.

Finland, runner-up to the gold-winning U.S. a year ago, won the championship with a 6-1 victory over Sweden. It is Finland's first U18 gold since winning back-to-back titles in the first two tournaments, in 1999 and 2000.

Etc.

• The Gophers women's tennis team battled back to beat visiting Rutgers 4-3, rallying with singles victories by Caroline Ryba, Paula Rincon-Otero, Julia Courter and Camila Vargas Gomez.

• The Gophers men's tennis team dropped its season finale 4-0 at Indiana. The Hoosiers won the doubles point and all three singles matches that were completed, including 6-4, 7-5 losses by No. 1 Matic Spec and No. 2 Ruben Weber.

• The Gophers and Nebraska were rained out in the finale of their three-game softball series at Cowles Stadium. Minnesota won the first two games of the series. The game will not be rescheduled.