The St. Paul Saints routed the Gary SouthShore RailCats 8-2 on Thursday night at CHS Field to take a 2-0 lead in their best-of-five North Division playoff series. The series moved to Gary for Game 3 on Friday, with games the next two days there also, if necessary.
The RailCats took a 2-0 lead in the top of the first, but the Saints tied the score in the third inning and scored five runs on five hits in the fourth inning. Kyle Barrett's RBI single put the home team ahead 3-2. Dante Bichette Jr. capped the big inning with a two-run single.
Eddie Medina gave up two runs on five hits in seven innings for the win.
• Saints catcher Justin O'Conner was named the American Association's Defensive Player of the Year. He had a league-leading 52 assists while committing just six errors in 79 games. He hit .250 with 17 homers and 41 RBI. O'Conner, 26, began his professional career in 2010 after being taken in the first round of the MLB draft by the Tampa Bay Rays. He spent eight seasons in the Rays' organization, reaching Triple-A in 2017.
U women's TV slate released
The Gophers women's basketball team, under first-year coach Lindsay Whalen, will have nine of its games on national television this season, the Big Ten Conference announced. Seven will be on the Big Ten Network (BTN) and two on ESPN2.
The first of those televised games will be Nov. 29 when the Gophers host Syracuse in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge at 7:30 p.m. on BTN, which will also air Minnesota's conference home opener against Wisconsin at 8 p.m. on Dec. 28 and seven other conference games.
BTN also confirmed that it will carry the Gophers' other 10 conference games on BTN Plus, along with a select number of nonconference games.
