The Gophers softball team has its opener at Jane Sage Cowles Stadium.
Final – Taylor tosses a perfect game with 10 strikeouts. Final totals: MICHIGAN: 9 runs, 7 runs, 0 errors, 7 runners left on base. GOPHERS: 0 runs, 0 hits, 2 errors, 0 left on base. Win – Taylor (16-2). Loss – Middlebrooks (15-13). Attendance: 356. Time: 1 hour, 42 minutes.
Top 5th – Evans hit a two-out single, and Findlay followed with a long two-run homer to left field. MICHIGAN 9, GOPHERS 0.
Top 4th – After Findlay drew a leadoff walk, Viefhaus hit a two-run home run (her 12th of the season) to right-center field. MICHIGAN 7, GOPHERS 0.
Top 3rd – Middlebrooks settled in for a 1-2-3 inning with no balls leaving the infield.
Bot 2nd – Taylor struck out the side in a 1-2-3 inning and has struck out four straight.
Top 2nd – Middlebrooks allowed a run on St. Clair’s RBI double. But she escaped further trouble when she struck out Chidester and Aubrey Davis ran down Nemitz’s fly ball that was slicing toward the left-centerfield gap to end the inning. MICHIGAN 5, GOPHERS 0.
Top 1st – Michigan batted around in a rough start for the Gophers. Shaw grounded a two-out, two-run base hit up the middle past Howard, and Larsen later lined one to the left of Skrove at shortstop. The ball was cut off deep in the outfield, and two runs scored on the double. All of the runs were unearned because of an error charged to Skrove on Viefhaus’ one-out grounder. MICHIGAN 4, GOPHERS 0.
Gophers senior Chonquita Jones sang the national anthem.
Lineups:
Michigan Wolverines (28-5, 5-0 Big Ten):
CF Bree Evans (.365 avg., 0 home runs, 14 RBI)
RF Angela Findlay (.340, 9, 32)
3B Maggie Viefhaus (.367, 11, 30)
C Roya St. Clair (.238, 4, 21)
1B Dorian Shaw (.364, 12, 38)
2B Amanda Chidester (.267, 5, 16)
DP Nikki Nemitz (.319, 4, 22)
LF Kristin Larsen (.143, 1, 4)
SS Molly Bausher (.290, 0, 11)
RHP Jordan Taylor (15-2, 1.22 ERA, 180 SO)
Minnesota Gophers (15-23, 1-3 Big Ten):
1B Jr. Malisa Barnes (.344, 3, 15)
RF Sr. Abby Rehberger (.245, 1, 6)
3B Fr. Alex Davis (.289, 9, 19)
DP Jr. Aubrey Davis (.163, 0, 2)
CF Jr. Whitney Erickson (.189, 2, 8)
LF Sr. Heidi Carls (.296, 1, 18)
SS So. Dannie Skrove (.185, 1, 8)
C Fr. Kari Dorle (.163, 0, 3)
2B So. Sammie Howard (.190, 0, 5)
RHP Fr. Lacey Middlebrooks (15-12, 2.26 ERA, 160 SO)
