Over the weekend, the Gophers hosted Penn State for a three-game series. This was
Minnesota’s first time playing at Jane Sage Cowles Stadium all year.
The two Gophers stars, Autumn Pease and Kayla Chavez, were instrumental in winning the series. All three games featured great pitching in the circle; none had more than four runs total.
March 31
In Game 1 of the series, Pease was in the circle for the Gophers. She pitched a complete game shutout with eight strikeouts.
There was no offense for the first 6 ½ innings in a strong performance by Penn State ace Bailey Parshall. The Nittany Lions right-hander went without giving up a run until the bottom of the seventh inning.
Chavez won the game for Minnesota with one swing of the bat. The Gophers’ third baseman swung at the first pitch she saw and lifted it over the left field fence.
It was an incredible performance from Chavez, who tallied three extra-base hits on the day, going 3/4 at the plate.
The Gophers won the game 2-0, and Pease earned her 13th win of the season.
April 2
After a snowstorm covered the ground in Minneapolis on Saturday, there was no chance for the Gophers to play Game 2. Instead, they rescheduled the game to make Sunday a doubleheader.
The second game started differently than game one with Minnesota getting onto the scoreboard in the first inning.
Minnesota’s first run came off Taylor Karpf’s bat, who knocked in Chavez, giving the Gophers a 1-0 lead.
Due to the addition of a rest day between games, Pease was able to pitch again in Game 1 of the doubleheader.
It was another masterful performance from the Gophers ace going 7 innings, only allowing one run on 2 hits and striking out 11 batters. Besides the eye-popping box score though, Pease was also efficient, only throwing 84 pitches, which is just 12 pitches per inning.
The Gophers would tack on some insurance runs in the fifth inning on a 2-run home run from Chavez.
Once again, Chavez was crushing the ball, adding two more extra-base hits to her total on the weekend. After just two games in the series, Chavez had accumulated 5 extra-base hits.
The Nittany Lions denied Pease her second shutout of the weekend on an RBI single from Emily Maddock.
The Maddock single would be the last of the offense in Game 2. The final score was 3-1 in favor of the Gophers.
In Game 3, Penn State found some offense in the early innings in the series’ finale. Bri Enter made her first start of the year in the doubleheader’s second game Sunday.
The Nittany Lions scored in each of the first two innings off RBI singles from Lexie Black and Cassie Lindmark.
Parshall stepped into the circle for the second time against Minnesota and was even better than the first. Parshall tossed a three-hit, complete game shutout ending the Gophers’ chances at a Big Ten sweep in their home opener.
The two runs in the first two innings would be all the offense either team could muster. Sydney Schwartz and Jacie Hambrick shut down the Penn State offense in the final five innings but did not get any run support.
On the back of Parshall, Penn State won Game 3 2-0, avoiding the sweep and getting their 20th win of the season.
Minnesota will be back in action at Jane Sage Cowles Stadium on Friday, Saturday and Sunday against the best team in the Big Ten, Indiana. The Hoosiers have now won 21 consecutive games, and with a win midweek against Western Kentucky, they could be riding into Minneapolis on a 22-game win streak.
