Senior righthander Sara Groenewegen pitched a nine-hit shutout and tied a season high with 15 strikeouts as the No. 5 Gophers beat Wisconsin 6-0 on Tuesday afternoon in 12 innings in the first game of a Big Ten softball doubleheader. All the runs were scored in the top of the 12th.
Minnesota also won the vastly different second game, scoring five runs in the first inning and seven in the fifth in a 12-1 rout in five innings.
In the opener, Groenewegen led off the 12th with her third single of the game. Dani Wagner, the Gophers' No. 8 hitter, then tripled for the game's first run. Allie Arneson's single made it 2-0. Then after two walks loaded the bases, freshman catcher Kendyl Lindaman, who had walked five times to tie a conference single-game record, singled to drive in two more runs. The inning's final two runs came home on a fielder's choice and Sydney Dwyer's single.
In the second game, five different players had RBI for Minnesota (40-3, 13-1) in the first inning, alternating singles and bases-loaded walks to drive them in. Freshman Amber Fiser pitched a two-hitter and shut out Wisconsin (27-10, 6-8) until the fifth.
Etc.
• The Gophers' Luca Wieland, a senior from Saarbrucken, Germany, was named the Big Ten's men's field athlete of the week after winning the decathlon in the Mt. SAC Relays with a program-record total of 8,201 points. He set personal outdoor bests in six of the 10 events en route to the third-highest decathlon score in the nation this spring.
• Michigan State's Sarah Burnham, a junior from Maple Grove who played for Wayzata High, was named the Big Ten's women's golfer of the week. She shot a three-round total of 2-over 218 to finish second in the Lake Buckeye Invitational in Columbus and led the Spartans to the team title.
• St. John's assistant basketball coach Connor O'Brien was named one of the 2016-17 30-under-30 honorees by the National Association of Basketball Coaches. The list recognizes the top 30 assistant coaches, across all levels of college basketball, under the age of 30. Tim Bergstraser from Division II MSU Moorhead also was on the list.
• Miami's Keyona Hayes, a 6-1 forward, signed a training camp contract with the Lynx. She averaged 10.3 points and 6.1 rebounds as a senior.
• Hamline's Jessica Goldberg, a senior forward from Mendota Heights, was named one of the captains of the U.S. women's national deaf hockey team. It will play Canada in a two-game series Saturday and Sunday in Amherst, N.Y.
• Frankie Capan of North Oaks was named to the U.S. boys' team for the 2017 Toyota Junior Golf World Cup, which will be held June 13-16 at Chukyo Golf Club near Nagoya, Japan. He was the MGA junior player of the year in 2016.
