The Minnesota Golden Gophers will host a regional in the NCAA Softball Championship as they received the No. 7 overall seed in in Sunday's Selection Show – the highest seed a Gopher softball team has ever received. The Gophers will open at home in Minneapolis Friday at 9:30 p.m. against North Dakota State University. The other two teams in the Minneapolis Regional are Drake (42-14) and Georgia (40-17), who will square off at 7 p.m. Friday. If the Gophers win the Minneapolis Regional, they will stay at home and host a Super Regional, which is part of the final 16 teams competing to reach the 2019 Women's College World Series. Minnesota finished third in the Big Ten regular season standings and reached the Big Ten Tournament title game Saturday where they lost 3-2 to Michigan. The Gophers built a strong case to host a regional with the No. 8 RPI in the country and a No. 12 ranking in the NFCA Coaches Poll, which was a higher final regular season ranking than Michigan and Northwestern, the two teams that finished ahead of Minnesota in the Big Ten standings.<doc-sep>The Minnesota Golden Gophers softball team heads into the 2019 Big Ten Softball Tournament on a roll and tyring to lock up a home NCAA Regional next weekend. The Gophers have one the last three Big Ten Tournaments and will try and make it four in a row in Bloomington, Indiana. They kick off play in the quarterfinals on Friday night against Purdue. Minnesota comes into the Big Ten Tournament with the #3 seed. The Gophers finished with a Big Ten record of 20-2 on the season, behind regular season champion Michigan who went 22-1, and #2 seed Northwestern who despite losing two of three games in the last weekend of the regular season to the Gophers ended the season as 21-2. Minnesota lost out on one game earlier in the season to last place Michigan State due to weather, and a win in that game would have vaulted them over the Wildcats into the #2 seed. The real number that matters for the Gophers is #8. That is Minnesota’s current RPI. If the Gophers can make it through the Big Ten Tournament relatively unscathed, that number should stay pretty steady, which should in theory lock up at minimum a home NCAA Regional at Jane Sage Cowles Stadium next weekend. The Gophers hosted in 2015 and advanced through to the NCAA Super Regional where they lost to the Washington Huskies. If, and it’s a big if given the knowledge of how the NCAA likes to seed teams and reward western and southern teams, but if Minnesota can stay at that #8 slot or above, they would have the potential to host their first ever home Super Regional as well. We will all find out how that ends up during the NCAA Softball Tournament Selection Show in ESPN 2 at 8 PM Sunday night. If the Gophers want to get to that point, they need to win their initial game Friday night against Purdue. Minnesota swept a three game series from the Boilermakers in late March by scores of 5-1, 5-1 and 8-2. The #11 seed Boilermakers upset #6 seed Rutgers in a first round game that did not start until nearly 10:30 CDT Thursday night due to a rain delay. It will be interesting to see how Gopher head coach Jamie Trachsel plays their game against the Boilermakers. She would most likely love to start Sydney Smith and try to avoid needing to use Amber Fiser at all on Friday night. Assuming the Gophers win they would either play Northwestern or host Indiana at 1:30 on Saturday afternoon in the semifinal, with the championship game against either Wisconsin, Michigan , or Illinois immediately following. If you can save as many Fiser bullets for Saturday as possible, you need to do it. Offensively the Gophers will have a question of if second baseman and First Team All-Big Ten player Makenna Partain can go. She has been battling injuries and has both an injured shoulder and was seen wearing a boot on her foot earlier this week. It’s expected she will play, but if not Minnesota will have a rather large hole in it’s leadoff spot. The Gophers still have two of the best power treats in the country in their three and four holes. Hope Brandner led the conference in home runs in 2019 and has the second highest single season total in Gopher history. In the cleanup spot Natalie DenHartong continues to shine, and she was just named one of ten finalists for the Schutt Sports/NFCA Freshman of the Year award. DenHartog leads the conference in RBIs, is second in slugging percentage, third in home runs and sixth in batting average. She is 11th in the country in RBIs and 15th in slugging percentage. We have seen that the Gophers can match up against the best of the Big Ten. They took two of three from previously undefeated Northwestern last week. Michigan who won the regular season championship did not have to play the #2, #3, or #4 seeds in the regular season due to the Big Ten’s unbalanced schedule. But Minnesota has been in this position before. In 2018 the #2 seeded Gophers won the tournament defeating #3 seed Indiana and #4 seed Northwestern. #1 Michigan lost their quarterfinal game. In 2017 the Gophers ran the table as the #1 seed, but missed #2 Michigan as they....once again lost in their first round game. In 2016 Michigan tore through the first two rounds winning by a combined score of 16-1. Then the #2 seeded Gophers would knock off the Wolverines in the championship game on a walk-off hit in the 10th inning by Sam Macken. Minnesota plays very well in this tournament, and is ready to make another run. Hopefully the Gophers can take care of business, earn that home regional/Super regional and try to make an epic run to the College World Series in Oklahoma City. But it all starts Friday night against Purdue. HOW TO WATCH: Big Ten Softball Tournament Quarterfinal—Bloomington, Indiana #11 Purdue Boilermakers vs #3 Minnesota Golden Gophers Time: 6PM Friday TV: BTN Stream BTN2GO B1G Softball Semifinal vs Northwestern/Indiana Time : 1:30 PM Saturday TV: BTN Stream: BTN2GO B1G Softball Championship Game vs WI/MI/ILL Time 4PM Saturday TV: BTN Stream: BTN2GO<doc-sep>The Gophers are two wins from reaching – and hosting – the Super Regionals. Amber Fiser struck out 12 and allowed just three hits in a complete game shutout to lead the Gopher softball team to a 3-0 victory over North Dakota State Friday night. It was the second game of the opening round of the Minneapolis Regional of the NCAA softball tournament, with Georgia defeating Drake 6-4 in eight innings in the first game. Minnesota and Georgia meet in the winner's bracket at 3 p.m. Saturday. If the Gophers win, they'll advance to the championship round and play whoever is still alive at 3 p.m. Sunday. If they lose, they'll play the winner of Drake versus NDSU at 8 p.m. Saturday. Game 1: Georgia 6, Drake 4 Game 2: Gophers 3, NDSU 0 Game 3: Gophers vs. Georgia, 3 p.m. Saturday Game 4: Drake vs. NDSU , 5:30 p.m. Saturday (elimination game) Game 5: Game 3 loser vs. Game 4 winner, 8 p.m. Saturday (elimination game) Game 6: Game 3 winner vs. Game 5 winner, 3 p.m. Sunday Game 7 (if necessary): Game 6 winner vs. Game 6 loser, 5:30 p.m. Sunday Unfortunately, the weather on Sunday is going to be brutal, with temps struggling to reach 40 degrees and a healthy amount of rain possible in the Twin Cities. If the Gophers win the Minneapolis Regional they will host next week's Super Regional against the winner of the Baton Rouge Regional, which features LSU, Texas Tech, Monmouth and Louisiana Tech. Super Regionals are a best-of-three, with the winner advancing to the Women's College World Series in Oklahoma City.<doc-sep>With a chance to make it four straight Big Ten Tournament titles, the Gophers softball team came up a little short on Saturday afternoon with a 3-2 loss to No. 1 seed Michigan. Trailing 3-0 in the top of the sixth inning, Minnesota plated two runs to make things interesting before first baseman Hope Brandner flied out to end the comeback bid. It was a sour ending to a solid day for Brandner, who starred in the semifinals on Saturday morning. Her biggest contribution came in the form of a two-run homer that sparked the Gophers to a 4-0 win over No. 2 seed Northwestern. For her efforts, Brandner was named to the All-Big Ten Tournament team along with ace pitcher Amber Fiser and third baseman Katelyn Kemmetmueller. Despite the loss, Minnesota still appears to be in good position to host an NCAA regional next weekend. It finished this season with a sparkling 41-12 record while playing the the toughest nonconference schedule in the nation. It also went into this weekend ranked No. 8 in RPI, a metric the selection committee puts a lot of stock in when deciding the field. Unfortunately for the Gophers, they won’t learn their fate until Sunday’s selection show, which will air live at 8 p.m. CT on ESPN 2.<doc-sep>
For the first time in five years, the University of Minnesota softball team is hosting an NCAA Tournament regional. The 64 teams for this year’s tournament were revealed Sunday night on ESPN, and the Gophers were awarded the No. 7 overall seed. It guarantees the Gophers host a regional next weekend, and they would host a Super Regional if they advance. Minnesota (41-12) will host North Dakota State (42-14) in the nightcap Friday at about 8:30 p.m. at Jane Sage Cowles Stadium. In the early game Friday, Drake (42-14) faces Georgia. The regionals are double-elimination. Minnesota players and coaches gathered Sunday night for a watch party at Buffalo Wild Wings on campus, and they erupted when they saw the seeding. Players talked before the Big Ten Tournament of their desire to host a regional, and play in front of their home crowd. The Gophers finished the Big Ten season 20-2 overall and earned the No. 3 seed for the Big Ten Tournament. They got to the championship game against Michigan, where they lost 3-2. The Gophers were led all season by Amber Fiser, named the Big Ten Pitcher of the Year and one of four Minnesota players to earn All-Big Ten First Team honors. Fiser is 26-7 on the season with a 1.24 earned run average and 301 strikeouts in 214 1/3 innings. Minnesota finished the season No. 8 in the RPI rankings, and with the toughest schedule in the country. It’s the first home regional for the Gophers since 2014. It's also the highest seed the Gophers have ever gotten in the NCAA Tournament.