Minnesota shuts out Hoosier hitters

Minnesota's strong pitching tandem of Piper Marten and Angie Recknor shut down the IU offense in the Hoosiers' trip to Minneapolis for a pair of games over the weekend. Marten and Recknor each pitched shutouts while limiting the IU hitters to just seven hits in 12 innings of play. The Hoosiers were also scheduled to play Wisconsin in a doubleheader Sunday, but the games were canceled because of inclement weather.\nThe victories moved the Gophers to 33-16 and 7-5 in Big Ten play. Because Wisconsin and the Hoosiers didn't play this weekend, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Northwestern are all tied for fourth in the conference at 7-5. The pair of losses to the Gophers dropped IU to 12-27-1 on the season and 0-14 in Big Ten competition.\nIn Friday night's match-up, Marten threw a two-hit, five-inning shutout as the Gopher offense took care of business in an 8-0 Golden Gopher victory. Minnesota exploded for a six-run third inning and had three home runs on the evening.\nMarten was coming off a seven-inning perfect game in her last outing at Drake, but IU senior Brooke Monroe ended the bid for back-to-back perfect games in the first inning with a leadoff single. Marten regained her composure and allowed just one more Hoosier hit in the game.\nGopher junior Shelly Nichols hit a 3-1 pitch over the left-field fence in the bottom of the second to give Minnesota a 1-0 lead. Minnesota then jumped on IU starting pitcher, senior Alison Cooke, in the third to put the game out of reach.\nWith the score at 2-0, Cooke walked Gopher third baseman Jordanne Nygren to load the bases. Nichols followed with a two-run single, and catcher Anne Thul hit a three-run shot over to left to give Minnesota a 7-0 lead. Nygren added the Gophers' last run with a solo homer in the bottom of the fifth.\nSaturday's game was a closer affair, but again the Minnesota pitching proved to be too much for the Hoosiers' offensive attack. Recknor limited IU to five hits over seven innings while notching four strikeouts. Freshman hurler Katie Witham kept the Hoosiers in the game, but a three-run sixth inning broke open the game as Minnesota went on to pick up a 4-0 victory.\nMinnesota jumped on top in the second inning when Thul scored on an error by IU junior second baseman Heather Suca. Witham kept the Gophers in check through the fifth to give the Hoosier offense a chance. Minnesota scored three runs on four hits in the top of the sixth to extend the lead to the final margin of 4-0. Junior third baseman Stormy Hanson and sophomore Valerie White each had two hits on the day to lead the Hoosier offense.