Minnesota dropped their third straight series to begin the season against Northwestern over the weekend.
Saturday night, to start the series off, game one was a back and forth battle that ultimately ended in a 4-3 Wildcats victory. Game two saw the Gophers lead early, but Northwestern's bats heated up in the later innings to win 10-3.
Monday in game three, four Gopher pitchers combined to give up just six hits in a 7-3 victory over the wildcats.
On Saturday in game one, pitcher Sam Ireland did his job throwing seven innings of two-run ball on four hits along with 10 strikeouts. All seven runs by both teams in the game came by home runs with Northwestern grabbing the slim edge scoring two in the eighth to get the win.
Game two saw Minnesota jump out to an early lead 3-0 in the fourth inning, but the bats couldn't get anything going after that. The score was tied 3-3 heading into the bottom of the seventh, but the game would get busted open from there as the Wildcats would take advantage of a five-run seventh to grab the victory.
The series finale on Monday entailed brilliant pitching for the Gophers as starter Trent Schoeberl tossed 2.2 innings of no-hit ball before being taken out in favor of reliever Nolan Burchill in the third. Shortstop Zack Elliot added a two-RBI double in the eighth to give some insurance for what would end up a 7-3 series-closing win for Minnesota.
After three series played on the season, the Gophers have two batters hitting over .300 on the season, equating to a less than stellar .222 team batting average. On the mound things are not much brighter as the Minnesota pitching staff owns a 7.41 team ERA.
The Gophers are now 3-8 on their Big Ten-only season. This puts Minnesota tied for 13th with Penn State, ahead of Purdue and just behind Iowa.
Up next for the Gophers is the first true road series of the year at Nebraska for a four-game slate. The weekend series kicks off on Friday, followed up by a double-header on Saturday, and all games of the series can be seen on Big Ten Network Plus.
