MINNEAPOLIS — Winning 18 of their last 20 games, Minnesota softball traveled to Madison, Wisconsin, for the Big Ten Tournament Thursday through Saturday. Earning the No. 2 seed, Minnesota received an opening round bye and will play the winner of No. 7 Wisconsin and No. 10 Purdue at 11 a.m. Friday. All games will air live on Big Ten Network, concluding with Saturday’s championship game at approximately 6:30 p.m.

Winning Big Ten Tournament titles in 2016 and 2017, the Gophers look to become the first team to win back-to-back-to-back tournaments since Michigan’s title run in 1995-98. The Gophers have won three titles in the last four seasons.

 

Lindaman named Big Ten Player of the Year

Sophomore Kendyl Lindaman became the first-ever Gopher to earn back-to-back Player of the Year accolades and third player in Big Ten history to earn the award their freshman and sophomore seasons. In conference play Lindaman led all hitters with a .512 batting average, 1.279 slugging percentage, .732 on-base percentage, 37 walks, and tied for first with 10 home runs. A unanimous first-team selection, Lindaman posts a .368 batting average for the season accompanied by a .850 slugging percentage, .547 on-base percentage mark and 46 RBI.

 

Four earn All-Conference honors

Four Gophers, all underclassman, received All-Big Ten honors as announced on Wednesday. Kendyl Lindaman earned unanimous First Team All-Big Ten honors along with MaKenna Partain and Amber Fiser who earn their first all-conference awards. One of just five hitters to be hitting over .400, freshman Ellee Jensen was announced to the Second Team All-Big Ten and All-Freshman Team.

 

Houlihan earns Big Ten weekly honor

Following an impressive 9-for-18 week at the plate, junior outfielder Maddie Houlihan was named Big Ten Player of the Week. The Plymouth, Minn. native began her 11 RBI week driving in a pair of runs with a double in game one against North Dakota State. A three-run home run in game two of the NDSU doubleheader helped Houlihan record a season-high four RBI as she went 3-for-4.

 

Numbers to know

• 787: Senior Danielle Parlich has had quite a career at the plate. With 787 at-bats, she currently leads all active NCAA Division I hitters.

• 143: The Minnesota offense has heated up winning 18 of their last 20 games. 27 home runs, 31 doubles, three triples and 118 singles later the Gophers are outscoring the opposition 143-14 during the stretch.

• 27: Going 3-for-6 against Penn State with six walks, Kendyl Lindaman extends her on-base streak to a career-best 27 games.

• 7: Right-hander Amber Fiser has allowed a marginal seven earned runs in her last 93.1 innings of work. During that time she has gone 13-2 recording 87 strikeouts and only allowing 12 walks. During the stretch, Fiser has made 16 starts and holds a 0.52 ERA.

 

Big Ten tourney history

Minnesota holds an 18-14 Big Ten Tournament record as they make their 13th overall appearance and seventh consecutive. The tournament was discontinued in 2009 before being reinstated in 2013 to determine the conference’s automatic bid. Since the reinstatement of the tournament, Minnesota has been a top-four seed in each Big Ten Tournament going in as the number two seed twice, number two seed now three times and number one seed once. The last time the Gophers entered in as the two seed, in 2016, they came out on top as Big Ten Tournament champions before recording back-to-back titles in last season’s historic run. The Maroon and Gold captured their first Big Ten Tournament title back in 1999 where they defeated Michigan 3-2 in the championship game.