Softball Tournament Update: Day 1

Photo by Matthew Putney

IOWA CITY, Iowa — Indiana, Minnesota, Maryland and Wisconsin won opening round games as the Big Ten Softball Tournament Presented by DirecTV commenced Wednesday at Pearl Field.

No. 8 seed Indiana defeated arch-rival and No. 9 seed Purdue, 6-3, in the first game of the day. The Hoosiers (38-17) jumped out to a 6-0 lead and held off the Boilermakers (25-26), who scored three times in the fifth. IU's Brianna Copeland struckout nine over seven innings while 2B Aly VanBrandt went 2-for-3 with a pair of RBI.

Indiana will meet top seed Northwestern at 11 a.m. CT tomorrow in quarterfinal action.

No. 5 seed Minnesota needed extra innings to down No. 12 seed Illinois, 10-7.

Taylor Krapf connected on a three-run, walk-off home run in the bottom ninth to propel Minnesota (28-24) into Thursday's quarterfinals. Four Gophers had multiple hits, led by Breezy Burnett's three singles. SS Megan Ward drove in three runs for the Illini (21-31).

Minnesota will take on No. 4 seed Nebraska at 1:30 p.m. tomorrow.

In a pitchers' duel, No. 10 seed Maryland prevailed over No. 7 seed Penn State, 3-1.

Diamond Williams drove in the winning run as the Terrapins (24-29) plated a pair of runs in the top ninth.

Courtney Wyche tossed a complete-game three-hitter for Maryland, allowing just one run. For Penn State (34-18), Bridget Nemeth struckout six batters in a seven-hit, complete-game performance.

Maryland will face No. 2 seed Michigan at 4:30 p.m. Thursday in the quarterfinals.

No. 11 seed Wisconsin used the long ball and a four-run inning to power past No. 6 seed Ohio State, 5-1.

Hilary Blomberg and Brooke Kuffel cleared the fences for Wisconsin while from the circle, Tessa Magnanimo struck out seven batters in a four-hit effort to improve to 11-1 on the season.

Allison Smith allowed just three hits and fanned 10 batters in a losing effort for the Buckeyes (31-20).

Wisconsin (20-30) will once again play under the lights tomorrow when it encounters No. 3 seed Rutgers at 7 p.m. in the quarterfinals.