Alvelo Three-Hitter Leads Huskies Over No. 7 Minnesota

Saturday, March 11

Seattle, Wash.

5:00 PM

University of Washington

21-3

Minnesota

21-2

Minnesota

Washington

March 12, 2017 | Softball

Box Score Final Box

SEATTLE – No. 8 Washington beat No. 7 Minnesota (21-2) for the second time at the Husky Classic, 9-0, in a three-hit shutout Sunday afternoon at Husky Softball stadium.

"This was a great weekend for our team," said Washington head coach Heather Tarr. "The team is continuing to learn how to play Husky Softball."

Taran Alvelo (12-1) went the distance for the Huskies (21-3) allowing only three hits over five innings and struck out three. The three hits marked the fewest for Minnesota this season.

"I was really proud of the pitching staff and their ability to work together," said Tarr. "We had a couple earlier games than expected. It was great to see Sam Manti get in some great innings, as well as Kristin Cochran against Penn State. Madi Schreyer threw last night in the shutout against South Dakota and of course taran Alvelo, who held it down for us against a really hot Minnesota team. Overall, I'm extremely proud of our pitching staff and the work they put in this week.

"I am really glad our home crowd got a nice preview of how great we are on defense. Our outfield constantly made plays to shutdown the opponents, they can cover so much ground. Additionally, our infield defense made so many elite plays, it was fun to watch."

Julia DePonte and Ali Aguilar blasted home runs in the first two innings. Taylor Van Zee and Aguilar collected two hits each on the day.

"Julia's three-run homer in the first innings was big for her and big for us," said Tarr. "She's been hitting the ball hard and not always getting rewarded for it, so I was extremely happy for her and proud of her."

Aguilar led-off the first inning by doubling up the left-field line, followed by a single from Casey Stangel. DePonte blasted a home run to left field off the Golden Gopher's starting pitcher, Tori Finucane (3-1) over the fence for a three-run homer to put the Huskies on the board, 3-0.

In the second inning Kelly Burdick hit a single and advanced to third off a wild pitch. She was plated off a home run from Aguilar, her third of the year, to extend the lead to 5-0.

Four runs were brought in during the fourth inning. Minnesota walked the bases loaded with no outs. With one out, Van Zee hit an RBI single to bring in the inning's first run. Stangel followed up with a bases clearing double to widen the Huskies lead over Minnesota, 9-0.

"The offense was great this weekend," said Tarr. "I thought they had each other's backs the whole time. We didn't have one here except for Morganne Flores and even when she didn't get it done today, everybody had her back. We drew some good walks at key times. We really stayed within ourselves and focused on Husky Softball.

"The bottom of the lineup, Trysten Melhart and Kelly Burdick, did a great job turning the lineup over.The dugout is starting to really understand our energy and what we need to get us to the next pitch."

Washington will open up conference play Friday, March 17 when they host No. 21 Arizona State. The teams will play on Friday at 6 p.m., Saturday, March 18 at 1 p.m. and Sunday, March 19 at 12 p.m. Tickets can be purchased at GoHuskies.com.