EAST LANSING, Mich. – The Wisconsin softball team is moving on to the quarterfinal round of the 2022 Big Ten Softball Tournament after blanking Minnesota, 2-0, Wednesday in the first round of the championship. 

Maddie Schwartz earned her third shutout of the season for the Badgers (28-18), scattering three hits across seven innings of work while striking out three Golden Gophers (26-24-1). 

The Badgers struck first thanks to some small-ball hitting in the bottom of the opening inning. Fiona Girardot and Payton Bannon each got on base with one out before Morgan Kummer scored Girardot to give UW a 1-0 lead.

In the top of the second, Bannon made a spectacular catch to keep the Gopher offense at bay. 

Absolutely no quit. 😤@BadgerSoftball x #B1GSoftball pic.twitter.com/Q1N78Zpi1K

— Wisconsin On BTN (@WisconsinOnBTN) May 11, 2022

The defense behind Badger pitcher Maddie Schwartz continued in the third inning as second baseman Ellie Hubbard made a diving catch in shallow center field to start a 1-2-3 third inning. 

Wisconsin added one more run in the fifth inning off the bat of Hubbard as she hit a sacrifice fly to deep center field to score Molly Schlosser who was running at third. Schlosser entered as a pinch runner after Abby Herbst earned a pinch-hit base hit.

Closing out the seventh inning, Schwartz recorded a strikeout, a flyout and a groundout right back to herself to finish the game and sending the Badgers to the quarterfinal round. 

Batting Cleanup
 - It marked UW's first win over Minnesota since April of 2016. 
- Schwartz moved into a tie for fourth place in school history with her 23rd win of the season. Only Andrea Kirchburg, Cassandra Darrah and Kaitlyn Menz have posted more wins in a single-season than Schwartz. 
- Morgan Kummer continued her senior campaign with a hit and RBI
 - Fiona Girardot went 2-3 on the day

Up Next: UW will face Big Ten champion Northwestern on Thursday at 3:30 p.m. CT live on Big Ten Network