Special to espnW
MINNEAPOLIS -- On most days when Minnesota practices at Jane Sage Cowles Stadium on campus, freshman catcher Kendyl Lindaman and senior pitcher Sara Groenewegen -- the back-to-back Big Ten Players of the Year -- team up for a little competition. One flip-tosses a softball, and the other tries to belt it into the football practice facility under construction beyond the left field fence.
Here's how prodigious a poke this is: It's 205 feet from the plate to the stadium fence, then another 35 feet to the construction site. A cement wall facing the stadium rises about 50 feet, topped by another 35 feet of framework to hold the unfinished peaked roof.