Another week, another series altered by weather for the North Dakota State softball team. Originally scheduled for Brookings, the weekend series against South Dakota State shifted midweek to Sioux Falls.
Much like last week’s series against Omaha, the Bison and Jackrabbits split a doubleheader before having the rubber match cancelled due to weather.
In the first game of the day, NDSU had the hot bats as the Bison snagged a 9-2 win.
However, it was the Jacks that opened the scoring. Brittney Morse led off the bottom of the second inning and took the third pitch from NDSU’s Jacquelyn Sertic over the fence for a solo home run.
The Bison senior dug in after the hit, striking out four of the next five Jacks.
NDSU took the lead off the bat of Vanessa Anderson. After Zoe Stavrou led off the top of the fourth with a single to center field, Anderson hit a deep drive to right-center that cleared the fence. The Bison took the lead 2-1.
SDSU stepped up to knot the score again in the bottom half of the frame. The Jacks loaded the bases with just one out, and Julia Anderson scored on a sacrifice fly from Erin Mullen.
Bre Beatty restored the Bison’s lead in the top of the sixth. Beatty blasted a two-run home run to bring in Morgan Milbrath, who was in to pinch run for Stavrou.
Stavrou extended the lead in the next inning. Her one-out double brought in a pair, as the Bison jumped up 6-2 in the final frame.
Anderson put the game out of reach with her second home run of the day. Her fourth home run of the season brought home three runs to give Sertic a seven-run lead to hold in three outs.
Sertic completed the game striking out her eighth and ninth batters of the day. She improved to 17-7 on the year after allowing just five hits.
The hot bats changed hands in the second game of the day. The Jacks hit hard and forced the game to be called after five innings with an 11-3 win.
Julia Andersen knocked in Megan Rushing to open the scoring for SDSU. Morse hit her second home run of the day with a three-run shot to cap off a four-run third inning.
The Jacks tacked on one more in the fifth. Beatty made it a game in the top of the fifth with her own three-run home run to cut the lead to two.
That was the last bit of good news of the day for NDSU. With the bases loaded, Mullen hit a ground ball to third, but the throw to the plate was high and two came in to score. Paige Gerdes knocked in another run, and Rushing’s bloop single gave the Jacks the eight-run lead to get the game called after five innings.
KK Leddy recorded the loss for the Bison as she dropped to 4-6 on the year. She gave up five hits and four earned runs on the afternoon.
The Bison remain .500 in the Summit League, now 2-2 and 24-12 overall. Next up for the Bison, hopefully, is a three-game series in Vermillion against South Dakota. The schedule at press time has a doubleheader Saturday and a third game Sunday.