MADEIRA BEACH, Fla. – The University of North Dakota softball team opened the first day of the Eastern Michigan Madeira Beach Spring Invitational with a 1-0 loss to Central Michigan, before picking up a 5-3 win over Southern Illinois on Friday afternoon.
“We bounced back well in the second game with some timely hitting, solid defense and good pitching,” head coach Jordan Stevens said. “We need to clean up some little things, but it's a good to get a split after a close loss in game one, where we played and pitched well, but just couldn't string any hits together.”
The first game was a defensive battle, as neither team could get on the board through the first six innings. North Dakota was only able to get two hits in the contest, with one in the first and one in the second. The Chippewas had six hits in the contest, and unfortunately had two hits to score a walk-off run in the bottom of the seventh.
Kaylin VanDomelen pitched all 6.1 innings for UND and the Central Michigan run was the first earned run the redshirts junior has conceded this year.
In game two, North Dakota got the offense going early, scoring one run in each of the first three innings. Taylor Nadler scored the first run for the Fighting Hawks off of a single by Angel Love. Deja Miller hit an RBI single in the second to score Lexi Mayhood, giving UND a 2-0 lead.
The Salukis responded in the top of the third with two runs on three hits to even the score, but Dani Romero hit her first collegiate home run in the bottom of the inning to give UND back the lead.
Southern Illinois then again tied the contest in the top of the fourth, using a solo home run to bring the score to 3-3.
The two teams then entered a stalemate which wasn't broken until North Dakota strung together two runs on two hits in the bottom of the sixth to go up 5-3. With two outs and the bases loaded, Nadler hit a single to score Victoria Minor and Mayhood.
Hannah Bergh, who entered in for relief to start the fourth inning, closed out the seventh to secure her fourth win of the season. Freshman Nikki Pica started the game for UND and threw three innings with just four hits against.
On the day, VanDomelen led UND with a .571 batting average, getting four hits in seven at bats. Nadler was second on the team with a .286 average for the day.
North Dakota returns to the diamond tomorrow afternoon for a game against Michigan State at 1 p.m. (CT), followed by a game against Oakland at 3:30 p.m. (CT).
