BATON ROUGE, La. -- The University of North Dakota softball team fell in a pair of contests on Sunday to close out action at the LSU Classic. The Fighting Hawks lost, 3-1, to Samford to open the day before dropping an 8-0 decision in five innings to No. 7 LSU.
Samford 3, North Dakota 1
After struggling to get the bats going against the Bulldogs yesterday, UND pounded out seven hits and struck first, but couldn't hold off a pair of early counterpunches from Samford in Sunday's opening contest.
The Fighting Hawks reached base a total of 10 times, but couldn't muster together a rally to drop their second straight game to Samford in tight fashion.
Lauren Feld struggled in the circle to start the game, surrendering three hits, two runs, and a pair of walks in 1.2 before giving way to
Lexi Flom. The Coppin State transfer was very solid in 4.1 frames of relief, allowing only six hits and keeping the Bulldogs off the board.
UND jumped out to an early lead thanks to patience at the plate and smart baserunning.
Morgan Flann drew a walk to open the contest before swiping second and advancing to third on a wild throw from the catcher with just one out.
Angel Love came through with her first of two hits on the day with an RBI single up the middle to give UND a 1-0 lead.
Samford struck back in the bottom half of the inning, as back-to-back errors in the outfield by the Fighting Hawks allowed a run to score and knot the game at one after a single frame of action. Following a double play to escape a jam in the top of the second, the Bulldogs took the lead with a pair of runs in the bottom of the stanza to lead 3-1 after two.
The Hawks had rallies going in the fifth and sixth, but ran into an out on the basepaths and stranded a double by Flom to end any threat as Samford held on for the 3-1 victory.
LSU 8, North Dakota 0 (5)
No. 7 LSU showed why they are one of the top teams in the country, scoring in four of the five innings and limiting UND to just two hits in an 8-0 victory on Sunday afternoon.
Jannay Jones and
Nikki Pica each took the ball in the circle against the Tigers, with Jones allowing six runs (five earned) on five hits while striking out three, and Pica surrendering two runs and two hits while fanning one.
The UND offense couldn't do much against last season's All-SEC Freshman Team selection Shelby Wickersham, as the sophomore limited the Hawks to just two hits and a walk while striking out five over five frames.
LSU jumped out to an early 5-0 lead after two innings before the Hawks had their best offensive chance in the top of the fourth. Love reached via an error and Jones followed with a walk to bring Feld to the plate with two outs, but struck out to keep the deficit at five.
The Tigers add three more runs over the final two innings of play to see play called at 8-0 through five frames.
North Dakota returns to action next weekend with a trip to California for the Silicon Valley Classic.
