JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. – North Dakota softball split a pair of contests on Friday at the ETSU Invitational. The Fighting Hawks rallied in dramatic fashion to win 6-5 on a walk-off base hit against the host Buccaneers and nearly engineered a second straight rally against Dartmouth before the Big Green claimed a 6-4 victory in the second game. The action moves North Dakota's overall record to 14-14 and the Hawks have equaled their win total from a season ago.
 
Taya Hopfauf's heroics, a 1-0 pitch that was sent back up the middle to plate Makenna Alexander who tied the game at 5-5 and Katie Joten who slid just under the tag at the plate to give the Hawks the walk off victory, was preceded by a textbook sacrifice bunt by pinch hitter Chloe Bethune that pushed the two runners to second and third.
 
While Hopfauf's single was the fireworks for the Hawks, the comeback's fuse was lit in the sixth as Camryn Lasota belted a two-run blast out to left field, her team-leading sixth of the season, to pull UND to within a run of the Buccaneers lead.
 
Unity Nelson pitched the first 4.2 innings for the Hawks putting up a zero in the first, second and fourth innings. ETSU took the game's first lead with a single tally in the third, but the Hawks answered back emphatically in the bottom half as Joten got every bit of a 2-1 offering and left the yard to straightaway center field for a 2-1 UND lead.
 
Tehya Armstrong took over for Nelson with two gone in the fifth and fanned her first batter to end the two-run frame for the Buccaneers. The Hawks went down in order in the bottom of the fifth and ETSU added to their 3-2 lead with two more runs in the sixth as an RBI single to right field and an RBI groundout staked the host, but visitor on the scoreboard, to a 5-2 advantage.
 
After Lasota's blast, Armstrong worked around a two-out double in the top of the seventh to hold ETSU to its one-run lead. In UND's final at bat, Alexander singled on the infield and Joten walked on four pitches to set the stage for the final two at bats.
 
In the afternoon contest, North Dakota took a 2-1 lead in the second inning as Lasota cranked another home run with her seventh of the spring exiting out to centerfield. Dartmouth evened the contest in the fifth as a one-out double chased home the tying run and the Big Green followed with an RBI popout to grab a 3-2 lead.
 
Makaela Carr's day in the circle ended after 4.2 innings, but through four frames, Carr had allowed just a single run and scattered four hits, while fanning five. Emily Marr took over in the fifth inducing a fly out to centerfield to end the Big Green threat.
 
UND responded in the next half inning as Joten sent the first pitch she saw into right centerfield for an RBI double that plated Brooklyn Morris who singled to lead off the frame.
 
DC opened up the contest in the sixth with three runs on two hits. Jackie Albrecht stranded two base runners in relief of Marr and the Hawks answered with a single run on an RBI groundout from Brooklyn House. UND left two runners on in that single-run sixth as did the Big Green in the top half of the seventh, before the Hawks went down in order in their last trip to the plate.
 
The Hawks close out the weekend on Saturday in a 1:30 p.m. first pitch against Dartmouth. Live stats for the matchup are available at www.FightingHawks.com.
 
For more information on North Dakota softball, visit FightingHawks.com or follow on social media @UNDsoftball.
Postgame Notes

• The Hawks' win over ETSU is its fifth one-run victory this season and the tenth game played by the Hawks that has been decided by a single run
• With the win over ETSU, the Hawks have equaled their win total from a season ago
• The Hawks set a new season high in assists with 14 against ETSU
• In the opener, Lasota recorded her fourth multi-hit game of the season and Alexander registered her second
• House's two-hit game against Dartmouth is her first of her career
• Lasota recorded a team-best four RBI on the day and Joten followed with three
• Both players accounted for two extra base hits
• Joten's reached base streak moves to 11 games, while Lasota and Honig will carry a 10-game streak into Saturday's action
• UND walked just four times, while allowing ten over two games
• Conversely, the Hawks struck out a dozen batters and were sat down via strikes just four times
• The Hawks have hit 15 of their 19 home runs in the month of March