North Dakota vs. Pittsburgh || 4/26
North Dakota vs. Minnesota || 4/26
North Dakota vs. Minnesota || 4/27 
Minneapolis, Minn. (Jane Sage Cowles Stadium)

FULL GAME NOTES ARE HERE

GRAND FORKS, N.D. - 

THE MATCHUPS
» The Fighting Hawks and the Panthers meet for the first time on the softball diamond. UND's matchup with Pitt will be the sixth against a Power 4 foe this season.
» Pitt enters the weekend having won two straight games and is 8-8 in neutral site affairs this season. The Panthers share an opponent with UND. Pitt lost a 5-2 contest to Omaha in Long Beach, California, while the Hawks went 1-2 in a three-game Summit League series at Omaha.
» Of the Panthers' 18 victories, Pitt took a game from #16 Duke and won the series with a pair of wins at #11 Virginia Tech.
» The Panther pitching staff ranks second in the ACC in hits allowed/7 with a mark of 8.63. At the plate, Pitt ranks in the top 75 nationally in home runs (42) and home runs per game (0.93). 
» Kylie Griggs paces the Pitt hitters with a.328 avg., 43 hits, 31 runs scored, 14 doubles and is one of five Panthers with five or more HRs. 
» Kyra Pittman's nine wins are the most among Pitt arms and she boast a staff-low 1.46 WHIP and ten complete games over 124.2 IP. Gwen Sparks leads the Panthers with a 3.55 ERA and 52 strikeouts.

» North Dakota and Minnesota meet for just the second time ever on Saturday night. The two programs first met on April 29, 1978 with the Golden Gophers winning 10-3 at home. 
» Four of Minnesota's 15 wins on the season have come at home. The Golden Gophers snapped a five-game B1G losing streak with a victory over Wisconsin in the series finale. UM shares three common opponents with North Dakota: Oregon, North Dakota State and St. Thomas. The Golden Gophers went 2-4 against the group, while the Hawks posted a 2-5 showing with two wins over the Bison.
» UM has turned 19 double plays this season which is a top 45 mark nationally, while the Golden Gopher pitching staff holds a top 75 mark nationally in hits allowed/7 at 8.98: the second-lowest in the B1G. 
» Margaret Tobias leads the B1G in assists (103) and assists per game (2.51). Tobias is one of three Golden Gophers with a .300 avg with Nani Valencia pacing the offense with a .353 avg and 48 hits. Taylor Krapf leads with 24 runs scored, 12 doubles, 14 home runs and 33 RBI.
» Sydney Schwartz leads the staff with a 3.20 ERA, eight complete games and 98 strikeouts in 127.0 IP.

TURNIN' TWO
Erasing two base runners on the same play has been a staple of the Hawks' defensive effort this season. With two weeks remaining in the regular season, UND ranks second in the Summit League with double plays turned (22): a mark that ranks 23rd nationally. On three occasions, the Hawks have turned two double plays in the same game (Jamestown, St. Thomas, North Dakota State).

WALK IT OUT, WALK IT OFF
The Hawks produced a single game high with nine walks against Minnesota Crookston including two in the bottom of the seventh, one of which scored, on Alaina Foreman's one-out double that plated two to walkoff the Golden Eagles in the seventh. The victory stands as the 25th of the season for UND and marks just the second season in program history that the Hawks have reached that mark in victories. 

TOUGH WEEKEND
The Hawks dropped all three of their weekend matchups with St. Thomas as the Tommies used a pair of three-run first innings in Friday's doubleheader and a two-run seventh inning blast in the series finale to earn the sweep. 

HONED IN
For the first time in her career, senior designated player Callie Honig earned Kwik Star Summit League Softball Peak Player of the Week honors. Honig's honor is the third for UND this season which is a season high for the program as a member of the Summit League.

The Scottsdale, Arizona native hit .667 recording six hits in nine at bats over the weekend in Fargo as UND took two of three from their Peace Garden State foe. Honig blasted her fourth home run of the season in the series opener, and it stood as the lone tally for either dugout in the contest as UND claimed a 1-0 win.
 
She added a hit in game two and returned on Sunday with a 3-for-5 effort which included a double and three RBI. Her team-leading 13th two bagger of the season plated the first run for either team in the rubber match and her last hit was the eventual game-winning knock as she placed a full-count, bases loaded pitch with two outs in the eighth inning into shallow left centerfield to plate a pair and give the Hawks a lead that would hold.
 
For the week, which included a midweek doubleheader against Jamestown, Honig produced a slash of .500/.563/.786 with seven base hits including a double and a home run. She delivered a team-leading four RBI, scored a pair of runs and was walked twice.  

CHASING HISTORY
The 2025 Fighting Hawks find themselves chasing history as the program's single-season wins record of 26, which was set in 2018, is just a single win away for UND. The Hawks are in the midst of the program's second 25-win season; all of which have occurred since 2018. Additionally, North Dakota, currently three games above .500, is hunting the program's first season with an above .500 finish since the flood-shortened season of 1997 when the Hawks went 12-10. The Hawks' last full season with an above .500 finish was in 1995 when UND went 21-18. A .500 or better finish in 2025 would be the fifth such conclusion to a season in program history.

CLOSING IN
UND's win over the Bison in the series finale gave the Hawks its seventh Summit League victory of the season marking the fourth season since the program's first year of SL action in 2019 that the program has reached seven conference wins. UND is two wins away from matching 2023's best such effort and three SL wins from reaching ten for the first time since 2018: UND's last as a member of the Big Sky Conference and the last time the Hawks finished .500 or better in conference play.

IN HER SIGHTS
Senior pitcher Jackie Albrecht enters the week five strikeouts away from becoming the fourth UND arm to reach 400 strikeouts in her career. The Barrington, Illinois native is staring down a third-straight 100-strikeout campaign. If she reaches 400, she will join Tara Peterson (932), Kaylin VanDomelen (567) and Mikki Cochrane (494). VanDomelen holds the Division I career record. 

KEEP IT 100
Katie Joten's two-hit day in the series finale at NDSU, her 11th multi-hit game of the season, moved her to the century mark in base knocks for her career as a Fighting Hawk. Her 100th hit could arguably be her most important to date as she hustled for an infield single which extended an eighth inning for UND that saw the Hawks plate two runs, including Joten, to grab a 5-3 lead that they would not relinquish. 

Full game notes are attached above.