ST. PAUL, Minn. -- At the second and final day of
the Concordia-St. Paul Tournament today, the Bemidji State softball
team got wiped out by a 0-9 count to #12 North Dakota State before
losing 2-5 to North Dakota. Sophomore
Megan Woslager
continued her hot hitting with two hits on the day extending her
hitting streak to five games and has hit safely in seven of the last
eight.
In the five-inning loss to NDSU,
the Bison jumped out to a 5-0 lead after two innings and wrapped up
their scoring with one in the third and three in the fourth. Like
several times this season, BSU had a chance to plate a run thanks to
fundamental softball. Woslager rapped a single in the second and
advanced to second on a
Nikki Eckebrecht sacrifice bunt. However, two straight ground outs thereafter ended the threat.
Senior
Leah Bowen,
who pitched five innings and allowed nine runs (seven earned) on nine
hits, singled to left field putting runners on the corners in the fifth
frame. With one out, Bowen was thrown out at second on a steal attempt
and, following a strikeout, NDSU secured its 15th consecutive win over
the Beavers.
Against North Dakota, the
Beavers struck first with two runs in the second inning - just the
second time this season they have scored before the opposition. The
team’s leading hitter with a .345 average, Woslager led off the
frame with a ground-rule double. She scored after
Jamie Fisher reached on an error. Fisher posted the second run of the game on a Bowen RBI single to center field.
UND responded with three runs on five hits in the top-half of the third
and added insurance tallies in the fifth and seventh innings. BSU left
on one runner apiece in the third, fourth and fifth innings but was
unable to get the key hit.
Bowen again took the loss, her ninth of the season, after she gave up
four earned runs on 12 hits - she struck out four hitters and did not
walk a batter. BSU scored the two runs on four hits and had only one
error compared to UND’s two.
The Beavers drop to 0-13 on the year with both games being of the
non-conference variety. The winless start is the worst since the 1985
team went 0-22 overall, which was part of the longest reported skid of
27 games. Overall, the Beavers have dropped 15 straight dating back to
last season, the longest since a 16-game losing streak in 1986.
The Beavers will host North Dakota, Monday, April 12 for their 2004
home opener. First pitch is thrown at 3:00 p.m. from the BSU Softball
Field.