FARGO, N.D. – In the longest Summit League Tournament game since 2009, it was the West Fargo native Mariah Peters who came up with the go-ahead RBI fielder’s choice in the top of the 10th to lead No. 6 seed North Dakota past No. 3 seed North Dakota State, 6-5, on Wednesday evening from Tharaldson Park in Fargo, N.D.
UND (17-31) trailed by five entering the top of the fifth, but rallied for six straight runs to earn its first win in the Summit League Championships since joining the league in 2018-19 and the second overall postseason win in the program’s Division I era (2008-present).
Peters picked up a hit and two RBIs for her first multi-RBI contest of her career. As a team, UND notched 12 hits with Chevelle Sartin leading the way with a 3-for-5 effort and a run scored. Alexys Campos, Jocelyn Kirk and Ashlynn Uvila each tallied multi-hit contests as well, while Cassie Castenada reached multiple times with a hit and walk.
Adrianna Dilal earned the start in the circle for the Fighting Hawks, but the graduate student ran into some tough luck to earn the no-decision. In what could have been the final start of her collegiate career, she allowed seven hits and four earned runs over 3.1 innings while walking a pair and striking out one. Jannay Jones was masterful over 6.2 frames of relief work, allowing just four hits and four walks while keeping the Bison off the scoreboard to earn her sixth win of the year.
After UND stranded a runner in the opening half of the first, North Dakota State struck first when a walk lead-off the frame before a sacrifice bunt forced an errant throw and allowed the runner from first to score to give the hosts a 1-0 lead. The Bison added a second run in the stanza, but a great throw by Uvila nailed the runner at third to end the inning.
The Fighting Hawks continued to put pressure on with the bats, but couldn’t chip into the lead after putting a runner in scoring position in both the second and third innings. NDSU took advantage in the bottom of the third again, scoring a lead-off single with a sacrifice and a single that never left the infield to make it 3-0 before a two-out homer extended the lead to 4-0 after three.
NDSU added a fifth run in the bottom of the fourth to chase Dilal from the game and bring Jones into the circle for the Hawks, who got the visitors out of the inning with a pair of outs.
North Dakota was able to generate some offense in the top of the fifth to claw back into the contest. Campos led off the inning with an infield single before Kirk laced a ball past a diving left fielder to score Campos and cut the lead to 5-1 with an RBI triple. Madi Moore brought home Kirk a batter later with an RBI groundout to trim the advantage to 5-2 heading to the bottom of the fifth.
The rally continued in the top of the sixth, with the visitors tying the game at five with three plated runs. Three straight singles loaded the bases with no outs before Peters laced a single up the middle to cut the lead to 5-3. Just two pitches later, Campos pushed a single through the left side of the infield to trim the advantage to just one, 5-4, with still no outs. Back-to-back strikeouts nearly killed the rally, but a wild pitch allowed Sartin to scamper home from third and knot the game, 5-5, heading to the bottom of the sixth.
Defense helped send the game into extra innings, with Sartin turning a 4-3 double play by tagging the runner and throwing to first to erase a lead-off single and get Jones out of trouble.
The teams traded scoreless innings until the top of the 10th when UND finally broke through. Castenada drew a walk to start the inning before being lifted for a pinch runner. With Caitlyn Shumaker now at first, a wild pitch moved her to second before Sartin dropped a perfect single in front of the catcher to put runners on the corners with no outs. Peters came up clutch again for the Hawks with an RBI fielder’s choice to put the Hawks in front for the first time, 6-5, heading to the bottom of the 10th.
Jones pitched a 1-2-3 bottom of the 10th to send the Fighting Hawks to the quarterfinals against No. 2 seed Omaha at 2:30 p.m. from Fargo.
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