UND Softball Eliminated from Big Sky Tournament

North Dakota's season ends with conference tournament loss.

May 12, 2017

OGDEN, Utah (UND Athletics) — The University of North Dakota softball team’s season came to an end, as Idaho State advanced on in the 2017 Big Sky Conference Softball Tournament with a 4-1 win over UND on Friday afternoon.

After dropping the tournament’s opening game against Southern Utah on Thursday, the Fighting Hawks needed to win out to claim the tournament championship. Unfortunately, Idaho State put up back-to-back two-run innings to eliminate North Dakota from the tournament.

The Bengals got on the board first in the bottom of the third inning, scoring two runs on three hits.

UND responded in the top of the fourth to cut Idaho State’s lead in half. Kaylin VanDomelen led off the inning, reaching on an error and gaining third before the Bengals could recover. Taylor Nadler followed up with a double to left field to score, what would be, UND’s only run of the day.

Mary Martin reached on an error after Nadler’s double to put the tying run on third base with no outs. However, ISU recorded the first out on a pop up, before recording back-to-back strikeouts to end the inning without conceding any more runs.

Idaho State then put up two more runs in the bottom of the fourth on three more hits. The 4-1 lead ended up being too much for the Fighting Hawks to overcome.

North Dakota got two hits in the top of the fifth, but was unable to bring any home. UND also recorded one hit in both the sixth and seventh innings, but again, could not drive in any runs.

Victoria Minor lead UND in the game with two hits in four at-bats, while Nadler provided the only RBI of the day for UND.

Kaylin VanDomelen started the contest, throwing 4.1 innings and striking out a game-high five batters. Hannah Bergh came in for relief in the fifth inning and threw 1.2 innings with only one hit conceded.

North Dakota finishes the 2017 season with a 23-32 overall record and a 9-11 mark in Big Sky play. The 23 wins marks the most for UND since playing at the Division I level, while the nine Big Sky wins is also a program record.