College softball: Bison drop two at Puerto Vallarta tournament

PUERTO VALLARTA, Mexico — North Dakota State dropped a pair of games at the Puerto Vallarta College Challenge on Sunday.

Oregon's Tehya Bird hit a go-ahead two-run home run in the bottom of the sixth inning and the Ducks defeated the Bison 4-3 in Sunday's first game.

In the second game, Maryland got out to a four-run lead through five innings and held on for a 4-2 victory.

Against Oregon, the Bison's Carley Goetschius doubled in a tying run in the third inning. The Ducks retook the lead with a run in the bottom half of the inning, but in the top of the fourth NDSU's Kaylee Moore double in a run and Skylar Padgett brought in the go-ahead run with a bunt single.

But in the sixth, Bird connected to left-center field with A Carlson aboard and winning pitcher S Hansen set the Bison down in order in the seventh to end it.

Moore was 3-for-3 with the RBI, Goetschius was 1-for-4 with an RBI, Padgett was 1-for-3 with an RBI, and Ava Chavarria had NDSU's other hit. Paige Vargas took the loss in relief.

In the second game, Maryland scored single runs in the second and third innings and added two more in the fourth. Terrapins starter Trin Schlotterbeck was solid, allowing two earned runs on six hits with no walks and five strikeouts in 5-1/3 innings. Keira Bucher went 1-2/3 hitless innings to get the save.

The Bison got their runs in the sixth when Emilee Buringa and Goetschius reached and scored on Reanna Rudd's two-run double.

NDSU is 1-3 overall and plays Ole Miss in a Challenge doubleheader on Monday, Feb. 13, with noon and 2:30 p.m. starts.