WILMINGTON, North Carolina – The UNCW softball completed a three-run rally vs. Furman to split two Sunday games after dropping the Sunday opener vs. North Dakota State at Boseman Field.
The Seahawks (3-2) were bested by the Bison (3-2) 5-1 in their first game before closing out the first weekend of the season with a narrow 3-2 win over the Paladins (4-1).
UNCW opens play at the North Florida and Jacksonville joint tournament with a doubleheader vs. the Ospreys next Friday at 1:30 p.m.
GAME 1 | NDSU 5, UNCW 1
NDSU's Addie Bowers (1-0) pitched a complete game, limiting the Seahawks to five hits and one run on 99 pitches.
Freshman Peyton Eckert (0-1) surrendered three hits and three runs in 2.2 innings in her first career start.
The Bison struck first in the top of the third with three runs on four hits. Graduate student Skylar Stockton singled home a run in the bottom frame, but NDSU added two runs in the sixth for the win.
Junior Tayler Vitola went 2-for-4 to extend her hit streak to four games in the first contest.
Bisons shortstop Anjolee Aguilar-Beaucage and catcher Jasmyn Yessian combined for five hits, four RBI and two runs.
GAME 2 | UNCW 3, Furman 2
The Seahawks overcame an early 2-0 deficit to avenge Saturday night's loss vs. Furman and end the weekend with a win.
Stockton extended her reached base streak to five games, the lone Seahawk to reach safely in every game this weekend, with a double in the sixth inning with the game tied 2-all.
The 5-9 center fielder stole third and proceeded to score the go-ahead run on a Morgan Britt single to center field two batters later.
Senior Carrigan Ewers (1-0) was sensational in relief of junior Emily Winstead, with 1.2 scoreless innings to pick up her first win of the season. Winstead, for her part, limited Furman to two runs, both scored in the second inning, in 5.1 innings.
The Seahawks began to mount their comeback in the bottom of the second after Paladins designated player Ainsley Yoshizumi hit an inside-the-park home run down the left field line in the inning's top frame.
Britt started the inning with a single and advanced to second on a wild pitch. The Lumberton, N.C., native took third on a Cassidy Relay groundout before she was driven in by Mary Sobataka's RBI comebacker to Furman pitcher Emme Buzhardt (0-1).
Stockton was hit on the first pitch of the fourth inning which led to the Seahawks and scored the tying run two batters later after two errors sandwiched between a stolen base plated The Woodlands, Texas, native without a hit.
Ewers worked around a two-out single in the seventh after the Seahawks handed her the lead an inning earlier for the win.
