TAMPA, Fla.--North Dakota State University dropped a pair of games, 6-2 to North Carolina State and 12-11 to Hofstra University in nine innings, on Friday, Feb. 19, during the first day of the University of South Florida La Quinta Inn & Suites Tournament at the USF Softball Stadium.

North Dakota State (3-4), which has lost four straight, is scheduled to play Michigan State University (3-3) at 8 a.m. (Central) on Saturday, Feb. 20. The Bison then play host USF (4-2) at 12:30 p.m. (Central).

Stephanie Call and Bridget Desbois each hit a pair of home runs to spark the Wolfpack offense. Call hit her first long ball in the second and Desbois led off the third inning with her first homer. Alyssa Albritten belted a two-run double to put North Carolina State ahead 3-0 with two outs in the third inning.

Desbois hit her second with two outs in the fourth frame, while Call closed out the Wolfpack scoring with a two-run shot in the sixth inning.

North Dakota State averted the shutout in the sixth inning. Melissa Chmielewski stroked a single to combine with a pair of NC State errors push two runs across the plate.

Lindsay Campana (2-1) limited NDSU to three hits. Campana struck out six, walked one and allowed no earned runs. Whitney Johnson (1-2) picked up the loss. Johnson struck out eight, allowed seven hits and walked three.

Playing its first game of the season, Hofstra (1-0) shook off a 2-0 deficit and sent 12 batters to the plate in the bottom of the first inning to score seven runs and put North Dakota State in the hole. Kris Root picked up two of her three hits in the first inning for the Pride, while Michele DePasquale hit a pair of doubles and collected two RBI. Hofstra had eight of its 16 hits in the first frame.

The Bison chipped away at the lead and tied the game at 7-all in the fifth inning with a pair of runs, one on a Richel Briones sacrifice fly and another off a Hofstra throwing error. NDSU took an 8-7 lead in the top of the sixth on a Brea Konz RBI single.

However, the Pride answered with three runs in the bottom of the sixth starting with solo home runs from Sara Michalowski and Laura Valentino. Becca Bigler's run-scoring single put Hofstra ahead 10-8. Michalowski finished with three hits.

North Dakota State came back with three runs in the top of the seventh. Chmielewski's two-run double to right field tied the game at 10-10, while Konz' second RBI single put the Bison ahead 11-10. It was shortlived as Olivia Galati's two-out single helped to tie the game at 11 in the bottom of the seventh.

Going to the international speed up rule that places a runner on second, the teams went scoreless until the bottom of the ninth. Hofstra's Trisha Dreslinski advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt and scored on a wild pitch to score the game-winner.

Johnson pitched eight innings in relief of starter Randi Parks. Johnson (1-3) allowed 12 hits, struck out nine and walked five in picking up the loss. Erin Wade and Nicole Osovski worked on the mound for Hofstra with Osovski recording the win.

Elisa Victa went 3 for 6 for North Dakota State including three RBI, three runs scored and a triple. Chmielewski had a pair of doubles and Konz added two base hits. Nicole Rivera also scored three runs. The Bison had 11 hits.