CLEARWATER, Fla. – Sam Koehn hit a two-run home run and added a RBI double as North Dakota State rallied to defeat Wichita State 6-4, while Kara O'Byrne and KK Leddy combined for a shutout in a 1-0 win over Towson University on Friday, March 15, in the USF-Michelle Smith Pediatric Cancer Spring Invitational at the Eddie C. Moore Softball Complex. The Bison have won five straight.
 
NDSU (15-11) is scheduled to play Purdue (19-8) at 1 p.m. CT, and Chattanooga (19-5) at 3:15 p.m. CT on Saturday, March 16, in the USF-Michelle Smith Pediatric Cancer Spring Invitational at the Eddie C. Moore Softball Complex.
 
Wichita State (17-7) jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the second game. The Shockers used a pair of hits and took advantage of a NDSU miscue to score a run in the second and needed a hit batter, wild pitch and passed ball to score in the third.
 
North Dakota State scratched out a run to cut the lead to 2-1 in the bottom of the third. Vanessa Anderson walked, moved to second on Koehn's sacrifice bunt and scored a two-out single from Katie Shoultz. Shoultz matched her career-high with four hits in four plate appearances.
 
The Bison then exploded for four runs in the bottom of the fifth, sending nine batters to the plate. Koehn hit first home run of the season, a two-run shot to left field with one out. Maddie Hansen delivered a two-out, two-run single to center to score Montana DeCamp and Shoultz to make it 5-2.
 
The Shockers cut the deficit to 5-4 in the top of the sixth on a RBI double from Neleigh Herring and run-scoring single from Sydney McKinney.
 
NDSU picked up an insurance run in the bottom of the sixth inning when Koehn doubled to left center to knock in Stephanie Soriano. Koehn finished 2-for-2 with three RBI.
 
Freshman Paige Vargas (6-4) worked around a two-out walk in the seventh to close out the complete game win for the Bison. Vargas matched a season-high with seven strikeouts, gave up seven hits and walked four. Erin McDonald (5-2) picked up the loss for Wichita State. McDonald allowed nine hits, walked two and struck out one.
 
North Dakota State scored the only run of the first game in the bottom of the third inning. Katie Shoultz singled to right field with one out, stole second. After a strikeout, Zoe Stavrou singled up the middle to score Shoultz.
 
Towson (10-8) put together a rally in the top of the seventh. Sara Johnson led off with a double to left field off Bison starter O'Byrne and advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt. Enter Leddy, who recorded a strikeout and then a foul pop out snared by second baseman Stavrou.
 
It was the first win of the season for O'Byrne (1-1), who scattered five hits and struck out two. It was the second save of the spring for Leddy. Johnson (3-2) took the loss for Towson. She allowed only five hits and struck out four. Smith-Harrington had two hits for the Tigers.