SEATTLE, Wash. – Cara Beatty hit a solo home run in the bottom of the sixth and Paige Vargas shut the door in the seventh as North Dakota State defeated Portland State 2-1 in the Redhawk Invitational on Sunday, April 7, at Seattle University's Logan Field. The Bison have won 18 straight games.
 
NDSU (28-11, 6-0 SL) is scheduled to host South Dakota State (24-8, 3-0 SL) in a three-game Summit League series on April 13-14 at Tharaldson Park.
 
Beatty, a sophomore from Las Vegas, Nev., took a 2-2 pitch over the left field fence with one out in the bottom of the sixth inning to put the Bison ahead 2-1. It was the eighth home run of the season for Beatty.
 
Portland State (12-20) opened the top of the seventh with back-to-back singles. Enter right-hander Vargas, a freshman from Mission Viejo, Calif. The Vikings sacrificed the runners to second and third, a walk loaded the bases with one out. Vargas struck out the next hitter during a nine-pitch at-bat and then induced a ground out to second baseman Zoe Stavrou to end the game.
 
It was the first save of the season for Vargas in relief of starter Kara O'Byrne (3-1), who allowed seven hits, struck out four and walked one to pick up the win. Serafine Parrish (1-5) took the loss. She allowed five hits, struck out five and walked two.
 
North Dakota State took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second. Stephanie Soriano reached on an error, advance to second on a Vanessa Anderson single and scored on Sam Koehn's shot down the left field line.
 
Portland State tied the game at 1-1 in the top of the fourth on back-to-back doubles from Kaela Morrow and Jessica Flanagan. Ashley Doyle and Flanagan each had two hits for the Vikings.