MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - North Dakota State dropped a pair of softball games to Illinois State 7-1 and Middle Tennessee State 4-3 in eight innings at the MTSU Invitational on Friday, March 12.

Dez Cardenas went 1-for-2 with a walk, stolen base and run scored for the Bison (2-10) in the opener against Illinois State (9-4). Avery Wysong's two-out single in the second put NDSU ahead 1-0 before the Redbirds scored twice in the bottom half to go ahead for good. ISU scored six of its seven runs with two outs.

NDSU jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the fourth inning against Middle Tennessee (8-8) on Wysong's two-run double, but the Blue Raiders got a run back in the fifth and a game-tying home run in the sixth before a scoreless seventh sent the game to extra innings.

Montana DeCamp scored from second on a sac bunt by Madyson Camacho and infield single by Stephanie Soriano to give the Bison a 3-2 lead in the eighth before MTSU rallied for two runs with an error, single and intentional walk setting up a walk-off single by Mia Marinakis. 

Soriano finished 2-for-4 and NDSU's Molly Gates went 2-for-3 against Middle Tennessee.

North Dakota State returns to action at 10 a.m. Saturday, March 13, against Dayton, and the Bison will play a semifinal game against either Middle Tennessee State or Illinois State later in the day.