Bison Softball Heads to Mississippi for Four Games

Tuesday, March 14

Starkville, Miss.

4 p.m.

North Dakota State Athletics

Mississippi State

Photo by: Rick Claus

Bison Softball Heads to Mississippi for Four Games

3/14/2023 10:09:00 AM | Softball

NDSU Notes

FARGO, N.D. - North Dakota State will make a trip to Mississippi to play four games this week in a makeshift schedule after the Idaho State Invitational was canceled. The Bison are slated to play two games in Starkville before heading to Oxford for two more.

The Bison will open up the week at Mississippi State on Tuesday (Today) and then take on Purdue at Mississippi State on Wednesday. Purdue and NDSU will meet once more on Thursday, this time in Oxford at Ole Miss, before facing Samford on Saturday at Ole Miss. Both games in Oxford are a part of the Rebel Invitational.

Game Coverage
Tuesday's game against Mississippi State will be streamed on SEC+. All games will also have live stats provided. Links will be available on the softball schedule page on gobison.com.

A Look Back at Last Week
The Bison are coming off of a 4-1 weekend at the Gopher Indoor Classic, as NDSU has won seven of it's last nine games overall. The Bison started with a late inning rally against Idaho State, winning 9-3 after scoring nine unanswered in the final two innings at the plate. After falling to host Minnesota 2-0, the Bison came back and picked up a dominant 7-2 win over Drake. On the final day of the weekend, the Bison pulled two more come-from-behind victories as NDSU defeat Idaho State 4-1 and then scored three in the seventh to defeat Drake 4-2.

Summit League Peak Performers
NDSU has won a Summit League Peak Performer for three straight weeks, as freshman Bella Dean scooped up the award on Monday. Dean had a pair of home runs that jump started two come-from-behind victories at the Gopher Indoor Classic. It is her first Summit League honor.

Anjolee Aguilar-Beaucage picked up her first honor last week after a three-home run weekend at the Blues City Classic, including a pair of home runs in the game against host Memphis.

Paige Vargas was named the Summit League Softball Peak Pitcher of the Week in late February, after her performance at the Plainsman Invitational at Auburn. Vargas posted a complete game shutout against Brown, with seven strikeouts. She added seven more against Auburn. The award is the second for Vargas in her career.

The Series (Mississippi State)
NDSU faces Mississippi State for just the third time in series history and the first time in the regular season. The two teams met twice in the NCAA Tucson Regional in May of 2018. On May 18, the Bison won the first-ever meeting, edging out the Bulldogs 5-4. In May 19, Mississippi State answered back with a 12-0 victory in five innings.

The Series (Purdue)
North Dakota State will face Purdue for the first time since 2019 and the fifth and sixth times overall. The teams have split the series 2-2, with Purdue taking the first-ever meeting 5-3 in February of 2010. The Bison scooped up a 3-0 win in eight innings at the Tennessee Invitational in March of 2015. In March of 2019, the two teams met on back-to-back weekends, with Purdue winning 4-1 in the first game, before NDSU picked up another 3-0 victory exactly one week later on March 16, which will be exactly four years on Wednesday when the two teams face off for the first time.

The Series (Samford)
The Bison will meet up with the Bulldogs of Samford for just the second time in series history. In the first and only meeting, the two teams played a thriller with the Bison squeaking out a 4-3 victory in eight innings at the Ole Miss Classic on March 7, 2021.

Senior Leading by Example
Senior Carley Goetschius has started year two with the Bison on a blistering pace, hitting .380 with nine extra-base hits. Goetschius has 27 hits, including seven doubles and two home runs along with four walks, a .413 on base percentage. Getting on base, along with her performance at the plate, Goetschius has accounted for 27 of NDSU's 65 runs this season. Goetschius set a new career high in hits in a game, going 4-for-4 at the plate against Memphis.

Dean Gets First Home Run, Adds Second to Spark Comeback Wins
Bella Dean has made a splash at the plate through the first month of her collegiate career. The freshman is hitting .278 with 10 hits and five walks, giving her a .366 on base percentage as she has split time in the lineup. At the Gopher Indoor Classic, Dean hit her first two career home runs. Both led off an inning and both started comebacks for the Bison. She also added an RBI double over the weekend. All three were her first career extra-base hits.

Anjolee Adds Power to Bat
Anjolee Aguilar-Beaucage had two career home runs in two seasons at Grand Canyon. The junior transfer has hit four home runs in the last two weekends. Aguilar-Beaucage hit three on Saturday at the Blues City Classic, including two in the victory over Memphis. At the Gopher Indoor Classic, she hit another home run, as she leads the Bison with four on the season. Aguilar-Beaucage has set or matched nine career single-game highs this season, with seven of them coming in the last two weeks.

Vargas Off to Strong Start, In Top 10 for Several Bison Career Categories
Paige Vargas has had a strong start to 2023, posting a 2.08 era with six wins and two saves in 14 appearances and 10 starts. Vargas has limited opponents to .184 at the plate with 66 strikeouts in 70.2 innings. Vargas has a walks and hits per inning pitched ratio of just .933 and pitched a solo shutout against Brown. She also contributed to a combined shutout in the season opener.

Vargas is tied for ninth on the all-time NDSU list at 112 appearances, 64 complete games, 17 career shutouts and 563.1 innings pitched. Vargas is tied for eighth with 88 career starts. The senior surpassed 400 career strikeouts in Mexico and against Auburn, Vargas passed KK Leddy for seventh all-time in strikeouts, now sitting at 449. She is ninth with 5.58 strikeouts per game.

Moore Hits Career Highs Against Oregon, Matches at Memphis
Senior catcher Kaylee Moore had a career day against Oregon, recording three hits, including two doubles. Moore's three hits came against three different Ducks pitchers. It was Moore's first career three-hit game and was also her first two-double game as well. The catcher then matched it at Memphis, recording three hits and setting a new career high with two runs scored. Moore has set or matched six career single-game highs through the first month of the season.

One-Two Punch
Over the first month of the season, Carley Goetschius and Anjolee Aguilar-Beaucage have provided a big spark at the top of the lineup. Hitting back-to-back in all 23 games, the duo has combined for over a third of NDSU's 139 hits with 47. They have 16 of the 42 extra-base hits for NDSU with 10 doubles and six home runs. The duo has also combined to score 30 of the team's 89 runs and have also batted in 29 of the 82 RBIs.

Freshman Displays Patience at the Plate
Ella Claus has started 16 of the last 21 games and played in 18 of 23 overall for the Bison, posting an on base percentage of .318 on the season. A large portion of that has come with free bases, recording eight walks. In the five-inning win at Memphis, Claus reached base safely in all three of her plate appearances, doing so all three times via the walk. It's the first three walk performance of the season for the Bison and one shy of the school record.

Life on the Road
The Bison are slated to play 33 games, originally 36, away from home before the home opener against South Dakota in Summit League play on April 7. During the non-conference portion of the schedule, the Bison are slated to travel over 12,000 miles over the course of five trips in non-conference play.