Bison Head to Macomb for Summit League Series at Western Illinois

Saturday, April 1

Macomb, Ill.

3 p.m.

North Dakota State Athletics

Western Illinois

Photo by: Rick Claus

Bison Head to Macomb for Summit League Series at Western Illinois

3/31/2023 11:58:00 AM | Softball

NDSU Notes

FARGO, N.D. - North Dakota State softball will look to continue its hot start to league play this weekend in Macomb, Illinois, as the Bison take a five-game win streak and a 3-0 start in Summit League play into a three-game series at Western Illinois.

The Bison are set to play two on Saturday at the Mary Ellen McKee Stadium, beginning the doubleheader at noon. The teams are slated to wrap up the series on Sunday at 11 a.m.

Game Coverage
The second game of the doubleheader on Saturday will be streamed live on ESPN +. The final game of the series will be streamed on Fighting Leathernecks All-Access. All three games will 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 13-2 stretch over the last 15 games, including a series sweep of Kansas City last week in Missouri. The Bison outscored the Roos 25-2 and NDSU pitchers did not allow an earned run in 17 innings against Kansas City. Carley Goetschius and Bella Dean homered twice during the weekend and Emilee Buringa also added a home run. Paige Vargas tossed her second one hitter in as many weeks in the opening game of the series, picking up her fourth complete game shutout of the season.

The Series
North Dakota State will look to extend its win streak over the Leathernecks as they enter the week having won the last three games, all in a series sweep last season in Omaha. NDSU outscored Western Illinois 29-2 with victories of 7-0, 12-1 and 10-1.

The Bison lead the all-time series 38-11 dating back to April of 2008 when they swept WIU in the Fargodome in the first meetings. The Bison hold a 33-9 advantage in Summit League play. In Macomb, NDSU is 17-7 against the Leathernecks all-time. In the last trip to Macomb in 2021, the Bison split a four-game series, after winning 12 of the previous 13.

Summit League Peak Sweep
For the second-straight week, Carley Goetschius was named the TicketSmarter Summit League Softball Peak Performer of the Week. It's the first time a Bison has won back-to-back honors since KK Leddy did it in April of 2019.

Goetschius had a dominant week at the plate, hitting .727 in the series, going 8-for-11 at the plate with a pair of home runs. Goetschius also had a walk, finishing with a .750 on base percentage. The senior slugged 1.364 and finished with eight RBIs and six runs scored.

Bison On Summit League Peak Performers Streak
With Goetschius winning an honor this week, NDSU has won a Summit League Peak Pitcher/Performer honor for five straight weeks. Paige Vargas started the streak on February 27. Vargas and Goetschius swept the honors last week, as Goetschius joined Anjolee Aguilar-Beaucage (3/6) and Bella Dean (3/13) as first-time honorees this season.

Vargas Tosses Second One Hitter of Season
Paige Vargas tossed a one-hit shutout to lead North Dakota State softball to a 2-0 victory over Mississippi State two weeks ago. Last week, she added her second one hitter of the season with a dominant performance against Kansas City, taking a perfect game into the fifth inning. Vargas allowed just one ball to leave the infield, a single to break up the perfect game. She had six ground outs and six pop outs, along with three strikeouts.

It is the fifth one hitter for Vargas. Her one-hitter against RV Mississippi State was the first seven inning one hitter of her career. It was also the first she didn't allow a walk. Prior to this season, her most recent came on February 14, 2020 as she allowed one hit and one walk against Southeast Louisiana in Gainesville, Florida. She also had ones against South Dakota and North Dakota as a freshman in 2019.

Shutouts
The Bison have picked up six shutouts this season, including a pair of shutouts against power 5 programs in the final week before Summit League play began. The Bison opened the year with a combined shutout by Paige Vargas and Piper Reed in a win over California Baptist. NDSU had a second combined shutout with Reed and Lainey Lyle sharing the work against Brown. Two days prior, Vargas had a solo shutout of Brown, her first of three this season. Vargas then pitched a shutout against Mississippi State in a one hitter and two days later, tossed another shutout against Purdue. She added her third shutout at Kansas City. Five of six shutouts have been full 7.0 inning games.

Goetschius Dominant At Plate
Carley Goetschius has started year two with the Bison on a blistering pace, hitting .436 with 15 extra-base hits. Goetschius has 41 hits, including 11 doubles and four home runs along with seven walks, and a .475 on base percentage. Getting on base, along with her performance at the plate, Goetschius has accounted for 46 of NDSU's 128 runs this season.

The senior's batting average (.436) is on pace to be in the top 10 all-time for a single season and the Division I record, currently sitting in eighth. The D1 record is currently held by Cheyenne Garcia (.423) in 2015. Her slugging percentage (.681) is also currently in the top 10, sitting ninth.

Vargas Climbing Top 10 Charts for Several Bison Career Categories
Paige Vargas has had a strong 2023, posting a 1.59 era with 10 wins and two saves in 18 appearances and 13 starts. Vargas has limited opponents to .178 at the plate with 86 strikeouts in 92.1 innings. Vargas has a walks and hits per inning pitched ratio of just .88 and has four solo shutouts this season, including one hitters at Mississippi State and at Kansas City.

Vargas is seventh on the all-time NDSU list at 116 appearances and 90 career starts, and in eighth with 56 wins and 20 career shutouts. She is ninth with 585 innings pitched. The senior surpassed 400 career strikeouts in Mexico and against Auburn, Vargas passed KK Leddy for seventh all-time in strikeouts, now sitting at 469. She is ninth with 5.61 strikeouts per game. She is also fifth with five career saves.

Dean Homers Twice, Has Career Weekend in League Opener
Bella Dean has made a splash in her first collegiate season. At the Gopher Indoor Classic, Dean hit her first two career home runs, fueling comeback wins for the Bison. In her first conference series, Dean had a career best weekend, hitting a pair of home runs with seven RBI and three runs scored. Dean set or matched seven single-game personal bests in the series at Kansas City.

Bison Quick Hitters
- Anjolee Aguilar-Beaucage has stolen a base in five-straight games, going 5-for-5 in stolen base attempts. She is 7-for-9 on the season.
- Emilee Buringa hit her 10th career home run in game three of the series against Kansas City.
- Freshman Ella Claus recorded her first multi-hit game on Sunday against Western Illinois, going 2-for-4 at the plate with a stolen base and a run scored.
- Carley Goetschius scored two runs in each game at Kansas City and matched a career high with five RBIs in game one. It is the most for her as a Bison, matching a performance when at Northern Illinois.
- Chloe Woldruff recorded her first multi-hit game of the season with a 2-for-2 performance in game one at Kansas City. She also had a walk in the game and finished with two RBI and two runs scored. It was her first two-RBI game of the season and first multi-run game of the season.
- Piper Reed recorded strikeouts for the first four outs of her start at Kansas City. It's the most strikeouts for the freshman this season.
- Vargas and Goetschius have gone back-to-back on being recognized on NFCA Louisville Slugger/Wilson DI Selected Top Performances List. Vargas made the list after her one hitter against Mississippi State. Goetschius made the list this week after hitting .727 over the week.

Win Streaks
The Bison are currently on a five-game win streak after a sweep of Kansas City. The Bison have strung together win streaks of at least five games on 38 occasions since beginning Division I play in 2005.

NDSU had a 20-game win streak during the 2019 season that stands as the program's DI era record. NDSU has reached 10-game win streaks six times ('07, '09, '13, '15, '16, '19), with the streaks in 2013 (15 games) and 2019 being the longest. Over the program's history, the Bison have eight win streaks of at least 15 games and four that reached 20, including the program record of 27 wins in April of 2000 when the Bison went on to claim the NCAA DII National Championship.

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 traveled over 12,000 miles over the course of five trips in non-conference play.

Series Sweeps
The Bison picked up their first three-game Summit League series sweep in their first try this past weekend with a sweep of Kansas City. It is the first for the Bison since April of 2022, defeating Western Illinois in games moved to Omaha. Since beginning Summit League play in 2008, NDSU has swept 41 three-game series. The Bison have 13 sweeps at home and 28 away from Fargo. The Bison have only been swept three times in league play, with all three coming on the road against Purdue Fort Wayne (2010), Kansas City (2011) and South Dakota State (four games, 2021).