STOCKTON, Calif. – The North Dakota State baseball team fell short at Pacific, 7-6, in the series opener on Friday night at Klein Family Field.

Pacific (2-3) got on the scoreboard first with an RBI double off the bat of Rylan Evans to make the score 1-0 in the second frame. Sam Canton answered for the Bison (0-5) driving a two RBI double into right to steal the lead, 2-1, in the third inning.

The contest then went scoreless for two innings until Cadyn Schwabe used an RBI sacrifice fly to increase the lead to 3-1 before Colten Becker sent a two-run double into center to stretch the lead to 5-1 in the sixth frame. Becker finished out the top half scoring on a throwing error by the pitcher to make the score 6-1.

The Tigers pushed back in the bottom of the sixth sending across five runs on two hits to lock the contest, 6-6, after JT Shank scored on a balk. Pacific kept the momentum going after Jake Tandy connected on an RBI double to steal the lead, 7-6, in the seventh inning. NDSU attempted to get a final rally going in the ninth after Canton was hit by a pitch and Davis Hamilton delivered a single before being left stranded. The Bison went on to drop the contest, 7-6.

The Bison tallied 11 hits as a team with seven different players contributing at least one. Becker led the way for NDSU going 3-of-5 at the plate with two runs and two RBI.

Nolan Johnson made his first career start on the hill tossing a career-high nine strikeouts over 5.0 frames with three hits, one run and no walks. Skyler Riedinger (0-1) picked up the loss finishing the final 2.0 innings with two strikeouts.

NDSU will continue its series at Pacific tomorrow. First pitch is set for 4:00 p.m. CT