FORT MYERS, Fla. – The Bison pitching staff combined for 13 strikeouts as the North Dakota State baseball team fell short in the season opener at Florida Gulf Coast, 2-1, in 10 innings on Friday night at Swanson Stadium.

Both teams worked through eight scoreless innings until Evan Gustafson broke through for NDSU (0-1) after he drove in Colten Becker for the first run of the season to make the score, 1-0, in the ninth. Jeremy Comer answered for the Eagles (1-0) in the bottom half of the ninth after he lifted a solo home run to right field to tie the contest, 1-1. Javier Gorostola then used an RBI single to deep center field in the 10th inning to secure the 2-1 walk-off victory.

The two teams combined for 32 strikeouts in the game with NDSU posting 13 as a group. Parker Puetz made the start tossing a career-best eight strikeouts over 5.0 innings with one hit and two walks. Braden Gluth logged 2.0 innings of relief with three strikeouts, while Cade Wiegert added two strikeouts over 1.1 innings. Hudson Hart (0-1) picked up the loss after finishing out the final 1.1 innings in his Bison debut.

NDSU totaled five hits as a team with Gustafson, Cal Jones, Kyle Law, Noah Gordon and Kaden Connor each posting one.

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