AMES, Iowa - Marlee Petersen broke a 3-all tie with a walkoff homerun in the first of South Dakota State's two games on Sunday at the Cyclone Invitational, giving the Jackrabbits their first win of the season, 4-3, over Northern Colorado. Unfortunately though, the Jacks dropped the tournament finale by a 7-3 score to North Dakota in the afternoon to finish 1-4 in the opening weekend of the season.
Elyse Eitel got the Jacks going in the first inning against the Bears with a 2 RBI double that scored Devon Reick and Emily Weber to put the Jacks up 2-0.
Sammy Bingham made it a 3-0 Jackrabbit lead with a leadoff homer in the bottom of the fourth, the first long ball of her career, but the lead did not last, as UNC came back to tie the game with three runs on three hits and one SDSU error in the sixth.
Neither team scored after that, until Petersen ended the game with her second dinger of the season.
Alex Landon picked up the win in the circle pitching one inning of no-hit relief, with two walks and a strikeout.
North Dakota scored the first three runs in the second game of the day before the Jacks tied things up with three runs on three hits in the top of the fifth inning, highlighted by a Bingham triple that scored Vanessa Kellems and Weber to tie the game at 3-3.
The lead did not last though, as North Dakota used two hits, two walks and an error to score four runs in the sixth, and put the game out of reach.
The Jackrabbits return to action next weekend with five games on the slate at the Jimmy John's Lion Classic II, hosted by Southeastern Louisiana in Hammond, La., starting with games against LSU-Alexandria and UTEP on Friday.
