STANFORD, Calif. – Sydney Broderick hit a walk-off sacrifice fly to beat Portland State 4-3, but the BYU softball team fell 4-0 in the second game to North Dakota State.
Broderick was a perfect 3-for-3 with two doubles and two RBIs against Portland State (3-10). McKenzie St. Clair and Gordy Bravo each added 2-for-3 efforts against the Vikings. Megan Arnold led BYU (8-12) from the plate against North Dakota State (11-6) with a 2-for-3 effort.
Game one
McKenna Bull started the game off on a roll facing six batters in the first two innings and striking out two. St. Clair and Broderick singled for the first hits of the game for the Cougars, but they were unable to plate any runners going into the third.
Bull kept the Vikings off the board again in the top of the third only giving up one walk in the frame.
Portland State got on the board first with leadoff double and a single to left field to take a 1-0 lead. Bravo led off the bottom of the frame with a double to left-center field and scored on a sacrifice fly by Katie Manuma to tie the 1-1. With two outs, St. Clair doubled down the left-field line and Broderick doubled to left-center field to give BYU a 2-1 lead heading into the fifth.
Broderick caught a runner stealing for the second time in the game to help the Cougars retire all three batters in the top of the fifth. After a scoreless bottom of the fifth, the Vikings threatened again by putting runners on second and third with one out. Tori Almond entered in relief of Bull and recorded the final two outs of the inning.
In the top of the seventh Portland State yet again put runners on second and third but were able to cash in on a ground ball to short to tie the game at two. It took the 3-2 lead on a single to center field. Manuma turned an unassisted double play on a line drive to first base to end the inning. Ashlee Robinson and Lauren Bell singled to start off the bottom of the frame for BYU. Lacey Millett Hofstedt then laid down a sacrifice bunt to move them over and Megan Arnold hit a pinch-hit sacrifice fly to score Robinson and tie the game at three. Manuma was unable to bring around the winning run to force extra innings.
The teams went to a tiebreaker in the eighth as a runner was placed on second to start each half of the inning. Almond retired all three batters she faced in the top of the eighth to leave the runner on second stranded. St. Clair sacrificed Manuma over to third base to start out the bottom of the frame and Broderick hit a walk-off sacrifice fly to right field to give the BYU the 4-3 victory. It was the first extra-inning win for the Cougars since a 10 inning 3-2 victory over Utah Valley last season.
Game two
BYU couldn’t get anything going against North Dakota State in game two. The Bison used four singles to break a scoreless tie in the bottom of the third and take a 2-0 lead. They then hit a double to score two more and take a 4-0 lead for the only runs of the game. Hofstedt recorded her 48th career steal to take over sole possession of the career record. Almond came in relief of Ashley Thompson and tossed four scoreless innings and struck out five
BYU will wrap up its play in the Stanford Louisville Slugger Classic Saturday facing North Dakota State at 10 a.m. PST and No. 17/22 Stanford at 12:15 p.m. PST.