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 48^th 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.

PROVO, Utah – After being rained out of the final three games of the San Diego Classic, BYU was able to get a needed break for some injured players going into the Stanford Louisville Slugger Classic.

Stanford Louisville Slugger Classic
Mar. 6-8
Smith Family Stadium

Stanford, Calif.

No. 17/22 Stanford
Thursday, Mar. 6 at 6 a.m. PST

Portland State
Friday, Mar. 7 at 10 a.m. PST

North Dakota State
Friday, Mar. 7 at 12:15 p.m. PST

North Dakota State
Saturday, Mar. 8 at 10 a.m. PST

No. 17/22 Stanford
Saturday, Mar. 8 at 12:15 p.m. PST

BYU
BYU (7-10) played only two games last week in a rain-shortened tournament in San Diego. It was able to hand No. 2 Tennessee its first loss of the season with a 6-3 victory before losing 0-2 to San Diego State. Senior Katie Manuma won the West Coast Conference Player of the Week going 3-for-7 with two home runs and four RBIs. Freshman McKenzie St. Clair batted .333 on the week and added a solo home run. Senior Tori Almond saw her first action of the season getting the save against Tennessee and pitching a strong game in the loss to SDSU. She struck out nine batters in her eight innings of action.

Stanford
No. 17/22 Stanford (17-5) went 3-2 at last week’s Under Armour Invitational in Florida. It defeated Central Arkansas, Georgia State and Kennesaw State, while dropping contests against South Florida and Central Connecticut State. Freshman infielder Kylie Sorenson leads the Cardinal in batting average (.421), doubles (9), triples (2) and walks (17). Stanford bats .330 as a team and scores 6.63 runs per game. In the circle, freshman pitcher Madi Schreyer has made 19 appearances in 22 games with 15 starts. She holds a 14-3 record and maintains a 1.29 ERA with 87 strikeouts.

North Dakota State
NDSU (10-6) was only able to play two games in last weeks University of New Mexico invitational. It lost to Buffalo 2-3 in the first game before getting a 7-4 victory over Idaho State. Junior outfielder Alex Sobrero leads the Bison from the plate batting .386 with six doubles, a home run and 10 RBIs. Sophomore infielder Cheyenne Garcia adds a .378 batting average and leads the team with 13 RBIs. Junior pitcher Krista Menke leads NDSU in the circle with a 7-2 record with 60 strikeouts and a 1.78 ERA.

Portland St.
BYU and Portland State (3-9) met earlier this year when BYU pulled out a 5-4 walk-off victory. The Vikings beat Rutgers and lost to Cal State Northridge at the Cal State Northridge Tourney last week. Junior outfielder Aubrey Nitschelm leads the team at the plate batting .324 with 10 RBIs. Three pitchers have split starts in the circle on a staff that maintains a 5.94 ERA with 32 strikeouts.