{"id":217976,"date":"2026-03-13T10:53:45","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T10:53:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/217976\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T10:53:45","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T10:53:45","slug":"north-dakota-state-defeats-long-beach-state-in-midweek-matchup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/217976\/","title":{"rendered":"North Dakota State Defeats Long Beach State In Midweek Matchup"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>LONG BEACH, Calif. \u2013 Two defensive plays, one fantastic and one fluky, were the difference for North Dakota State in a midweek matchup, with one big hit giving the Bison the lead in a 5-2 win over the Beach on Tuesday night.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nLong Beach State (14-11) took an early lead after a 1-2-3 inning from <a href=\"https:\/\/longbeachstate.com\/sports\/softball\/roster\/lindsey-cowans\/8589\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"8589\" target=\"_blank\">Lindsey Cowans<\/a>. <a href=\"https:\/\/longbeachstate.com\/sports\/softball\/roster\/lina-apodaca\/8587\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"8587\" target=\"_blank\">Lina Apodaca<\/a> opened the inning with a walk, and when another walk to <a href=\"https:\/\/longbeachstate.com\/sports\/softball\/roster\/nina-sepulveda\/9495\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"9495\" target=\"_blank\">Nina Sepulveda<\/a> put two on, a double steal pushed across the first run for the Beach to take a 1-0 lead.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nNorth Dakota State (14-11) had a quick answer in the second. Cowans picked up two more quick outs to retire the first five she faced, but the Bison worked three walks before a double from Macy Fry cleared the bases. Another single then scored Fry as NDSU took a 4-1 lead.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nLong Beach State looked to have a quick answer, as <a href=\"https:\/\/longbeachstate.com\/sports\/softball\/roster\/emily-dowden\/8590\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"8590\" target=\"_blank\">Emily Dowden<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/longbeachstate.com\/sports\/softball\/roster\/jiselle-hernandez\/9499\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"9499\" target=\"_blank\">Jiselle Hernandez<\/a> walked to put two on for the top of the order. Apodaca then smashed a ball to deep center, but Star Cortez pulled the ball back from beyond the fence to end the inning instead of it being a three-run homer for the Beach in a phenomenal play.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nThe Beach rallied again in the bottom of the sixth. <a href=\"https:\/\/longbeachstate.com\/sports\/softball\/roster\/brooklyn-lee\/8596\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"8596\" target=\"_blank\">Brooklyn Lee<\/a>, making her first start of the season, singled to left to open the inning, and Dowden followed to put two on before a walk to <a href=\"https:\/\/longbeachstate.com\/sports\/softball\/roster\/miranda-gonzalez\/8593\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"8593\" target=\"_blank\">Miranda Gonzalez<\/a> loaded the bases with one out.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nA pop fly got the Bison close to ending the threat, and then a ball that looked to be through kicked off the leg of the NDSU shortstop directly to second base for a force out, ending the inning and keeping the score 4-1.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nNorth Dakota State added an insurance run in the seventh, and Madison Wihlm finished off the save for the Bison, who held on for the win.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nLong Beach State returns to conference play on the road this weekend, taking on UC Riverside in a three-game series beginning on Friday, March 13.<br \/>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LONG BEACH, Calif. \u2013 Two defensive plays, one fantastic and one fluky, were the difference for North Dakota&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":217977,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":["post-217976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217976"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217976\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}