EVANSVILLE, Ind.--North Dakota State knocked out a season-high 15 hits and won the Dunn Hospitality Diamond Classic with a 5-3 victory over Cleveland State in college baseball Sunday, March 16.

Mike Germain was 3-for-5 and Ryan Langlais drove in two runs for North Dakota State, which won its third straight game to improve to 3-6 and matched its longest winning streak as a Division I program.

NDSU trailed 3-2 before stringing together three runs in the bottom of the fourth.  Anthony Fontana led off with a single and the Bison went ahead 4-3 after four straight fielder's choices and two Cleveland State errors.

Langlais drove in Luke Otto with the eventual winning run on a ground ball to shortstop, and Langlais scored NDSU's fifth run two batters later when Kole Zimmerman singled through the right side.

That was enough for NDSU reliever Shannon Ekermans, who came on to get two strikeouts and leave the bases loaded in the top of the second.  Ekermans (1-1) held the Vikings to one run on four hits with four strikeouts in 7 1/3 innings, and Ryan Williams fanned Josh Hungerman for the final out of the game to get his first collegiate save.

Cleveland State (5-7) jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first when Kyle Bischof plated Brad Buell with a one-out double and scored on an infield error on the next play.

The Bison cut the margin to 2-1 in the bottom of the first when Otto led off with a double, moved to third on a Sebastian Miles single, and scored on a Langlais ground ball to second base.  Otto's two-out single in the second scored David Williams to tie the game.

Otto, Miles, Zimmerman and Williams each had two hits for North Dakota State, and Buell was 3-for-4 with two runs scored for Cleveland State.

NDSU's three-game winning streak is the school's longest since the Bison won five straight en route to the 2004 North Central Conference championship.

North Dakota State is scheduled to play its next four games at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in Minneapolis, starting with a two-game series against Minnesota at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 18, and 3 p.m. Wednesday, March 19.

The Bison also have a doubleheader against St. Cloud State at 5:30 p.m. next Saturday, March 22.