Bison Softball Travels to Minnesota, Hosts UMKC

Complete release attached

North Dakota State (12-3 Summit, 28-14) takes a short break from The Summit League schedule ... The Bison play the University of Minnesota (5-7 B1G, 24-15) in a non-conference doubleheader at 4 p.m. Wednesday, April 18, in Minneapolis ... NDSU is 11-7 on the road this season, while the Gophers are 3-2 at home ... NDSU gets back to Summit League play at home against UMKC (6-9 Summit, 18-22) on April 21-22 ... The Bison will play the Kangaroos in a noon doubleheader Saturday, April 21, at the Ellig Sports Complex ... The teams will conclude the three-game league series with a single game at noon Sunday, April 22 ... Sunday is Erbert & Gerbert's Junior Bison Day ... NDSU is 3-3 at home this season, while UMKC is 5-9 on the road ... UMKC plays at Arkansas on April 17 ... The Bison played their first 33 games on the road including five tournaments ... NDSU moved to 8th in this week's Mid-Major Softball Poll ... The Bison will play teams from 20 different conferences ... There were 13 first-time opponents on the NDSU schedule.

Ticket Information
Tickets for North Dakota State softball games are $5 for adults and $3 for youth 17-and-under ... NDSU students with a valid college ID are admitted free ... Tickets are available at the Bison Sports Arena ticket office or at the Ellig Sports Complex on game day ... Gates at the Ellig Sports Complex will open 60 minutes prior to first pitch each day ... For more information, call 1-888-231-NDSU (6378).

The Series
Minnesota leads the series 15-1 with North Dakota State ... The Gophers defeated the Bison twice at neutral sites in 2011 ... Through 39 games, Minnesota is hitting .277 with a 2.21 earned run average and .969 fielding percentage ... The Gophers are averaging 5.49 runs per game and allowing 2.69 ... North Dakota State leads the series 16-4 with UMKC ... The Kangaroos swept NDSU in three games at Kansas City, but the Bison defeated UMKC 5-0 in The Summit League championship game at Macomb ... Through 40 games, UMKC is hitting .244 with a 3.20 earned run average and .960 fielding percentage ... The Kangaroos are averaging 3.48 runs per game and allowing 3.85.

Quickly Around The Horn
North Dakota State is ranked 24th in earned run average (1.95) in the NCAA statistics released April 16 ... Individually, Taylor Mortensen is 14th in triples (4); Krista Menke is 8th in shuouts (9) and 22nd in wins (19), and Whitney Johnson is 19th in strikeouts (8.9 avg/g) and hits allowed (4.52 avg/g) ... Freshman infielder/catcher Amanda Grable tied a school single-game record with two home runs at IUPUI (3-16-12) in North Dakota State's 11-0 second-game win ... The record had been tied 13 times previously by eight different athletes, the last Melissa Chmielewski vs. Jackson State (2-13-09) ... Grable had a team-high 10-game hitting streak and leads the team with 11 multi-hit and eight multi-RBI games ... Senior Taylor Mortensen's grand slam at IUPUI (3-16-12) was the program's first since Melissa Chmielewski vs. Drexel (2-25-10) ... Mortensen has 11 two-out RBI this season ... Senior Cristina Borek hit a grand slam in the fourth inning against Oakland (3-24-12) ... Freshman pitcher Krista Menke's no-hitter vs. Liberty (3-10-12) was the program's 21st overall and the first since Andi Padilla's five-inning effort vs. UMKC on March 21, 2009 ... Padilla had a seven-inning diamond gem vs. Creighton on March 18, 2009 ... Menke reached double-figure strikeouts for the first time in her career with 11 vs. IPFW (3-30-12) ... Menke has nine shutouts and seven two-hitters this season ... Senior utility player Katie Tamayo had a pair of doubles in a game for the second time this season in the first game at Texas-Arlington (3-14-10) ... Tamayo was named College Sports Madness.com Summit League Player of the Week on March 26 ... Outfielder Taylor Mortensen and pitcher Whitney Johnson were named to the Easton Bama Bash all-tournament team ... Mortensen hit .375 (6-16) with two home runs, a pair of doubles, three runs scored and five RBI ... Mortensen led off the Alabama (2-25-12) and East Carolina (2-26-12) games with a home run ... Johnson compiled a 1.57 ERA with one shutout, 26 strikeouts and 12 walks in 22.1 innings pitched at Alabama ... With the 2-1 eight-inning win over IPFW on March 31, the Bison are 3-2 this season and 35-24 in extra innings under head coach Darren Mueller since 2002 ... North Dakota State is 48-45 overall in extra innings overall ... Whitney Johnson recorded a career-high with 19 strikeouts in the 3-1 win over Toledo (2-9-12) ... Lindsey Graham set the previous record with 16 vs. Oklahoma City (3-8-03) ... Johnson has five double-figure strikeout games this season and 23 in her career ... Johnson has two shutouts this season and has 22 in her career ... Johnson has three one-hitters this season and 16 in her career ... With 684 career strikeouts, Johnson is one of NDSU four pitchers to record over 600 ... Collectively, the Bison are hitting .259 with a 1.95 earned run average and is fielding at .967 ... NDSU opponents are hitting .189 with a 3.32 ERA and fielding at .966 ... The Bison are averaging 4.17 runs scored per game, while opponents are averaging 2.43 ... The big inning has been the third for North Dakota State with 36 runs scored ... The Bison are 22-0 when leading after six innings this season.

Menke Earns Fifth Summit League Pitcher of the Week Honor
North Dakota State freshman Krista Menke captured her fifth career Pitcher of the Week award after going undefeated (3-0) on the week with three complete games ... The freshman pitcher started the week off striking out 10 Coyotes with no walks and one earned run, for her second double-digit strikeout performance of the season ... She came back in game two of the doubleheader fanning four more batters, while allowing one walk and two earned runs ... In the series finale, she threw her ninth shutout and eighth two hitter of the season, in the 3-0 win over South Dakota with nine strikeouts and one walk ... On the week, Menke fanned 23 hitters, while yielding 11 hits, three earned runs and two walks in 21 innings of work for a 1.00 ERA ... With her honor, she ties the second-most in a season in league history ... Former Summit League Pitcher of the Year Allison Bakke won the award five times during the 2008 season for the Bison.

In The Summit League Statistics
North Dakota State can be found often in The Summit League statistics (based on league games only) released this week ... Individually (top 10), Krista Menke is 1st in pitching (0.91 ERA), wins (11), strikeouts (83), shutouts (7) and innings pitched (84.1), and 3rd in opponent batting average (.172); Whitney Johnson is 1st in opponent batting average (.129) and 5th in pitching (1.78 ERA); Jamie Gay is 1st in batting (.488), on- base percentage (.531) and slugging percentage (.628), tied for 5th in hits (21) and tied for 8th in stolen bases (5); Amanda Grable is tied for 3rd in home runs (4) and 8th in slugging percentage (.630); Cristina Borek is tied for 3rd in home runs (4) and tied for 6th in RBI (14); Taylor Mortensen is tied for 2nd in triples (2), tied for 3rd in runs scored (14) and 6th in slugging percentage (.653) ... Team-wise, the Bison are 1st in pitching (1.08 ERA) and fielding (.970), and 4th in batting average (.260).

Johnson, Mortensen, Konz Aim at NDSU Career Charts
On the NDSU career charts, junior Whitney Johnson is 2nd in strikeouts per 7 innings (8.00 avg/g) and opponent batting avg. (.189); tied for 3rd in strikeouts (684) and complete games (71); 5th in shutouts (22); 6th in wins (58), appearances (107), and innings pitched (598.2), and 10th in ERA (2.49) ... Outfielder Taylor Mortensen is 8th in home runs (21) ... Third baseman Brea Konz is 5th in sacrifices (33), tied for 5th in times hit by pitch (9), 8th in fielding assists (324) and tied for 10th in home runs (12).