BATON ROUGE, La.  – The Nicholls State University softball team extended its winning streak to three games with a 2-1 win against North Dakota State on Saturday morning in the LSU Purple & Gold Challenge, but came up short in the second game, falling 3-2 to Memphis.

Behind another outstanding effort from senior Ashton Bennett (3-1) in the circle, Nicholls (4-3) was able to generate just enough offense against North Dakota State, which won 40 games last season, to pick up a one-run victory. Paige Miller drove in both runs, putting Nicholls up 1-0 in the second before hitting her first career home run in the fourth.

Miller's shot to left proved to be the deciding run after the Bison made the game 2-1 in the sixth. A dropped ball in the outfield allowed a runner to come home, and with two outs and the tying run on second, Bennett fanned the NDSU pinch hitter on three pitches to escape the inning.

In the seventh, Bennett retired the lineup in order to close out the game. She finished with seven strikeouts and allowed three hits.

Against Memphis, errors in the first two innings put Nicholls in a 2-0 hole before a seventh inning rally stalled with the tying runner stranded on third base.

Trailing 3-1 in the bottom of the seventh, Danielle Phillips started the inning off with a single, followed by a walk by Brittany Marcet. Marcet was avoided all day, picking up five free passes in the two games.

A sacrifice bunt by Leah Andrus, who had three hits on the day, put runners in scoring position, setting up a sacrifice fly by Bennett. With two outs and a runner on third, Memphis forced a pop out to short off the bat of Courtney Vanlandingham to end the game.

The Colonels had five hits, led by Andrus' two, and drew nine walks. Although she gave up only one earned run, Hannah Haydel was tagged with the loss in seven innings of work, finishing with six strikeouts.

Nicholls wraps up play in the Purple & Gold Challenge on Sunday with Virginia (12:30 p.m.) and No. 10 LSU.