Kari Gibb/MDN MSU senior Reegan Floyd pitches in the first game of the year for the MSU Softball team in the Bubble Invite against Minnesota State Moorhead on Friday, January 31.

With windchill in the negatives, the MSU women’s softball season started on Friday, January 31.

Not on the road, but at Minot State. Thankfully the teams played inside the “Bubble” and not in the snow drifts on the South Hill softball complex.

Several teams made the trip to Minot for the Bubble Invite, and for their first game of the season the Lady Beavers hosted the Lady Dragons from Minnesota State Moorhead. MSU from the Dakota state beat MSU from the east 3-0 for the first win of the season.

In an otherwise scoreless game, in the bottom of the fourth inning of play, Paige Kellogg hit a double to left field and scored two runs. Sarah Misner and Abby Lohse each scored on the play that was deemed an error by the Dragons.

In the bottom of the sixth inning, Kellogg again was the hero at bat with a single to left that scored Ellington Anderson for the third run.

Kelloff was 2-for-3 at the plate with the three RBI in the game. Lohse and Misner were each 1-for-3 batting and each scored a run. As a team, MSU was 5-for-25 at the plate with five runners left of base, one walked and seven batters struck out.

Reegan Floyd pitched all seven innings for the Lady Beavers. Floyd allowed three hits, faced 24 batters and tallied eight strikeouts in her debut and recorded her first win of the season.

MSU will play several more games over the weekend.