FARGO, N.D. – Two of the Top 3 teams in the Summit League standings face off in Fargo, N.D., this weekend when the IUPUI softball team takes on conference leader North Dakota State.
 
NDSU enters the weekend with a 13-2 conference record, three and a half games ahead of IUPUI. South Dakota is in second place at 10-4, while the Jags are 9-5 and looking to inch up into second place to get a first-round bye in the upcoming Summit League Tournament.
 
The Jags enter the weekend with the third best team average and the second-best ERA in Summit League play at .294 and 3.02, respectively, while the Bison are first in both categories at .373 and 1.43.
 
In conference play, Maggie Good leads the team with a .439 average, which ranks sixth in the conference, while Roni Patterson is the overall team leader with a .372 average. The Jags have three players in Ali Mosier, Eryn Dillon and Patterson that rank in the league's Top 10 in home runs led by Mosier's 14.
 
The potent Bison offense has three players hitting over .400 on the season led by Logan Moreland's .452 average. Cheyenne Garcia is one of the three players hitting above .400 and she also leads the squad with 48 RBI on the season.
 
Two of the league's top pitchers in terms of wins will also square off this weekend in NDSU's Krista Menke and IUPUI's Brooke Boetjer. Menke, the 2012 Summit League Pitcher of the Year, is 27-4 on the season with three saves, and she has 318 strikeouts in 213.2 innings of work. While Boetjer has just a third of her strikeouts on the season, she is 20-9 with a league-best 2.00 ERA, while Emili Escamilla gives the Jags a great 1-2 punch in the circle as her 2.56 ERA is third in the league.
 
Live stats of this weekend's contests will be available on IUPUIJags.com.