TUCSON, Ariz. -- Senior Katy Vandewater's walk off single with the bases loaded in the seventh lifted Midwestern State to a 3-2 win over Colorado State-Pueblo to give the Mustangs an opening day split at the NFCA Leadoff Classic at the Lincoln Park Complex.
 
MSU suffered a 9-1 run-rule loss to No. 3-ranked Dixie State (Utah) earlier Friday and takes on Molloy (N.Y.) in the final game of pool play Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m.
 
The 18-team tournament will then be seeded into a winner's bracket and consolation single elimination draw set for later Saturday and Sunday.
 
Vandewater provided the only offense for the Mustangs in the opener delivering a leadoff solo home run in the top of the fifth inning to spoil Dixie State starter Aryn Feickert's shutout bid.
 
The junior transfer who earned Pac-12 All-Freshman honors at Oregon State settled in to strike out nine batters in the 2-hit victory as Dixie State took advantage of four MSU fielding errors to plate four runs in the first, a run in the fourth and two runs in the fifth and sixth innings.
 
Colorado State-Pueblo scored a run on a sacrifice fly in the top of the first inning before the Mustangs rallied to take the lead in the fourth.
 
Junior Chelsey Wall and sophomore Baylee Voigt delivered back-to-back RBI singles to plate Demi Thompson and Shelby Carter to give MSU a 2-1 lead.
 
The Thunderwolves, who lost 11-1 to Dixie State earlier in the day, evened the game at 2-2 with a run in the sixth inning.
 
Midwestern left the bases loaded in the bottom of the frame before loading the bases with no outs in the bottom of the seventh as Paige Stevens and Haley Howerton legged out singles before Katelyn Vinson draw a walk.
 
Senior third baseman Kelley Schaefer popped out to shortstop before Vandewater smoked a hit into left-field allowing Stevens to jog home with the winning run.
 
Sophomore Kaitlyn Holmes earned the win allowing two earned runs on five hits with six strikeouts.