Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 ST. CLOUD, Minn. – Minot State University and St. Cloud State went about scoring runs in a much different fashion in game 1 of Saturday's double header.

Minot State manufactured runs with walks, hit batters and timely hits. The Huskies used the long ball.

In the end, however, it was MISU's manufacturing that won out, as the Beavers worked a bases loaded walk and a hit batter to win 5-3 in eight innings, leading Minot State to a sweep with an 8-2 win in game 2 in Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference softball at the Husky Dome.

“We talk all the time to get on any way you can, and our girls did just that, they battled and battled and found a way,” said MISU head coach Bill Triplett. “We have hit more extra bases this year than in most seasons but today, working the count and doing what it takes to move runners was the key.”

Minot State (30-5 overall, 12-4 NSIC) battled back from a 1-0 lead to take a 3-1 lead in the fifth, but gave it up in the bottom of the seventh to force the extra innings. In the eighth, MISU's Melissa Bell (So., C, Belgrade, Mont.) plated the go-ahead run with a bases loaded walk and Jen Dixon (Jr., OF/P, Brandon, Manitoba) – who reached five times in the game, three by walks and two by hit-by-pitch – forced home a second run after getting plunked on the arm.

SCSU (25-18, 10-6) finished with just four hits against Minot State starting pitcher Mandy Greenberg (Sr., Winnipeg, Manitoba), but two of them were home runs. Kelly Olson hit a solo home run in the bottom of the first and Nicole Steinle forced extra innings with a two-run HR in the bottom of the seventh.

“Mandy has only made a couple mistakes all season, but today they made her pay for really her only two,” Triplett said. “She came back and shut them down in the eighth after they got a runner and that is a sign of how confident she is on the mound. This was a really good win for her because (SCSU starter Kelly Franks) was really throwing well.”

Bell tied the game with the Beavers first hit – in the fifth – with a double up the middle. Stacy Fournier (Jr., INF, Lanley, British Columbia) put the Beavers up 3-1 with a double scoring Bell and Dixon. It was the second of just three hits for MISU against Franks, who struck out nine, but walked 11 and hit three batters.

In game 2, the Beavers used a little of the Huskies' formula as Bell hit a 3-run home run to spark a 4-0 MISU lead in the top of the first. Katie Backes (Jr., UTL, Minot, N.D.) belted a two-run homer in the third to put the Beaver up 6-1.

"It was a big lift for us to come out and get those runs right away. It kind of added to the emotional high we were on from winning game 1 and buried them a little,” Triplett said.

Staked to the early lead, MISU pitcher Tiffany Friesen (Sr., Morden, Manitoba) cruised to a complete-game six-hitter for her 12th win of the season. She gave up a single run in the first and one in the seventh.

“We liked to think we have one of the top No. 2 pitchers in the league,” Triplett said. “Tiff threw well for us again and never really gave up hits in bunches. That was the key with the early lead.”

Ali Cygan (So., SS, Belgrade, Mont.), Carmen Vargas (Sr., C, Cathedral City, Calif.), Bell and Fournier each finished with two hits with Bell driving in four.
The Beavers will look to make it six straight wins in the Husky Dome as they take on Minnesota Duluth in a double header Sunday at 6 p.m.

– GO BEAVERS –