Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 FAYETTE, Iowa – Minot State University softball couldn't have played two more dissimilar games en route to a split Saturday.

The Beavers were lights out in game 1, cruising to an 8-0 (6) win. Game 2 turned into a nightmare early on and MISU couldn't dig its way out.

The result was the end of the Beavers six-game winning streak and a split with Upper Iowa in Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference softball at Eischeid Softball Complex.

“The games were completely different. We got off to a good start in game 1 and that propelled us to the win,” said MISU head coach Bill Triplett. “That didn't happen in game 2. We pitched better and hit better in game 1 and if you have a flat game or a slow start in this league it becomes really difficult to overcome that.”

Game 1 featured an efficient outing by senior pitcher Mandy Greenberg (Winnipeg, Manitoba) and a pair of big home runs, one each by Tiffany Friesen (Sr., P/3B, Morden, Manitoba) and Katie Backes (Jr., UTL, Minot, N.D.).

Greenberg pitched five strong innings, giving up just two hits and striking out six for her 14th win on the season. She now has 150 strikeouts on the season.

“Mandy was very good for us again and we did a good job of getting her a lead,” Triplett said.

The Beavers (26-3 overall, 8-2 NSIC) got the early lead with a two-run home run by Friesen in the top of the first inning. The lead ballooned to four as Maribel Casillas (Sr., OF, Murrieta, Calif.) drove in Brittany Hunt (Jr., UTL, Bakersfield, Calif.) and Corinne Gautron (Sr., C, Winnipeg, Manitoba) singled home Backes. Backes hammered her fourth home run of the season, a three-run shot, in the sixth to get the game to the eight-run rule.

Minot State actually had a 1-0 lead in game 2, scoring on the first of two Melissa Bell (So., C, Belgrade, Mont.) solo home runs in the top of the first.
But Upper Iowa (15-11, 2-4) answered with a home run of their own in the bottom of the inning and scored five runs over the first two innings.

Minot State got to within 5-3 after Bell's second HR and a Friesen run-scoring double in the fourth, but again UIU answered. This time, the Peacocks scored three in the bottom of the fourth to negate any MISU momentum.

“Tiff (game 2 starting pitcher Tiffany Friesen) didn't have her best stuff of the season,” Triplett said. “She has pitched at such a high level this season that we almost expect her to go out and give us 6-7 great innings, but (Upper Iowa) was able to get some things going.”

Friesen suffered just her second loss of the year (10-2), going four innings, while giving up eight runs, seven earned runs and 12 hits.

UIU's Jacqueline Flood limited Minot State to just four runs and six hits and had a key two-run double during the Peacocks' three-run fourth.

Bell had three of the Beavers six hits, including the two home runs.

Minot State will look to bounce back against a tough Winona State team that is 5-1 in conference play and 20-6 overall Sunday. Game times are scheduled for noon and 2 p.m.