Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 BISMARCK, N.D. – Minot State University baseball got its weekend off two a good start as the Beavers swept rival University of Mary in a pair of Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference baseball games Friday at the U-Mary Field.

The Beavers (13-21 overall, 7-13) moved a game ahead of the Marauders (15-27, 6-16) in the NSIC standings with a 4-2 and 8-6 sweep with just eight games to play in the regular season. MISU stands in 12th in the league, but is within a game of the University of Sioux Falls and two games back of Minnesota Duluth and Southwest Minnesota State.

"It was a good start," MISU head coach Brock Weppler said. "We are taking it one game at a time at this point and I know that sounds cliché but that's what we have to do. We can't worry about stats and things, we need to get wins no matter what."

Minot State got another great outing from Austin Zorn (Jr., P, Bismarck, N.D.). The right hander improved to 5-2 on the season with a complete-game six-hitter. He gave up two runs, one earned run and hit one batter for the win.

"Zorn was fantastic again. We got some runs early and he settled in and pitched really well," Weppler said. "I think we got a single run each of the first four innings and I will take that any day of the week. When we have struggled this year it has been when we have had trouble shutting the other team down. Today we kept the momentum, so the early runs were important, but keeping that momentum going was even more important."

MISU got this from six different players and had two hits apiece from Nicholas Hammerl (Jr., SS/2B, West Peoria, Ill.) out of the leadoff spot, A.J. Begay (Sr., 3B, Salt Lake City, Utah), Tyler Stephenson (Sr., OF, Cheyenne, Wyo.) and Sean Arbaut (Sr., INF, Tehachapi, Calif.). Stephenson and Arbaut, out of the No. 8 and 9 spots, went 4-for-6 with a run scored and an RBI.

"A big part of getting runs in each of those innings was getting contributions from multiple guys," said Weppler. "We have been able to get back to some fundamentals and had great approaches at the plate."

Hammerl, Begay and Connor Moughtin (Sr., C, Victoria, British Columbia) joined Stevenson with RBIs for the Beavers.

Dwight Mack went 2-for-3 for U-Mary, while Shane Trattles suffered the loss in a complete-game, 10-hitter.

Game 2 was a bit different as the teams combined for 14 runs and 17 hits, The Beavers scored four runs in the seventh and a run in the ninth to hold off U-Mary after rallying from a 4-3 deficit.

"It was higher scoring, but Bernie (MISU starter Austin Bernston, So., OF/P, Minot, N.D.) kept us in the game," Weppler said. "He didn't have his best stuff, but that being said, when we took him out in the sixth, it was 4-3 and he kept us in it. You're not always going to have your best stuff, but you have to battle and Bernie did that."

Bernston went 5 2/3, allowing seven hits, four runs and struck out two batters. Jamin Heller (Sr., P, Lethbridge, Alberta) earned his first win of the season with an inning and a third of relief and Alec Grothe (So., P, Bismarck, N.D.) notched his second save with two innings of no-hit baseball.

The Beavers again had balance as eight batters had at least one hit. Stevenson went 2-for-4 with two runs scored an RBI. Begay swatted his sixth home run and Andrew Roach (Jr., OF, Gilbert, Ariz.) drove in two. Arbaut and Moughtin also had RBIs for the Beavers.

"Our whole teams knows that our goal is to go 4-0 down here, but we focused on the first and then the second and we will have to do that again tomorrow," Weppler said. "We don't want to come home with a split or 3-1, we want to be 4-0, but we have to stay focused on the next game to do that."

The Beavers and Marauders will resume their rivalry Saturday with a pair of NSIC games staring at Noon.