Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 MINOT, N.D. – Minot State University rode the right arm of junior Mindy Lorimor (P, Thurman, Iowa) and the long ball to sweep No. 19 Winona State in a pair of Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference softball games Saturday at Herb Parker Stadium.

The Beavers (20-8 overall, 7-3 NSIC) won their seventh straight games and topped a team ranked in the top 25 for the first time this season. Minot State has played five games against ranked teams and is 2-3 overall against those teams.

Lorimor was tough in the circle to improve to 14-5 on the season. While she has been the Beavers ace throughout the year, she worked her best games against the Warriors (20-6 overall, 3-3 NSIC). She pitched 14 innings, giving up just 10 hits and four runs with eight strikeouts in the two games.

"We tried it, pitching back-to-back, in Florida against two good teams and she got it done down there," said MISU head coach Bill Triplett. "So, we figured with it being a little cooler that we would go with her until she couldn't any more. They (WSU) never really got to her so we kept her in. We gave her a lot more rope because of the scoreboard."

That rope was mainly due to the long ball.

Minot State pushed out to comfortable leads in both games due to big home runs. In game 1, Alyssa Cornejo (Fr., P/2B, Riverside, Calif.) broke a 1-1 tie with a three-run bomb to left to break open a close game. In the second game, Jen Dixon (Sr., OF/P, Brandon, Manitoba) gave MISU a 3-0 lead with a opposite field home run and Melissa Bell (Jr., C, Belgrade, Mont.) broke things open with a grand slam in the fourth.

"The girls have been working hard on recognizing what they are trying to do to us and even if they are trying to work us outside, to go to the opposite field," Triplett said. "Jen's was an opposite field shot and Cornejo hit a couple of shots. We have the ability to hit the long ball but we don't want to depend on it."

In game 1, Lorimor and WSU starter Ashley Walker cruised through three innings, but both gave up runs in the fourth. Jenny Nelson put the Warriors up 1-0 with a solo home to left in the top of the inning. It was one of just two hits mustered by the Warriors.

The Beavers countered with a single by Katie Backes (Sr., UTL, Minot, N.D.) scoring Stacy Fournier (Sr., 3B, Langley, British Columbia) after Fournier tripled to tie the game at 1. Cornejo third home run of the season scored Backes and Rachel Burdette (Fr., P/UTL, Temecula, Calif.).

It was all Lorimor needed as she didn't allow another baserunner after the Nelson home run.

Game 2 looked like it was going to be much of the same until Bell's grand slam. MISU took a 3-0 lead on Dixon's sixth of the year, but the Warriors countered with a pair of runs in the fourth to cut it to 3-2.

This but Bell plated four in the bottom of the inning with a shot to right field, scoring Burdette, Cornejo and Darlene Truong (Jr., C, Escondido, Calif.).

Lorimor only allowed another solo home run to Nelson, a hit and a walk over the final three innings of game 2 with another strong finish.

Nelson had two hits in two games, both home runs, for Winona State and Brooke Piotrowski added two hits in game 2. Hanna Lythberg suffered just her second loss of the season, going six innings, giving up seven runs on seven hits with seven strikeouts. Walker fell to 6-4 with the loss in game 1.

Bell, Dixon, Backes and Cornejo all finished with three hits in the double headers. Ali Cygan (Jr., SS, Bozeman, Mont.) was one of three players to steal a base in the double header for the Beavers, swiping two in game 2.

Minot State will be back on the turf Sunday with a pair of games with Upper Iowa starting at 11 a.m., followed by two games between WSU and the University of Mary.