MINOT, N.D. – The Minot State baseball team was in dire need of two big wins heading into Wednesday's games against Bemidji State and it delivered in dramatic fashion. MSU took game one 16-9 and scored seven runs in the ninth inning of game two taking the game 15-13.

"We came up in the ninth inning down five—it's going to take everyone to do it and we did it," Minot State head baseball coach Brock Weppler said. "The guys believed, they fought and had really good at bats. We got guys across, did what we had to do and threw up seven runs."

After being down 9-4 through four innings of game two, Minot State chipped away at the Bemidji lead and got within one heading to the bottom of the eighth. A four-run bottom half from BSU gave MSU just three outs to score five or more runs, but that's all Minot State needed.

Trevor Gust (Sr., C, Minot, N.D.) got the final inning off to a strong start hitting a solo home run to center. After Keith Ailes (Jr., OF/1B, Bozeman, Mont.) reached on an error in the next at bat, Micah Holmen (Jr., 1B/3B, Minot, N.D.) drove Ailes and himself home with the second home run of the inning, this one to left center.

Down just two at this point, three more MSU batters reached base before Bemidji State recorded its first out of the inning on a Jared Young (Fr., INF, Prince George, British Columbia) sacrifice fly. On the very next pitch, Jordan Schulz (So., OF, Strasbourg, Saskatchewan) gave Minot State its first lead of the game since the top of the third with a double off the center field wall. Austin Berntson (Jr., OF/P, Minot, N.D.) tacked on an insurance run with an RBI single up the middle before the side was retired.

Alec Grothe (Jr., P, Bismarck, N.D.) closed the door in the ninth inning recording his first save of the season and securing the two-game sweep for Minot State.

"He did a good job of getting ahead and making them swing at his pitches," Weppler said. "He did a good job. That's good for Alec. He needs some confidence and hopefully he can build off that."

Game one wasn't as dramatic, but the win was equally important.

After getting down to an early 4-1 deficit, Minot State saw its bats come to life in the top half of the third inning. Four hits capped off by a Paul Vogelsang (So., C, Regina, Saskatchewan) grand slam, notably MSU's third grand slam this season, gave the visiting Beavers a 9-4 lead.

Over the course of the next four innings, Minot State added seven more runs to secure a victory. Berntson gave the Beavers two runs in the sixth inning with a two-run home run and RBI singles from Schulz and Ailes tacked on four more runs in the top of the seventh.

Schulz led the way offensively for MSU on the day going 8-for-11 with seven RBIs, three extra-base hits and five runs scored. Young went 5-for-9 while Brad Rolff (Sr., INF, North Folk, Calif.) went 4-for-8 and Berntson went 3-for-6.

With the sweep, Minot State improves to 7-11 in the NSIC and 10-19 overall. Bemidji falls to 7-13 in the conference and 10-25 overall.

MSU will be back home this weekend as they play host to Northern State in a four-game series set to begin at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday. Minot State President Dr. Steven Shirley will throw out a ceremonial first pitch as part of his weekend inauguration celebration.