MINOT, N.D. – The Minot State baseball team knew it had its hands full heading into the weekend series against No. 2 St. Cloud State, and the Huskies proved why they're one of the best Division II teams in the country Saturday afternoon.

The Beavers managed to score just one run as they fell to SCSU twice in the first two games of the series. The Huskies took game one, 6-0, and game two, 11-1.

Minot State was unable to get much going offensively against SCSU's Gregory Reese in game one. The Beavers didn't have a base runner reach third base until the sixth inning and weren't able to cash in.

Reese ended his day throwing a complete game, surrendering seven hits and striking out 10 on his way to improving to a perfect 9-0 this season.

St. Cloud struck early in game one scoring two runs in the first inning. The Huskies tacked on one more in the third, two in the fourth and another in the fifth.

Nicholas Hammerl (Sr., SS/2B, West Peoria, Ill.) led the way offensively for MSU going 2-for-4. Hammerl was the only Beaver to record multiple hits in game one.

Game two started in similar fashion to game one as SCSU jumped out to a 2-0 lead after one.  The Huskies added six more runs in the next two innings before Minot State scored its first run in the fourth, and by that point, it was too little too late.

St. Cloud added two runs in the fifth and one in the seventh to close out the game in seven innings.

Micah Holmen (Jr., 1B/3B, Minot, N.D.) recorded the lone RBI for the Beavers in the fourth inning. Jared Young (Fr., 2B, Prince George, British Columbia), Austin Berntson (Jr., OF, Minot, N.D.) and Hammerl each recorded two hits in the game two defeat.

Minot State head coach Brock Weppler acknowledged the well played games by St. Cloud State but did note a few areas MSU needs to improve going forward.

"We've got to get ahead in the count," he said. "We want to start getting guys swinging at our pitches rather than putting ourselves in 3-1 and 3-2 counts and having the guys not worried about walking them."

Minot State (11-26, 8-18) and St. Cloud State (39-3, 29-3) will square off again tomorrow with another double-header beginning at noon.