Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 SIOUX CITY, Iowa. --- Second-ranked Minnesota State earned a 3-1 victory in the first affair before a four-run ninth inning by Southwest Minnesota State in game two carried SMSU to a 7-4 win and series split in both teams' Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference opener Friday afternoon at Sioux City North High.
 
MSU moves to 13-4 overall and 1-1 inside the league, while the Mustangs stand 10-8 on the season and 1-1 in conference play.
 
Minnesota State produced three runs over the first two innings of game one providing senior righthander Jason Hoppe (Rice, Minn.) with more than enough run support. Senior shortstop Todd Standish (Brookings, S.D.) belted a leadoff homerun in the bottom of the first. In the second, sophomore outfielder Taylor Branstad (Apple Valley, Minn.) drove in junior outfielder Max Waletich (Fairmont, Minn.) with an RBI single, before freshman second baseman Eric Peterson (Eagan, Minn.) scored after a groundout by freshman outfielder Kevin Kramer (Watkins, Minn.) extending MSU a 3-0 lead.
 
That score held until the seventh inning when SMSU pushed across a run in the top of the seventh against Hoppe before he retired three straight Mustangs - two via strikeout - to improve to 5-0 on the season. Hoppe struck out nine en route to earning the complete-game victory and scattered four hits with one walk.
 
Game two saw the Mavericks tally a single run in each of the first three innings and another in the sixth to open up a 4-0 lead. Junior third baseman Connor McCallum (Shoreview, Minn.) plated Standish with an RBI double in the first, before Peterson clubbed his second four-bagger of the year - a solo shot - in the second. Senior first baseman Stetson Olson (Renton, Wash.) drove in junior catcher Nolan Johnson (Bloomington, Minn.) with an RBI single in the third, and MSU added the fourth marker when Branstad came around on a SMSU error in the sixth.
 
The Mustangs countered back with three unearned runs in the top of the seventh inning off senior righthander Bryce Bellin (Kimberly, Wis.). Sophomore Sam Haas plated a pair with a double and junior Tanner Neale drove in Haas with a triple slicing the MSU lead to 4-3. The Mavericks held the lead until the top of the ninth as SMSU scored twice off Maverick wild pitches then added back-to-back RBI base hits to claim a 7-4 lead it would not relinquish.
 
Bellin fanned eight and allowed four hits with three unearned runs across seven innings to receive a no-decision. Junior righthander Mathias Butala (Cold Spring, Minn.) moved to 1-1 taking the loss after surrendering two runs in one inning of work.
 
Senior Mike Andries (Cedar Rapids, Iowa) went three-of-seven in the two-game set; while Peterson and Standish each finished two-for-six with two runs scored.
 
MSU and SMSU will conclude the series tomorrow at 1:00 p.m., back in Sioux City.