MANKATO, Minn. --- Fifth-rated Minnesota State completed the weekend sweep of Concordia-St. Paul on Saturday after taking both games of a doubleheader by scores of 8-5 and 10-4, respectively.

The Mavericks have now won 12 straight games and stand 29-4 overall and 19-3 in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference. The Golden Bears drop to 15-17 and 13-11 in league play.

The Golden Bears came out in the first inning and scored a pair of runs to take an early 2-0 lead, but in the bottom of the first the Mavericks batted through the order and scored five runs of their own. With the bases loaded senior Nolan Johnson reached on a field choice but was able to score sophomore Eric Peterson. Junior Taylor Branstad than came up and hit one to the pitcher, but senior Connor McCallum came home to tie up the score at two. Four straight singles by redshirt freshmen Dylan Dresel, Luke Waldek and Josh Wenzel as well as senior Kevin Kramer scored three more runs to put MSU up 5-2 after one.

CU added a run in the second inning and one in the third but an RBI single by Kramer got that run back. Later Peterson hit an RBI single to put MSU up 7-3 through three innings of play.

The Mavericks final run came in the fourth inning after Branstad doubled down the left field line to put senior Max Waletich on third base. The next batter, Dresel, hit a sacrifice fly to right center to score Waletich.

The Golden Bears added a run in the fifth and sixth innings but it wasn't enough as junior Dakota Belter closed out the game for his sixth save of the season. Redshirt freshman Aaron Rozek moved to 4-0 after allowing three earned runs, two walks and two hits while striking out one. Junior Peter Gaustad pitched 1.2 innings of relief as well.

Peterson finished game one going 3-4 with an RBI and one run scored while Waletich also finished 3-4 with one run scored. Branstad, Wenzel and Kramer all had two hits.

In game two, Johnson got the scoring going with an RBI single to score Peterson in the first inning. Later Waletich scored on a throwing error by CU's third baseman. The Mavericks tacked on another run in the second to take a 3-0 lead, but a grand slam by the Golden Bear's designated hitter Connor Olson gave them a 4-3 lead. The Mavericks had a bases-loaded rally going in the bottom of the third but only came out with one run off a sacrifice fly by Waldek to tie up the game at four through three.

In the sixth inning, MSU took the lead for good thanks to an RBI single by Waletich scoring Peterson. MSU rallied for five runs in the eighth with all the runs coming with two outs. Waletich was hit by a pitch and a fielding error by CU's shortstop extended the inning. A single by Dresel and triple by Waldek added on three more runs. Wenzel than singled home Waldek and then stole second to allow Kramer's single to push across another run.

Belter pitched the final three innings of the game and allowed just two hits, zero earned runs and had four strikeouts to pick up his second save of the day and seventh of the year. Sophomore Mitchell Bauer pitched the first six innings and just made the one mistake on the grand slam. He finished up allowing six hits, four earned runs, one walk while striking out five.

Johnson and Dresel both finished game two 3-5 with one RBI and one run scored while Waldek was 1-3 with that triple and three RBI.

The Mavericks will finish up its home stand on Wednesday when they host Northern State University. The first pitch for the twinbill is slated 1:30 p.m. at the MSU Baseball Complex.