Beavers host series on Friday and Sunday in Bemidji, Minn.

Bemidji State and Minnesota State doubleheader moved to Friday

The Bemidji State University Softball team continues its home stand this weekend as they welcome Minnesota State University, Mankato and Concordia University-St. Paul for Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference doubleheaders. The Beavers and Mavericks games were slated for Saturday but with impending weather the doubleheader was moved to Friday at 1 p.m., the match up with the Golden Bears is still scheduled for 1 p.m., on Sunday.

In the Beavers first home action of the season, they split the series with the third-ranked team in the NSIC, University of Minnesota, Duluth, winning the first game 1-0 then falling in extra innings 4-2. Kyla Damerow pitched a complete game shutout against the Bulldogs with five one-two-three innings.

Listen to an interview with Kyla Damerow Listen to an interview with Kyla Damerow

Mariah Stevenson drove in the winning run against UMD for her 18th RBI this season tied for the most on the team with Ashley Herold. Alexa Christenson leads BSU, batting .355 with three hits in the previous games. Alexa Christenson is third on the team with 14 RBI’s off her 33 hits. Stevenson is right behind Alexa Christenson batting .352 with 31 hits in her 30 games played. Herold rounds out the top-three in batting average at .284.

After pitching 9.1 innings in her last outing Damerow (5-9) has dropped her ERA to 3.43 to lead Bemidji State. Damerow has pitched six complete games and leads the NSIC with three saves. Stella Dolan (8-6) has 58 strikeouts on the season, 10th in the conference. Dolan has pitched seven complete games with a 4.09 ERA and has earned one save. The duo has given out the fewest free passes in the NSIC only walking 51 batters.

Scouting Minnesota State
The Mavericks are 19-13 overall with a conference record of 8-6 halfway through conference play. In its last outing Minnesota State split the series against Upper Iowa University at home winning the first game 5-3 then dropping game two 4-6. The Mavericks are eighth in the NSIC with a batting average at .289 and have the second-best ERA at 2.34. Junior Ellie Tallman leads MSU batting a team-high .389, recording 37 hits and 17 RBI’s. Junior McKayla Armbruster (1-7) has the third best ERA in the conference at 1.63 only allowing 26 runs in 111.1 innings worked. The Mavericks are coached by Lori Meyer in her 37th season and is the winningest coach in Division II history with 1,354 wins.

Scouting Concordia-St. Paul
The Golden Bears have an overall record of 19-20 and a conference record of 5-9. CSP are currently on a seven-game skid dropping its previous games to Winona State University 14-18 and 0-9 on Wednesday. The Golden Bears are 10th in batting average at .278 and 11th with an ERA of 4.63. At the plate juniors Annalise Scamehorn and Clara Heislen are both batting over .300 and Heislen has batted in 25 RBI’s tied with Jacey Defries. On the rubber sophomore Erica McCullough has a team-low 3.94 ERA through 85.1 innings and junior Bryanna Olson is second in the NISC with 127 strikeouts. The Golden Bears are coached by Bob Bartel in his 19th season with the program.