MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – Minot State University finished off its final game at US Bank stadium with a 4-1 win over Winona State behind another stellar outing on the mound by Justin Demary and the big bats of Trevaun Smith and Michael Borst in nonconference NCAA Division II baseball early Saturday morning.

"The story again is our pitching," said MSU head coach Scott Eul. "We know we are going to score some runs, but Demary was big time again and freshman Aaron Kern battled some nerves early but was able to work through and knock down a save."

The Beavers (3-2 overall) started the night with an early run in the first inning when Borst singled up the middle scoring Jordan Schulz. Winona answered back with a run of their own in the bottom of the third but that was all Demary would allow the rest of the night.

MSU broke the tie and took a lead it didn't relinquish in the top of the fifth in a big way when freshman Trevaun Smith roped his first collegiate home run scoring fellow freshman Alex Mack for a 3-1 lead.
Borst added one more for the Beavers scoring Schulz again on an RBI single up the middle in the eighth.

"We need to cut back the strikeouts a little bit offensively, but we are in a real good spot right now heading into opening weekend for conference play at Wayne," Eul said. "They beat us up (Thursday) but as I was giving our guys high fives tonight they were already wanting to get to Wayne and get some redemption."

Kern shut the door on WSU and get the save in his first collegiate appearance. He worked two innings of relief allowing just one hit. Demary went seven innings, allowing four hits, one run and one walk while striking out five.

"We had a lot of guys step up in some big situations tonight," added Eul. "Tre hitting his first collegiate homerun, Kern coming in a tight ballgame and nailing down a save and Mack getting his first start and scoring a run for us - those are big milestones for those guys and really fun moments.

"Borsty is seeing the ball well right now and it's been incredible watching him at the plate."

Borst lead MSU again with three hits and finished the three game set with 10 hits, four RBI and three doubles to lead the Northern Sun with a .700 batting average. Four other Beavers collected a hit on the day.

"We played well this weekend even with a little hiccup vs Wayne," Eul said. "We are going to enjoy these two wins then get back after it next week and get ready for Wayne for first conference games."

MSU travels to Wayne, Neb., for four games March 18 and 19.

About Minot State
Minot State University is a member of the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) and NCAA Division II offering 14 men's and women's varsity intercollegiate athletics programs. The NSIC is a premier NCAA DII, 16-member conference featuring teams in North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska and Iowa. The Beavers are the only public NCAA Division II institution in the state of North Dakota.