The Peacock baseball team swept a pair of Northern Sun Conference games at home against the Cougars of the University of Sioux Falls on Wednesday afternoon in Fayette.  Upper Iowa recorded 24 runs in the two games while racking up 27 hits including 6 doubles and a huge homerun to break open game two.  Thanks to the two wins, which came by scores of 15-7 and 9-4, UIU improved to 15-13 overall and returned to .500 at 7-7 in the conference.  Sioux Falls had won eight straight, but the two losses drop the Cougars record to 13-19 overall and 10-6 in the NSIC.

Mitch Moser had a huge day for the home team.  The sophomore earned a win in game one on the mound, while tallying a pair of hits and two rbi's to aid his own cause.  The righthander then went 4 for 5 at the plate as the designated hitter in game two adding another rbi.  Moser finished the day with 6 hits in 9 at bats, while Luis Ravelo accounted for 5 hits, 4 of which came in the first game.  Jordan Kearns and Jacob Greco each added four hits apiece including a pair of doubles for Kearns and a grand slam in game two for Greco.  Colton Janssen and Eric Cottrell each had 3 hits on the day, while Alex George had a pair of baseknocks.

Moser earned his first win of the season on the mound with a six inning effort in game one and then Shimpei Sato started game two and threw into the eighth inning allowing three runs, although only one was earned, while striking out eight batters.  Sato picked up the win in game two moving to 2-0 on the season with wins in his last two starts.

Upper Iowa will travel to Aberdeen, S.D. this Saturday and Sunday for a pair of NSIC double headers against the Wolves.  Both double dips will start at 10 a.m. as Northern State and Presentation College share a field and both teams are home this weekend.

Game 1: Upper Iowa 15 - Sioux Falls 7

The Peacocks jumped all over their guests in the second and third innings of game one.  The home team scored five runs in the second and then busted the game open with eight runs in the third to take a 13-0 lead into the fourth inning.  During the second inning Upper Iowa put together six hits including a leadoff double by Cottrell, a Janssen rbi-single, a Kearns rbi-double down the left field line and a Ravelo two-run single up the middle.

In the third inning, the Peacocks sent 12 batters to the plate and thanks to five hits and four walks.  The first two batters of the inning walked and Janssen followed with a second rbi-single setting up runners on the corners with no outs.  Kearns and Ravelo each delivered a run home with singles, and after Moser walked to load the bases, Greco followed with a walk of his own to push a run across.  George plated two runs with a single to left and Cottrell followed with a single up the middle to drive in a run.  The eighth and final run of the inning came as Sioux Falls was making their first out of the inning.

Trailing 13-0, the Cougars rallied with five runs on four hits to close the gap to 13-5.  Moser suffered through some control issues during the inning handing out two walks and allowing four hits in the frame.

Ravelo's legs grabbed two stolen bases in the fourth on the shortstop's fourth hit of the game.  As Ravelo stole third the throw from the catcher bounced into the outfield and allowed him to score on the play.

Sioux Falls chipped away at the lead again in the sixth inning scoring a pair of runs on three hits and a Peacock miscue.  After two quick outs for Moser, the Cougars hit back-to-back doubles and added a single to left field to pull within seven, 14-7.

Upper Iowa would get the last run of game one as Janssen led off the bottom of the sixth with a double to right.  After two outs, Moser stepped to the plate and delivered an rbi-double to right center field setting the final score as 15-7.

Kenton Johnson dropped to 1-2 on the year only lasting 2 innings versus UIU, while Moser got the win after allowing 12 hits and 7 runs, 6 were earned, while striking out a pair of Cougars.  Senior Jake Barron cleaned up in the seventh inning and posted a pair of strikeouts including the final out of the game.

Game 2: Upper Iowa 9 - Sioux Falls 4

After scoring 120 runs in their last 11 games, the Peacock offense got off to a slow start in the second game, but by the end, UIU posted a 9-4 win thanks to seven runs over their final six outs in the game.

The runs came in support of Sato (2-0) who won his second straight decision.  The junior from Tokyo, Japan threw 7.1 innings and allowed just three runs, one earned, on six hits while registering eight strikeouts.

A pair of errors to open the second inning allowed UIU to score an unearned run and jump out to an early 1-0 lead.  Sioux Falls answered in the fifth with an unearned run of their own after two Peacock errors prolonged an inning.

UIU took the one-run lead right back in the bottom of the fifth.  Kearns led the inning off with a single and moved to second on a wild pitch.  As Kearns was stealing third, the throw from home went into the outfield and sent the UIU second baseman to the plate.

Once again, the Cougars answered in the sixth after a leadoff double came around to score tying the score at 2-2.

Sioux Falls threatened to break up the tie in the seventh with runners on the corners and no outs, but Sato and the defense were up to the challenge.  After the runner on first was caught in a rundown between first and second, Sato recorded a pair of strikeouts to work out of the jam.

The Peacock offense rewarded Sato with an outburst in the bottom of the seventh.  Kearns and Ravelo opened the inning with a pair of walks and after a pitching change, Moser laid down a perfect bunt between that got past the pitcher to the first base side and loaded the bases with no outs for Greco.  The reigning NSIC Player of the Week did not dissappoint the fans that braved the cool temperatures as he blasted a homerun over the leftfield wall for a grand slam.  The four-run shot was UIU's second of the season, Stenberg also had one during the Minnesota Crookston series, and it gave the home team a four-run cushion heading into the eighth.

With two on and one out in the eighth, Sato came down off the hill as Head Coach Mark Danker handed the ball to sophomore Anthony Ruden.  After Ruden hit the first batter, he buckled down with a pair of strikeouts to end the threat.  A run did come in on a wild pitch, but Ruden was able to get out of the jam without any further damage thanks to the pair of punchouts.

Upper Iowa put the game out of reach in the eighth with three runs on three hits including Kearns' second double of the day, an rbi-single from Moser and a two-run single by Greco to add UIU's eighth and ninth runs to the scoreboard.

The Cougars did scratch one run off the margin in the ninth with a solo homerun off the bat of Noah Durkin, but Ross Kulick pitched the ninth and recorded the three outs surrendering only the one run.

Eric Brothers suffered the loss (1-6) for the Cougars despite a solid effort.  He threw six innings and allowed four runs, three earned, on six hits while striking out seven Peacocks.