The Peacock softball team earned its first Northern Sun Conference win of the season in game two on Saturday on the road against the Bemidji State Beavers. BSU took game one five runs in the first two innings, but UIU had answers in game two. The visitors rallied with a four-run seventh inning to pull away and hold on for the win. With the split of the twin bill, the Peacocks improve to 9-23 overall and 1-9 in the NSIC, while the Beavers now sit at 17-8 overall and 7-3 in league play.
 
Upper Iowa will continue their road trip with a pair of games in Crookston, Minn. on Sunday afternoon against the Minnesota Crookston Golden Eagles. First pitch of game one is scheduled for noon.
 
Game One
Bemidji State jumped out of the gates on offense against Peacock starter Emily Kisch in game one. The freshman pitcher lasted just 1.1 innings allowing five earned runs on three hits while walking two before being replaced by Courtney Clayberg. The home team put constant pressure on UIU right away to stretch the early lead.
 
An rbi-fielder's choice got the scoring started for Bemidji State, and they followed up in a big way. A two-run home run by Kelsey McAllister extended the lead to 3-0 after an inning.
 
Upper Iowa answered in the top of the second, when Julia Buffington ripped an two-run double to right center to score Katie Sammons and Shannon Nix to cut into the lead, 3-2. However, Brooke Phillips responded for the home team in the bottom of the inning with a two-run double of her own to put BSU back up three, 5-2.
 
BSU tacked on two more in the fourth to lead 7-2, and the Peacocks would get one run back in the fifth with a solo home run from freshman Jordyn Brennan. Bemidji State would hold on in the late innings for a 7-3 win.
 
Nix, Sammons, Buffington, and Sami Kay Shafranski led UIU with two hits each in game one.
 
Game Two
Upper Iowa struck first in game two early in the first inning. After Riley Kruel reached to start the game, three batters later Tara Walls would smoke an rbi-double to right field to score Kruel and give UIU its first lead of the day. But in the bottom of the first inning, the home team responded with a pair of runs on an rbi-groundout and a Peacock error to take the lead back, 2-1. All of a sudden, the game swung back in Bemidji State's favor. But pitching would be the story throughout the majority of the game.
 
From the second to the sixth inning, there were eight hits combined. Peacock pitcher Erin Drahozal and Beaver starter Jessica Yost were outstanding through the innings, scattering hits and getting outs to consistently put up zeros. But everything changed in the seventh.
 
In the top half, Buffington got it started with a one-out infield hit, and the Peacocks were off and running. Kruel singled to right center and Shafranski singled to short to score Buffington to tie the game at two apiece. Sammy Garrett kept the trend going with an rbi-double to right center to score Kruel to give UIU a seventh-inning lead. Walls followed that with a single through the right side to score Shafranski, and all of a sudden the visitors led 4-2 after five straight hits.
 
After a pitching change, Ali Green singled in the infield to load the bases to make it six straight hits. Brennan recorded another run batted in with a fielder's choice to make it 5-2, and UIU thought they had a comfortable lead. However, BSU responded with a rally in the bottom of the seventh.
 
Lexi Derrick homered to left center to cut the Peacock lead to 5-4, but Drahozal worked a pair of groundouts to the circle to cap the game and the first NSIC win of the year for UIU. The win also snapped a 10-game losing streak for the Peacocks.
 
Drahozal went seven strong, allowing four runs on eight hits. Walls led the offense with three hits, while three Peacocks tallied two hits in one of the best offensive performances of the season, totaling 13 hits on the game as a team.