Upper Iowa improved to 4-3 at Robertson Woods Field this season with a double header sweep over Bemidji State University by scores of 4-0 and 19-2. The Peacocks are now 6-18 overall and 4-9 in the Northern Sun Conference, while the Beavers fall to 4-23 overall and 1-12 in the conference. BSU was the home team in the two games in Fayette due to a site reversal away from Bemidji, Minn.
 
The Peacocks won game one behind timely hitting and a great performance on the mound by starter Colin Lacey. The southpaw threw 6.2 innings for the win improving to 3-2 on the season and posted a new high-mark for strikeouts in a game this season with nine. Lacey and Marhefke, who got the final out with a strikeout with the bases loaded for a save, teamed up for the second time this season to register a shutout. Lacey scattered three hits and four walks to get through his 26 batters.
 
UIU scored a run in the first frame when Ryan Hull scampered home on a wild pitch. After Samuel Grushkin hit a monster home run to left in the fourth inning, Cael Luzum crossed the plate on a dropped fly ball in left field to push Upper Iowa's lead to 3-0. The Peacocks' final run of the game came in the sixth inning when Luzum doubled and then came home when Nicolas Vite singled to right center.
 
Both Hull and Grushkin each tallied a pair of hits to combine for half of UIU's hits in the game.
 
Isaiah Biehn (0-2) took the loss after allowing four runs, three earned, on seven hits over his six innings of work. At the plate, Sam Kalberer picked up two of BSU's three hits in the game including a double in his first at bat.
 
In the second game, the Peacock bats came alive and recorded 19 runs on 14 hits. The 19 runs set a new season-high for runs in a game and the seven-inning decision marked the third time in the last week and a half that UIU has posted a 10-run (or more) victory to shut a nine-inning game down early.
 
The Peacocks scored six runs in the first after Hull got it all started with a double to the wall in left centerfield. Vite drove in a run with a single, while Tanner Stein plated two Peacocks with a single. The other three runs in the frame scored on a bases-loaded balk and a pair of errors.
 
Upper Iowa added four more in the second inning when Stein singled with the bases loaded and then Luzum cleared the bases with a three-run double to push UIU's lead to 10-0.
 
Bemidji State scored a pair of unearned runs in the bottom of the second on a miscue in the outfield by Upper Iowa, but UIU was able to minimize the damage and stay ahead 10-2.
 
In the fifth inning, Hull singled to send Stein to the plate and then later scored, along with Vite, on a two-run single to center by Ethan Sawyer. Kainoa Torres followed with another single to center to chase Jake Hilmer home.
 
Upper Iowa's final five runs all came in the seventh inning when Hilmer doubled to left field and brought Hull to the dish. Three batters later, the bases were loaded for Grushkin. The Peacock third baseman unloaded on a pitch and launched a grand slam over the fence in right for his second longball of the day.
 
Hull recorded three hits in the game, while Sawyer, Torres, Stein and Luzum all had two hits for UIU. Grushkin ended the game with his four RBI, while both Luzum and Stein had three RBI apiece.
 
Nicholas Pica got a no-decision after starting and going 3.2 innings allowing the two unearned runs on two hits and four walks, while Jason Katz (2-0) earned the win with 2.1 innings of relief with two strikeouts. Braden Albert came on to clean up the seventh inning grabbing a strikeout in his three outs. Katz and Albert did not allow a run or hit in their time on the hill.
 
Parker Borg (0-2) took the loss for BSU with six runs allowed, four earned, on three hits and two walks in just one-third of an inning.
 
The Peacocks will now take some time to rest up before heading out on the road for a weekend series at the University of Mary on Saturday and Sunday, Apr. 9-10, in Bismarck, N.D.