MINOT, N.D. – Less than 12 hours after a late-night doubleheader split with U-Mary in the Air-Supported Dome against U-Mary, the No. 16 ranked Augustana softball team played to another split with host Minot State, winning the opener 4-0, before falling 6-3 in the nightcap.
 
The split sends the Vikings home with a 26-8 overall record and an 8-2 mark in the NSIC, while the Beavers end the day with an 18-13 mark, and an even 5-5 record in conference play.
 
Freshman Ashley Mickschl tossed a complete-game shutout in the opener to improve to 11-3 on the season. She scattered five hits, walked five and struckout six to earn the win, and got all the offense she needed off of one swing of the bat from Christina Pickett in the third inning.
 
Scoreless into the third, Picket smacked a ground-rule double down the left field line, scoring Shannon Petersen and Maggie Kadrlik to stake the Vikings to a 2-0 lead.
 
Kadrlik opened the Augustana fifth with a double to the gap in left center, and then scored later in the inning when Pickett tripled to right field for a 3-0 Vikings lead, a lead that reached 4-0 in the seventh on a Morgan Beaner RBI single for the game's final run.
 
The Vikings struck first in the nightcap when Petersen started the second inning with a solo shot to centerfield. Later in the inning, Samantha Eisenreich hit a sacrifice fly to score Pickett from third base for a 2-0 lead.
 
The Beavers got one back in the bottom of the frame, and then erupted for five runs in the fifth to take a commanding 6-2 lead, and even though Beaner hit an RBI ground-rule double in the top of the sixth to cut the lead to 6-3, they would get no closer, as the Vikings went down in order in the bottom of the seventh to secure the Beavers win.
 
The Vikings look to bounce back on Wednesday, when they return home to host Southwest Minnesota State in a doubleheader at Bowden Field, with first pitch schedule for 3 p.m.