ST. CLOUD, Minn. -- The No. 16 Augustana baseball team (38-14) continued the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Tournament on Friday afternoon with a victory over number four seed Minot State (33-17) in the second day of action in St. Cloud, Minn. The Vikings led from the first inning on their way to a 9-3 finish and their seventh consecutive win. 

Augustana started the game with Tanner Brown striking out the side in the top half of the first before the Vikings put up two runs in the bottom half of the inning to take a 2-0 lead early on. Riley Johnson contributed an RBI groundout and Jordan Barth hit an RBI single to cap the inning. 

After a scoreless second, the Vikings exploded for four runs in the third inning, highlighted by a Johnson double and an RBI single by Ryan Nickel. Lucas Wylie also drove in a run on a sacrifice bunt after two runs came across on the previous play on an error. 

The Vikings pushed across two more runs in the fourth after a pair of runs by Minot State in the top half. Will Olson drove in both runs of the inning on a two-RBI single. In the sixth inning, Augustana scored another run on a Nate Crossman triple to right center. 

On the mound, Brown was awarded his sixth win of the season as he pitched 6.2 innings with eight strikeouts while surrendering two earned runs. Derek Dahlke came on in relief in the seventh inning with two down after Brown struck out the final batter he faced. Dahlke finished with 1.1 innings of work while allowing one hit. In the ninth, Anthony Lanier took the hill and allowed one hits to finish off the win over the Beavers. 

Next Up

Augustana will take on number three seed St. Cloud State tomorrow at noon in St. Cloud, Minn. at Joe Faber Field. The winner of tomorrow's game advances to the championship.