Duluth, Minn- The University of Minnesota Duluth softball team did some more spring cleaning on Saturday with a sweep of Upper Iowa, defeating the Peacocks 9-0 in five innings before doing it again by a score of 10-4 in a game called after five frames due to weather. This secured UMD a sweep of its homecoming weekend, as it also defeated Winona State twice on Friday. The Bulldogs, winners of five-straight, now hold an impressive overall record of 29-8 and an NSIC mark of 15-3. 

Get hot, stay hot. 

It's a phrase that applied to the Bulldogs in both facets of the sport in game one. Lauren Dixon, who let up no runs and just four hits across nine innings in two appearances against Winona State on Friday, picked up right where she left up on Saturday. A quick 1-2-3 first frame sent the Bulldog bats up to the plate. This is a group that tallied 16 total runs and four homers on Friday- needless to say, they were in a good place. That translated into success on Saturday rather quickly- a two-out solo shot from Kendal Jenkins, her third homer of the season, opened the scoring in this one and gave UMD a 1-0 lead.

The Peacocks would threaten to do more than just tie things up in the top of the second, as they were able to load the bases. The only problem- there were two outs by that point. A solid position, but not a lot of room for error. Something like a fly out to in the inning, for example, which is exactly what Dixon and company were able to achieve.

Due up once again was the Bulldog offense, a group now operating at a clip of five homers in its last three games with more innings in-hand to try to add to that total. In the bottom of the second, Elle Potts would push the average to two home runs a game in this span. A two-run moonshot from the junior infielder extended UMD's lead to 3-0 going into the third frame. 

Defense quickly led to an opportunity for more offense, as a Dixon strikeout for out number two of the frame immediately led to a Sidney Zavoral pickoff at second. For a Bulldog group that had already made the most of its opportunities at the dish so far, the bottom of the third proved to be a magnum opus. Speaking of defense to offense, it started with a Zavoral single that brought home Corrie Weise to make it 4-0. Kat Burkhardt then brought in both Jenkins and Zavoral to make it 6-0. UMD had already doubled its advantage, but it wasn't done yet. Who else would it be but Potts to crush a massive double that'd bring home Julia Gronholz and Burkhardt to make it 8-0. Finally, Nicole Schmitt securing a double of her own and scoring Potts finished the work on tripling the score the Bulldogs had entered the inning with, leaving UMD with a 9-0 hold.  

Dixon wasn't done, either. The junior struck out two of the three batters she faced in the top of the fourth to put the Bulldogs within an inning of wrapping things up if they could maintain an 8-run lead. Dixon had almost escaped that fourth frame without letting a Peacock make any kind of plays left contact on the ball. In the fifth? She'd get rid of that "almost." The NSIC Preseason Pitcher of the Year racked off three-straight K's to secure the Bulldogs a 9-0 run-rule victory in game one. 

Another day, another impressive Dixon statline. The junior allowed just two hits and two walks while tallying 10 strikeouts across five innings and 80 pitches of work. So many names that could be mentioned offensively, but two come to mind immediately. Both Burkhardt and Potts closed game one having gone 2-3 from the dish with two runs to their name. Potts recorded a team-high four RBIs, with Burkhardt tallying two.

If you've been keeping score at home, across three full games to this point, the Bulldogs had yet to trail this weekend. In fact, it'd been five games since they'd been on the wrong side of a lead dating back to their 4-2 win against Bemidji State. That's quite the streak, but it was never going to last forever. Right at the top of the first inning of game two against the Peacocks, Samantha Jessie dialed up a double that scored a run to give UIU the early advantage. 

It's a status that lasted all of about half an inning. In the bottom of the opening frame, UMD's bats snagged the lead right back. With two outs on the board, Burkhardt smacked a double that scored both Bender and Weise to leave the score at 2-1 Bulldogs. The second inning ended up ringing in a moment of stalemate, though, as an Ari Charles single scored another run for the Peacocks to even the game at 2-2.  That tie lasted about as long as UIU's lead. UMD immediately broke the draw in the bottom of the second- and it did so with more power hitting. More power hitting from Potts, to be exact, who smashed out her second homer of the day to make it 3-2 Bulldogs. A Corrie Weise single would score an insurance run in the form of Schmitt for good measure to leave UMD's lead at 4-2 heading into the third. 

The frame started with a mighty effort from Mady Stariha, who snagged outs on each of the three batters she saw. This left the Bulldogs with an opportunity to further build upon their newfound lead. Boy… did they do just that. Inning number three proved to be a sweet spot for UMD across both of the day's games. This time around, the Bulldogs started things off with a bang. Gronholz crushed her very first homer of the season- a big one, as it scored three total runs to push UMD's lead up to five at 7-2. From there, the Bulldog scoring blitz continued. A Bender groundout brought in Schmitt to make it 8-2. Down to their final out, the Bulldogs would put up two more- and in unconventional fashion. On the very same at bat, both Meier and Weise stole home off of wild pitches. Just one of those days for the 'dogs, it seems. All told, UMD entered the fourth frame with a 10-2 grip over this one.

Then, mother nature started to steal the spotlight. It'd been a rainy one all day to this point, but in the fourth inning, the cumulative effects of that dreary weather really reached an apex. Discussions ultimately landed the game in a brief rain delay. That seemed to have sparked something in the Peacocks, because they spent their next two attempts at the plate doubling their score. UIU runs in both the fourth and fifth left the score at 10-4 Bulldogs with UMD again due up to bat. It seemed like this one was destined to go further than five innings, as the Bulldogs fell down to their last out. Bender smacked a double that might have served as a spark… had the game continued. Yet another meeting of the minds was conducted down on the field with umps and coaches. Ultimately, after some more waiting, this break led to a different result. After nearly five complete innings, the game was called due to weather. Hey, they all count the same- make it a 10-4 UMD victory.

Two Bulldogs to highlight from another hit-happy game are Schmitt, who closed going 2-3 from the plate with two runs scored, and Gronholz with her three RBIs. At the hill, Stariha closed with four runs, six hits and three walks allowed across five innings and 94 pitches in her win.