WATFORD CITY, N.D. – With a pair of stellar pitching outings and power at the dish, the University of Sioux Falls Baseball Team (11-21, 11-11 NSIC) swept a doubleheader from U-Mary, 7-2, 6-2 on Thursday in Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference baseball.

With the sweep of the Marauders (2-30, 0-22 NSIC), the Cougars ran their winning streak to three games and now will play Minot State on Saturday-Sunday, April 21-22 in Minot, N.D. The games with U-Mary and Minot State were originally scheduled to be held in Sioux Falls but weather conditions forced a venue change. As a result, USF played U-Mary at a neutral site field in Watford City, N.D., and will play in Minot this weekend.

Against the Marauders, both redshirt freshman Matt Graham (1-1) and freshman Alex Loosbrock (1-2) pick up their first career wins while the Cougars showed power at the plate with two home runs by Josh Rehwaldt, and one each from Alex Elizondo and Anthony Lopez.

Also for USF, Matthew Minnick of Rapid City had three hits in five at bats with two runs scored. Rehwaldt, a junior first baseman from Burnsville, Minn., finished the doubleheader with three hits, three runs scored and four RBI. Rehwaldt, who pushed his slugging percentage to .681 and on-base mark to .466, recorded two home runs in a game for the first time since Brent Jarvis had two against Dakota Wesleyan in April 3, 2017. It was the first-two home run game for a USF player in NSIC play since Connor Merriam of Rapid City had two long balls against St. Cloud State on March 19, 2017. Rehwaldt, who now has eight home runs this season and 18 in his career (2^nd in USF DII era to Matthew Minnick's 19) now has a team-best 28 RBI and 81 total bases. As for Elizondo, he homered for the first time in his career and recorded his first four-hit game of his career in the game two win.

On the mound, the Cougars allowed just two earned runs and 12 hits in 16 innings against U-Mary. As a result, USF dropped its earned run average to 4.81 overall in 33 games and 3.63 in 22 league games.

"I was very pleased with the work at the plate and on the mound today," said USF head coach Grant Hieb. "After a long road trip, the guys came out ready to play today. We threw it exceptionally well both from our starters and in the bullpen. And, today we brought the power bats, which was great to see. Now we have to use this momentum as we face Minot State, which is third in the league and will be at home," he said.

Game 1 – Sioux Falls 7 U-Mary 2
Led by the power bat of Rehwaldt and a career-best pitching performance from Graham, the Cougars captured game one, 7-2.

In his third start of the season, Graham (1-1) put together his longest outing of his career in earning his first career victory. Graham of Sioux Falls, S.D., allowed just two runs on four hits with three strikeouts in six innings. Sophomore Jackson Olson of worked a scoreless seventh inning in the combined four-hitter.

Rehwaldt, who homered twice in the same game for the first time in his career, had two hits and four RBI to lead the offense. He hit his seventh and eighth home runs of the season, scored three runs, while recording his 15 multi-hit and seven multi-RBI game of the season. Minnick also had a pair of hits for USF.

Rehwaldt started things off with a bang as his seventh home run of the season, a two-run shot also brought home senior third baseman Dylan Gavin, who had walked, for a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning. In the third inning, freshman Gabe Shemwell singled, stole second, advanced to third on a sacrifice by Grant Lung and scored on a wild pitch. The Cougars pushed the lead to 5-1 in the fourth inning. First, Rehwaldt, who walked, scored on a throwing error by the Marauders on a sacrifice bunt by Brent Jarvis.  Then, Minnick, who singled, scored on a safety squeeze by senior Connor Merriam.

U-Mary pushed across single runs in the fifth inning and sixth innings.

Game 2 – Sioux Falls 6 U-Mary 2
In a mirror image of game one, USF received a strong pitching outing from Loosbrock and had two home runs with both Elizondo and Anthony Lopez putting up three-run homers to account for the 6-2 victory.

Elizondo, a freshman from Henderson, Nev., put the Cougars up 3-0 with his first career home run in the bottom of the second inning. Elizondo, who had four hits in the game, plated Brent Jarvis and Lopez, who had reached by walks, with his home run.

U-Mary answered with an unearned run in the fourth inning as Darius Barlas singled to plate Jesus Playan, who had reached by error as the Marauders cut the deficit to 3-1. U-Mary added another unearned run in the fifth inning as Carter Doll's base hit scored Nick McCann and the USF lead was 3-2.

After loading the bases and but unable to add to their lead in the sixth inning, the Cougars had the answer in the seventh inning as Lopez, a senior also from Henderson, Nev., came through. With two out and Rehwaldt on third and Connor Merriam at second base, Lopez deposited a 2-2 pitch over the wall to give USF a 6-2 advantage. For Lopez, it was his first home run of the season and second of his career as he finished the game with two runs scored and three RBIs.

In game two, Loosbrock of Adrian, Minn., had a solid outing, allowing just four hits and two earned runs with six strikeouts in six innings. USF's bullpen locked down the game again as sophomore Jackson Olson of Sioux Falls, freshman Anthony Reese of Las Vegas, Nev., and junior Spencer Dokken of San Roman, Calif., each tossed an inning of scoreless relief. On the day, USF's bullpen threw five scoreless innings, allowing just four hits.