POCATELLO, Idaho – Both teams scored via the long ball as the Vikings split their Big Sky Conference opening doubleheader against the Idaho State Bengals Saturday afternoon in Pocatello, Idaho.  
 
The conference season got off to a rough start for the Vikings (3-19 overall, 1-1 Big Sky) with a 14-0 loss in five innings. They bounced back with a commanding 10-2 win in six innings to even the series. Portland State will go for the series win Sunday against Idaho State. First pitch is slated for 1 p.m. MT.
 
Idaho State (8-14, 1-1) opened league play with a bang. The Bengals took control in both team's league opener with an 11-run bottom of the second inning. They tallied six home runs in the inning off Portland State pitchers en route to the 14-0 victory. ISU held the Vikings to just three hits in game one.
 
They say that you are only as good as you next game's starting pitcher. After having a rough outing in game one, freshman RHP Emma Detamore made the appropriate adjustments and picked up her second win in the last three games and her third complete game in her last six appearances.
 
She held Idaho State to just two runs on five hits in game two of the day. She worked around a career-high five walks and struck out one in the win.
 
The Bengals had the bases loaded in the bottom of the first inning of game two but Detamore induce a fielder's choice to get out of the inning.
 
Freshman DP Alexis Morrison led off the top of the second with a single to left field. She moved to second on a sacrifice bunt. After a groundout and a walk, SheaLee Lindsey drove in Morrison to put the Vikings up 1-0 in the second.
 
Freshman SS Korina Krueg walked and scored on a double by Morrison in the third to put PSU up 2-0. Krueg singled with two outs in the top of the fourth and worked her way around the bases, eventually scoring on a passed ball, to make it a 3-0 game.
 
Hannah Self, pinch hitting with two outs in the top of the fifth, hit her second home run of the season to give the Vikings a 4-0 lead heading to the bottom of the fifth.
 
Detamore surrendered a one-out walk in the bottom of the fifth. Two batters later, the Bengals hit their first and only home run of the game to cut the Vikings lead in half and make it a 4-2 game.
 
Portland State plated six runs in the top of the sixth to take a commanding 10-2 lead. Krueg led off the inning with a single down the left field line. After the next batter lined out to short, Kortney Craker reached on an infield single to third to put two runners on. Morrison cleared the bases with her first career home run, a three-run shot to left field, to put the Vikings up 7-2.
 
Kaela Morrow continued the inning for the Vikings with a bunt single. Tayler Gunesch, pinch hitting, reached on a fielding error by the shortstop to put two runners on. A fly out to left recorded the second out of the inning. Katherine Kramer, also pinch hitting in the inning, doubled to right center, driving in Morrow and Gunesch.
 
Shae Nelson then traded places with Kramer with a double to right center to put the Vikings up 10-2.
 
Detamore set down the Bengals in order in the bottom of the sixth to secure the Vikings' first league win of the year.
 
Morrison had herself a day at the plate. After going 0-for-1 with a hit by pitch in game one, she went 3-for-4 with two runs scored, a double, her first career home run, and a career-high four runs batted in. She improved her batting average to a team-best .382 on the year. She also leads the team with 10 RBIs.
 
Krueg tallied a pair of singles in game two and scored a career-high three runs. Self and Kramer each picked up pinch hits in the game. Self and Morrison gave the Vikings their first multi-home run game of the year.