HILLSBORO, Ore. – The Vikings earned their first Big Sky Conference series win with a doubleheader sweep of Northern Colorado Friday afternoon at the Gordon Faber Recreation Complex in Hillsboro, Ore.
 
Portland State (5-20 overall, 3-2 Big Sky) took the first game of the day, 2-0, behind a complete game shutout performance by freshman RHP Emma Detamore. Sophomore RHP Alyssa Burk picked up right where Detamore left off in game two, leading the Vikings to a 7-2 victory to take the series.
 
"We got quality pitching from both of our starters today," first-year Head Coach Meadow McWhorter said following the doubleheader sweep. "Emma came out and fought through a very tough moment at the beginning of game one. That really solidified the rest of the game for her as she found a good grove. Alyssa came in and used her tools effectively and battled through some tough moments of her own."
 
The duo of Detamore and Burk combined for a 1.00 ERA between the two games. They allowed just two earned runs on seven hits while striking out a combined 15 batters. They held a good hitting Northern Colorado (13-23, 1-4) squad to just a .149 (7-for-47) average at the plate.
 
Offensively, the Vikings hit .358, going 19-for-53. They did it with small ball. They had only one extra-base hit, a double to the left center gap by Kortney Craker in game two. They forced Northern Colorado to make plays all day long. Portland State recorded three sacrifice bunts on the day and went 3-for-3 in stolen bases. PSU also forced three UNC errors, which led to five unearned runs.
 
"I was really proud of our offense because Northern Colorado has quality pitching," McWhorter added. "We did a good job of hitting it where it was pitched, we didn't try to do too much with it. We had some good situational hitting where we hit behind runners as well."
 
The Vikings went 10-for-27 with runners in scoring position in the game and 8-for-18 with two outs, which included six two-out RBIs. Conversely, UNC went 0-for-13 with runners in scoring position and just 1-for-14 with two outs. The Bears successfully advanced runners just four times in 21 tries, while PSU moved runners 20 times in 40 tries.
 
Senior Shae Nelson had a big day for the Vikings, going 6-for-7 (.857) at the plate with a run scored and two RBIs. She went 2-for-3 in the first game before going a perfect 4-for-4 in game two for her second four-hit game of the year.
 
Senior Celena Carrisosa went 4-for-5 at the plate with a pair of runs scored along with her first RBI of the season. Freshman Tayler Gunesch went 3-for-6 at the plate with a run scored and a run driven in for PSU.
 
Northern Colorado looked like it was going to break things open in the top of the first inning in game one. After a leadoff single, the Bears worked back-to-back walks off Detamore. McWhorter took a trip to the mound and had some words with her freshman pitcher which seemed to calm things down. Detamore struck out the next two batters before inducing a popup to the shortstop to get out of the inning.
 
Detamore settled down after the first inning and gave up just one more hit over the next six innings. She retired the final 15 batters of the game to earn her first complete game shutout. She allowed just two hits, a single and a double to Northern Colorado's Erica Dick, and walked just two. She stuck out a career-high nine batters in the game, her previous high was four against DePaul at the beginning of the month.
 
The Vikings took advantage of an error in the bottom of the second inning and plated the only runs of the game. Craker reached on a throwing error by the Northern Colorado third baseman to lead off the bottom of the second. She moved to second on a wild pitch and then to third on a groundout. Carrisosa reached on a singled to the third baseman but move to second when Craker strayed off third base and got caught in a rundown. Craker made it back safely, which put two runners in scoring position for SheaLee Lindsey. She singled up the middle, driving in both runners, to put the Vikings up 2-0.
 
The Vikings threated with runners in scoring position in the third but were unable to plate any more runs. It would not matter, as Detamore closed out the victory for the Vikings in game one.
 
Portland State took advantage of two errors in the bottom of the third inning of game two to take a 3-0 lead. Nelson led off the inning with an infield single. The next two batters, both attempting sacrifice bunts, reached on back-to-back errors by the Bears, plating the Vikings' first run of the game in the process. Two batters later, Kaela Morrow singled up the middle, driving in both Korina Krueg and Marissa Bruno to put the Vikings up 3-0.
 
Carrisosa singled and scored in the bottom of the fourth to make it a 4-0 game.
 
Burk, who started game two, allowed just three base runners, all walks, heading into the top of the fifth inning. She gave up her first hit of the game, a double to left field to lead off the inning. She got the next two batters out before a hit batter and a walk loaded the bases. She gave up a bases-loaded walk to put the Bears on the board but came back and struck out the next batter to get out of the inning.
 
Portland State answered with a pair of runs in the bottom of the fifth when both Craker and Gunesch reached and scored to make it a 6-1 game at the end of five.
 
Each team scored a run in the sixth, making it a 7-2 game heading to the top of the seventh.
 
Burk got the leadoff batter to pop out to the shortstop for the first out. The next batter singled and then stole second to put a runner in scoring position. The runner at second attempted to steal third on a ball in the dirt but Morrow threw her out at third for the second out. After a single to right field, Burk struck out the final batter of the game to secure the Vikings first Big Sky series win of the year.
 
Burk allowed just two runs on five hits over a complete seven innings. She walked five but struck out six batters to pick up her second win of the year.
 
The Vikings will go for the sweep of the Bears Saturday in the series finale. First pitch is slated for 12 p.m. PT.