If the Jacks felt like their bats betrayed them in the 10 prior losses before Friday’s doubleheader, they need not blame them anymore.

The SDSU softball team picked up some hitting to defeat the Coyotes in game one of the doubleheader, 8-4 and then finishing off their southern in-state rival, South Dakota, with a 1-0 win in front of 173 fans at Jackrabbits Softball Stadium Friday afternoon. SDSU is now at 6-16 for the season with the pair of victories, their first two wins in the Summit League in 2012, as well.

SDSU had seven hits in the first game of the afternoon, including home runs from Morgan McCabe and Krista Honken, a rare power surge from a team that carried four home runs for the season entering Friday. The Jackrabbits got a solid performance from Kori Seidlitz, who relinquished four runs on two home runs to the Coyotes. However, those were the only USD hits of the game and the Jackrabbits’ junior pitcher delivered eight strikeouts to negate her six walks.

“We’re excited to be at home and playing on our home field. We really took advantage of being out here in the sunshine and having our home crowd here and cheer us on. We knew we were playing a rival and that they were going to give us two good games and we stepped it up,” SDSU head coach Kim Aggabao said of the win, her first at home as the Jacks’ head coach.

The second game’s only run arrived home when shortstop Kelly Kleppin doubled in Honken and Pam Nicholson’s six-hit shutout held up with some solid defense to give the Jacks an afternoon sweep in their home debut. The defense was best exemplified in the seventh inning when Morgan Hancock hit a single to right and tried to stretch it into two bases but to no avail when Honken’s throw to Kleppin was on target for the tag and the rally-stifling out.

“I felt that every pitch I was throwing was going to be a strike and I got a lot of help from my defense,” Nicholson said. “It was just a good day to be pitching out there.”

SDSU hosts USD in the series finale at noon on Saturday.

“We’ve been playing well as of late and our girls have been building off of our positives. It’s good to get these games in and we can finish it off on a good note tomorrow,” Aggabao said.