ST. CLOUD, Minn. – No. 5 seed Southwest Minnesota State kept its season alive on Thursday afternoon earning a 13-2 victory over No. 6 seed Wayne State in an elimination game at the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Tournament in St. Cloud, Minn.

SMSU's Andrew Kinney snapped a 2-2 game in the bottom of the seventh with a one-out home run over the right field wall.  The homer sparked the offense as the Mustangs added four more runs in the inning and then put the game away with a six-run eighth inning.

SMSU, which is ranked No. 8 in this week's NCAA Central Region rankings, finished the game with 20 hits.  The Mustangs will continue action at 3:30 p.m. on Friday afternoon versus No. 3 seed St. Cloud State. 

Tyler Fayden finished 4 for 6 with three RBIs and three runs scored to help pace SMSU, while Derick Swenson, Cody Curry and Matt Bauer all collected three hits.  Tyler Jendro also added two hits and two RBIs.

Jared Pick picked up the victory in relief, after working out of a bases loaded, one-out jam in the top of the seventh.  Brad Haag started for SMSU and worked 6.1 innings, allowing nine hits and four walk, but gave up just two runs, one earned, while striking out three.

SMSU opened the scoring in the bottom of the second as Fayden led off with a single and scored a batter later on a double to right-center by Brian Ness.

WSC answered back in the top of the third scoring an unearned run to tie the game a 1-1.

The Mustangs put together a threat in the third with Cody Curry and Derick Swenson starting the inning with back-to-back singles, but Wildcat starter Austen Wisroth, struck out both Andrew Kinney and Matt Bauer and then ended the inning on a pop out by Fayden.

The Wildcats took the lead in the fourth putting together three singles to take a 2-1 lead and held that advantage into the fifth inning.  WSC loaded the bases in the fifth and looked to add to its lead, but Haag induced a ground out with the bases loaded to keep the deficit at 2-1.

SMSU took the momentum and tied the game in the bottom half of the inning with a two-out rally.  With a runner on first and two outs, Bauer singled to left-center, moving Swenson to third base.  Fayden delivered a clutch two-out single to score Swenson and tie the game at 2-2.

The game remained 2-2 until the seventh when WSC recorded back-to-back one-out singles to put runners on first and second.  Pick then entered the game and promptly hit the first batter he faced to load the bases.  Pick held strong and worked out of the jam, recording a strikeout and ground out to keep the game tied.

Following Kinney's homer in the seventh, SMSU added three more hits and took advantage of two walks and a hit by pitch to score four more runs.  Fayden drilled an RBI single to make it 4-2, before Chris Eichten was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to plate another run.  Bobby Zellman walked to force in another run, before Curry closed the scoring with a sac fly.

SMSU then put the game away with six runs on seven hits in the bottom of the eighth.

The victory for SMSU was just its third over Wayne State since 2006, with WSC winning 15 of the last 17 meetings between the programs.

Wayne State ends its season with a record of 26-23.