MANKATO, Minn. –Behind a top-notch outing from junior Scott Lieser (Browerville) the nationally ranked St. Cloud State University baseball team will be playing in the NCAA Central Region Championship for the second time in three seasons after eliminating New Mexico Highlands University in a 4-2 win Saturday at Franklin Rodgers Park.

Lieser came in for St. Cloud State starter Nick Maiers (St. Cloud) after one inning and shutdown the Cowboys (41-16) for eight solid innings to help the Huskies (48-13) go to the NCAA Central Region championship after making it back in 2010.

The Huskies will be playing Minnesota State University Mankato, who is undefeated in the tournament at Noon Sunday after the Mavericks handed the Cowboys a 6-2 loss in the first game of the day Saturday.

The Cowboys jumped on the scoreboard in a hurry off Maiers as Derek Ward hit the first pitch of the game over the left field fence to make it a quick 1-0.

The Huskies tied the game up in the bottom of the first as junior Brian Hansen (Cold Spring) sent a bases-loaded single to center for his 57th RBI of the season.

Lieser then came in with runners on second and third and no outs in the second inning and got two strikeouts to get out of the inning clean in relief of Maiers and cruised through the final seven innings off work.

He finished the game with eight strikeouts, while allowing one run on six hits to improve to 10-4 this season after earning a save in the first game of the day.

Senior Joey Benke (Roseau) then delivered a two-out single up the middle to take a 2-1 lead in the second to score freshman Max Ditty (Maple Grove) who reached on an error earlier in the inning.

The Cowboys then tied the game up with two outs in the sixth inning as Thomas King got on base on a single that took a bad hop at third.

He then stole second and scored on a single up the middle from Jordan Falcon to make it 2-2.

Hansen again came through with the bases loaded in the sixth with a single to center to score Imholte to make it 3-2 before the Huskies added another insurance run in the eighth on a RBI single from freshman Mike Jurgella (Plover, Wis.) to end the scoring in the game.

Hansen finished the game 3-for-4 with two RBI and a runs scored from the cleanup spot to spark the Huskies who had 15 hits in the game.

Benke went 2-for-3 with a RBI and sophomore Garrett Fischer (New Ulm) had his fourth multi-hit game of the tournament in a 3-for-5 game.