POTSDAM, N.Y . – The SUNY Potsdam softball team coupled a pair of fine pitching performances with timely hitting Tuesday, sweeping North Country rival St. Lawrence in a non-conference doubleheader at Maxcy Hall softball field.

The Bears (9-16 overall) won the first game 5-2 before claiming an 8-3 triumph in the nightcap. The victories snapped an eight-game losing streak.

“Yesterday we sat down and had a heart-to-heart with the team about what was going wrong and what they wanted, and that translated into today’s performance, one of the most complete we’ve had this year,” Potsdam coach Shannon Dillabough said. “We were good offensively and defensively, we ran the bases well and we had good approaches at the plate. When you play like that you’re going to win.”

Junior pitcher Brittany Pawlowski (West Seneca, N.Y.) starred in the first game for the Bears, allowing just one earned run in a complete-game effort and teeing off for three hits, two runs scored and four runs batted in.

Potsdam scored four runs over the first three innings and didn’t look back, as the Saints (8-12) left nine on base.

After hitting a towering home run to left center in the bottom of the fifth, Pawlowski (4-7) ran into trouble in the top of the sixth with runners on second and third and nobody out with a run already in. After forcing a groundout, Pawlowski struck out two of the final three batters in the frame to escape with no further damage.

“Brittany looked the best she’s looked in maybe a year,” Dillabough said. “She mixed speeds and hit her spots, and she hit everything offensively. She just had a complete all-around day.”

Six other Potsdam players registered one hit each for the Bears, including junior Heidi Grebinger (Bellmore, N.Y.), who plated Pawlowski in the bottom of the third with a single off the glove of SLU third baseman Leslie Stratton.

In Game 2, Pawlowski, Grebinger and senior Jessica Brower (Staten Island, N.Y.) registered two hits apiece for Potsdam, which pounded out 15 hits in the game and scored three runs in the bottom of the second to take the lead for good.

Freshman pitcher Ashley Thayer (Winthrop, N.Y.) worked all seven innings for her fifth victory of the season, scattering five hits and two walks while striking out four. Thayer was also 1-for-4 at the plate with a pair of RBIs.

Grebinger led the team with three RBIs, while Brower, senior Susie Garrett (Queens Village, N.Y.) and sophomore Amanda Perry (South Glens Falls, N.Y.) also had run-scoring hits.

The Bears return to State University of New York Athletic Conference play this Friday at Geneseo. The doubleheader is slated to begin at 3 p.m.