CALDWELL, IDAHO – In the Minot State University baseball team's first road trip of the season, and first four games, the group will return to North Dakota without a win. With a 10-2 loss to the College of Idaho again it was tough pitching that won the game.

With two pitchers splitting the responsibility for the Yotes, they only allowed one earned run throughout nine innings while striking out seven Beaver batters. Conner Oliver (OF, Sr., Dayton, Nev.), the leadoff hitter for MSU, was not one of those seven as he recorded a hit in four of his five plate appearances.

Oliver scored the second run of the day for the Beavers as Jordan Schulz (OF, Jr., Strasbourg, Saskatchewan) double brought him in. Schulz recorded the first run for the team and had two hits and a walk to continue his early season success to total five hits, five runs, two RBIs along with a homerun and a double in the first four games of the season.
Along with Oliver's success head coach Brock Weppler saw a lot of good things from his players.

"We saw some pieces at times getting better," Weppler said. "I thought our starting pitchers did well despite giving up a lot of runs. Now our bullpen has got to come out and believe they can do the job. I think right now some guys are nervous and hoping they can get the job done. We have to try and turn the corner there. Hitters' approaches are starting to improve a little bit. We have to keep improving to drive runs in, but we'll get there."

The ninth-year head coach also said he and his team will most likely look back on this weekend and laugh about how far the team has come from these first four games.

"I told the guys two weeks ago and told them again today that we are going to make the conference tournament. It doesn't matter how we get there. It's important that the guys stay up and stay confident and that we learn from some of the things we didn't do very well. It's important to take some of the positives, but we have to learn from things we struggled with as well."

Minot State will compete again on February 19 in St. George, Utah where they will play a game against St. Martin's University at 12 p.m. and Dixie State University at 4 p.m.

About Minot State
Minot State University is a member of the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) and NCAA Division II offering 14 men's and women's varsity intercollegiate athletics programs. The NSIC is a premier NCAA DII, 16-member conference featuring teams in North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska and Iowa. The Beavers are the only public NCAA Division II institution in the state of North Dakota.