THIS WEEK: Minot State earned its first-ever NSIC Baseball Tournament bid and will carry the No. 5 seed into this week's tournament. The Beavers open with No. 4 seed Wayne State College – one of the hottest teams in the NSIC – in the opening round Wednesday starting at 12:30 p.m. at Dick Putz Field in St. Cloud, Minn.

RECORDS: The Beavers finished fifth in the Northern Sun with a 23-17 conference record and set an overall school record with 28 wins, going 28-20 overall. WSC finished 23-15 for fourth and is 28-22 overall. 

COACHES CORNER: Scott Eul is in his first season as head coach of the baseball program at Minot State and is 28-20 in his young career. Eul joins MSU after spending the past two seasons helping build St. Cloud State into a national powerhouse. WSC's head coach is Alex Koch who is 70-74 in his third season with the Wildcats.

RANKINGS: Minot State and Wayne State were not ranked in latest National Collegiate Baseball Writers' Association Division II National poll. Minnesota State and St. Cloud State were the only NSIC teams in the NCAA Division II Central Region poll, coming in at No. 2 and 3 respectively.

RECENT HISTORY: Minot State finsihed off the regular season with three wins at Upper Iowa to set a school record for wins in a season with 28. The Beavers lost game 1, but rebounded by scoring 10 runs in each of the next two games, winning 10-0 and 10-1. The 10-0 win was the Beavers fifth shutout win of the season. MSU needed 12 innings in the regular-season finale winning 7-6. WSC also won 3 for 4 to end the season, falling in game 1 against Sioux Falls before winning its final three. 

ALL-TIME AT A GLANCE: Minot State closed the gap with Wayne State winning three of four at WSC earlier this season, but trail the all-time series 11-7.

LAST TIME OUT: Minot State took three of four from Wayne State College in the NSIC opener winning the first three games of the series. MSU won 7-3 and 11-1 on day 1 and ran it's season-long win streak to five games with a 9-5 win on day 2 before dropping a 15-1 decision in the finale. Beavers sophomore Michael Borst finished with seven runs batted in over the series.

NOTING THE WILDCATS: Wayne State College steadily climbed the NSIC ladder all season to finish fourth overall winning 16 of its final 20 games… WSC's Jackson Petersen had as solid year, hitting .374 with eight doubles, two home runs and 20 RBI… Aaron Krier smacked a team-leading 10 home runs… Tanner Simmons drove in 39 runs and had 12 doubles… David Janes (.363) and Cody Jenkins (.341) joined Petersen hitting over .300… Kyle Kennebeck was 1-0 with nine saves in 23 appearances, sporting a solid 1.35 ERA… Keenan Breen paced the Wildcats with a 7-1 record and finished with a 2.61 ERA.

HARDWARE FOR SCHULZ: Jordan Schulz added two pieces of postseason hardware to his collection as the senior was named to the All-NSIC First Team and earned the 2017 NSIC Gold Glove award. He is the first Beaver baseball player to earn first-team honors and is just the second NSIC Gold Glove winner. Schulz led the Beavers with a .375 batting average, tied for sixth in the league in hitting. His .479 on-base percentage ranked fourth in the NSIC and his slugging percentage of .601 is eighth overall. He tied for second in the NSIC in doubles with 17 and is tied for fifth in triples with three.

BORST RECOGNIZED BY NSIC: MSU sophomore Michael Borst joined Schulz on the All-NSIC team, earning second-team honors. He broke the school record and finished tied for second in the league in runs batted in with 57. He batted .359 on the season, second on the team, and tied for the team lead with six home runs. Along with his HR total, he finished with 10 doubles and three triples for 19 extra base hits.

VERSATILE DEMARY: Junior Justin Demary proved to be one of the most versatile MSU players in 2017, finishing second on the team in wins (5) and third in ERA (3.36) on the mound and was sixth overall in batting average (.299) with 11 doubles at the plate. Demary also recorded a save and was 11 for 13 in stolen bases on the season. 

BY THE NUMBERS

2.02: ERA for Wyatt Moore to lead the Beavers. Moore finished the regular season with a 2-0 record with save, allowing just 12 runs – six earned runs – in 26.2 innings pitched in eight appearances. He struck out 15 batters in those eight appearances.

6: Wins on the hill for senior Tanner Alexander to lead the Beavers. Alexander was the team's workhorse with 75.1 innings pitched in 12 appearances and 11 starts. He finished with six complete games.

13: Doubles for Wyatt Schlosser to finish second on the team while batting .312 on the season.