BRANDON, S.D. – It's tournament time and the Beavers are ready to roll.

The Minot State baseball team heads into the eight-team NSIC Tournament today as the No. 4 seed and plays fifth-seeded Winona State at noon at the First National Bank Field at Aspen Park in Brandon, South Dakota. CLICK TO WATCH THE GAME

The meeting is the fourth this season between the two teams with the Warriors (16-21 overall) rallying to steal a 4-3 win in the teams' first contest before Minot State rolled to 7-1 and 14-1 victories over Winona State at the end of March in Minnesota.

"We pitched it really well and played pretty good defense until the last couple innings," Minot State coach Scott Eul said of the team's previous meetings, highlighting game one. "That recipe will be the same.

"They have a couple good arms so we need to battle at-bats out and find ways to score runs," Eul added.

Not a problem in their previous meeting as Minot State hit .337 and averaged 8 runs a game against the Warriors.

Plus, Minot State will look to junior left-hander Ricky Apodaca to enjoy the same success on the mound as he had in his previous start against the Warriors when he threw eight innings of two-hit ball, striking out 12 in the 7-1 win.

"We are excited for Ricky to be on the mound for us and if we can play clean defense we are in good shape," Eul said.

Of course, it's tournament time when nothing can be taken for granted and the outcome on the field during the regular season doesn't necessarily have an impact at this time of year.

But then the Beavers have successfully battled through a very tough regular season, as well, as they head into the tournament after playing just 10 of their 47 games at home yet still racked up an impressive 26-21 overall record that included a sweep of NSIC regular-season and then 17^th-ranked Augustana.

"I think the guys are ready," Eul said of tournament time. "We've had some ups and downs this year and tourney time always gives you that chance to 'reset'!"

While Apodaca gets the nod on the hill, leading the way at the plate for a prolific Minot State offense that hit .296 with an NSIC second-best 53 home runs will be seven .300-plus hitters including senior infielder Declan Buckle (.367), junior infielder Kaiden Cardoso (.361), senior outfielder Jordan Williams (.351), junior DH Apodaca (.339), senior infielder Blake Gallagher (.316), and sophomore outfielder Kellen Peat (.316). Buckle also was second on the team with eight home runs and No. 3 with 36 RBIs, second only to senior outfielder Drew Behling in dingers as Behling hit .287 with 12 homers and 40 RBIs, while Cardoso led the way in RBIs with 45, and also added four homers.

As for the Warriors, junior catcher Dane Weiland went 4-for-8 with three RBIs and senior outfielder Carter Brinkman was 4-for-9 with two RBIs and a home run in the series against the Beavers. They led the way all season along with teammate freshman infielder Joshua Hawksford. Brinkman hit .307 with four homers and 26 RBIs, the lone Winona State player hitting above the .300 mark, while Hawksford hit .295 with two homers and seven RBIs, and Weiland hit .284 with three homers and 20 RBIs.

Senior lefty Nicolas Herold was one of the top two starters for the Warriors on the year and he earned the win in the series against Minot State, striking out nine in six innings work. He finished the season 4-1 with a 4.25 ERA, while senior righty Kyle Gendron was the other top started for Winona State as he was 3-1 on the season with a 4.03 ERA. Gendron did not pitch against Minot State.

Minot State hopes that Wednesday's battle with the Warriors starts a long and successful run at the NSIC Tournament, a run that concludes with an NSIC Championship and an automatic berth to the NCAA National Tournament.

With a win, the Beavers would potentially face Augustana in the second round on Thursday, but the Beavers aren't looking past game one and remained focused on themselves and playing their game no matter the opponent.

"Do the little things we have talked about all year," Eul highlighted as key to victory. "We know we can pitch it; we know we can swing it. We have just gotten in our own way too often this year.

"Do the little things and we will be ok."