WAYNE, Neb. – The Beavers will hit the road once again, this time as the host away from home.
The Minot State baseball team announced that its home debut will not happen at Corbett Field this weekend because of recent snow, and more possible snow in the forecast, and instead the Beavers will be the home team against Wayne State playing their four-game NSIC series in Nebraska on Friday and Saturday.
The two teams will play a doubleheader Friday starting at 1:30 p.m. at Graves Park in Wakefield, Nebraska, then play a second doubleheader Saturday starting at 11:30 a.m. on the Wayne State campus.
Minot State (8-13 overall, 5-6 NSIC) will be the home team for all four games.
The Beavers will look to build off the momentum they started to create with a 10-5 win over Southwest Minnesota State last Friday in Nebraska.
Grant Gabbert led the way with a pair of hits and two RBIs in that win and has been one of the Beavers leaders all season as he's hitting .329 with 3 home runs and 15 RBIs.
Ricky Apodaca added a base knock in Friday's win and has been hot all season long as he leads the NSIC with his .500 (27-of-54) batting average. Apodaca also has a team-high 22 RBIs.
Also having a big impact offensively has been
Brian Parry who had a pair of hits and an RBI in the win over Southwest Minnesota State and is hitting .411 with a Beaver-best 20 runs scored.
The key will be getting quality starts on the hill for Minot State, though, as the Beaver pitchers dominated winning 3-of-4 against Winona State to start the month, but lost some of that momentum last weekend against the Mustangs.
Reliever
Cameron Bagshaw leads the Beavers in wins with a 2-0 record and in ERA among double-digit inning pitchers at 2.03, while
Jonah Prokott has been one of Minot State's best starters with a 1-0 record, a 4.94 ERA, and 21 strikeouts.
Minot State battles a tough Wayne State team that the Beavers have had plenty of success against recently, winning 7 of the teams' last 8 meetings, with the lone setback a 13-12 loss in 10 innings in the teams' last head-to-head contest.
But this season, the Wildcats (13-7, 8-2) are a strong NSIC title contender as they are one game back of league-leading Augustana and took 3-for-4 from Minnesota Crookston, which was a preseason title contender, as well.
Sophomore outfielder Carter Thomas is right behind the Beavers' Apodaca as he's No. 2 in the NSIC hitting .464 with 13 RBIs this season, while the Wildcats are led on the hill like Minot State, by their bullpen and junior reliever Alex Calabrese who is 2-0 with a 0.00 ERA in five relief appearances.
As a staff, though, Wayne State has been tough on foes leading to that 13-7 record as the team has a 4.50 ERA and 169 strikeouts in 162 innings.
