Minot State took advantage of 10 walks, two hit batters and three Wayne State errors to take down the Wildcats 12-4 Thursday afternoon in the opening round of the NSIC Baseball Tournament in St. Cloud, Minn.
Wayne State opened the scoring in the top of the first on a Kyle Thompson two-out solo homer over the left field wall for a 1-0 lead. Minot State scored twice in the bottom of the frame without a hit, using two walks and two hit batters along with a sacrifice fly to take a 2-1 lead.
The Wildcats evened the contest at 2-2 in the top of the second when Andrew Hanson doubled and scored on a Travis Miller RBI groundout, but the Beavers countered with a two-run homer in the third to take the lead for good.
Wayne State got within a run in the top of the fifth at 4-3 thanks to doubles from Alex Logelin and Bryce Bisenius, but Minot State followed with three runs in the bottom of the inning and broke it open with five more in the eighth.
Minot State then took control of the game with three runs in the bottom of the fifth on two hits to go with three Wildcat walks and broke the game open with five runs in the bottom of the eighth for a 12-3 lead. Logelin hit a solo homer in the ninth to close out the scoring.
Wayne State had one more hit in the game than Minot State 9-8. Logelin finished the game 3-for-4 with a homer, double and two runs scored while Hanson was 2-for-3 with a double and run scored. Thompson had a solo homer while Bisenius doubled for other Wildcat extra base hits.
Hunter Wienhoff (8-3) suffered the pitching loss, charged with six runs (all earned) on three hits with six strikeouts and three walks. Aaron Ras, Lawson Zenner and Josh Renken each worked in relief.
The Wildcats (32-17) face Winona State, a 4-1 loser to Augustana, in an elimination game Friday at 11 a.m.
