Parker Cotton/The Dickinson Press Minot second baseman Eli Stewart flips a ball to first base to force out Fargo Post 2's Jimmy Reynolds on Sunday during the North Dakota Class AA American Legion State Baseball Tournament at Ardean Aafedt Stadium.

WILLISTON — Fargo Post 2 wanted a repeat of 2015 and 2016.

To make that happen, it couldn’t have a repeat of 24 hours prior.

After losing to Minot 10-8 on Saturday evening, Fargo watched the Vistas take down West Fargo 10-0 in a noon matchup on Sunday, earning the right to face Fargo for the third time in the North Dakota Class AA American Legion State Baseball Tournament at Ardean Aafedt Stadium.

It served as a rubber match – Fargo had taken a 2-1 late-night decision on a rain-delayed Thursday, and Minot answered with Saturday’s victory. Fargo Post 2 earned the last laugh, however, claiming a 5-2 win and its third straight – and 26th overall – state title. Fargo advances to next week’s Central Plains Regional, held in Dickinson.

“They got us in some early jams, and we survived,” Fargo head coach Luke Rustad said. “They hit their way into situations and put us behind the 8-ball early, and for us to withstand that and make pitches when we needed to make them, field the ball when it was hit at us, throw to the right bases, it was really fortunate for us to …”

Rustad was unable to finish that sentence as his players doused him in celebration with a grape-flavored sports drink, but his message was clear: Fargo Post 2 did the little things right; it was those same little things that doomed them the night before against the Vistas.

“It was tough to lose that game, but we shook it off, and we knew our day was coming,” said Ben Bryant, Fargo’s second baseman who was named tournament MVP after hitting 11 for 21 (.523) with four RBI, four runs scored and three walks, while also helping turn eight double plays.

Rustad believed Bryant was a deserving choice for the tournament’s MVP.

“He provides stability on defense, number one,” Rustad said. “And leadership in our clubhouse. He’s a class act. And, for me, he’s the best second baseman I’ve ever seen play at this level. Nobody turns a double play like Ben Bryant.”

Minot, for so long, looked like the little sixth seed that could in this tournament, refusing to give in to pressure and give way to higher seeds.

“We started getting a little hectic on our side for a little bit,” Vistas head coach Pat Arntson said. “It was nice to add a couple (runs) there, to end on a note like that where our guys are still competing in the right way.”

Fargo jumped on the Vistas early, scoring one run in the first inning on Matt Pietsch’s RBI single that scored Jonas Sanders. Luke Sandy and Jonny Brooks added RBI knocks in the third for a 3-0 lead.

The score stretched to 4-0 as Sandy scored on an error at third base in the fifth, and it went to 5-0 after Sandy reached on a fielder’s choice that scored Jimmy Reynolds in the eighth.

Minot loaded the bases against Cam Blazek with no outs in the third but couldn’t push anybody across. In the eighth, the Vistas loaded the bases again with no outs and got two runs out of it – Creighton Rudolph scored after Johnny Tubbs was hit by a pitch, and Conor Taney supplied a sacrifice fly to bring home Lofton Klabunde.

“That was the first guy we’ve seen with a true three- or four-pitch mix,” Arntson said of Blazek, who finished with 10 strikeouts and three walks in seven-plus innings. “Everybody we saw had a fastball and a hard curve or a hard slider, and this guy just had too much for us.”

In the day’s first matchup, Minot drew 11 walks in the game, including seven from Patriots starter Parker Borg. Borg was chased from the game after just 3 1/3 innings. West Fargo’s day was also marred by six errors in the field.

“Even though we had some wins in this tournament, we really never had a game where we played near our best,” West Fargo head coach Chris Coste said. “In fact, in a lot of these games, you could say the exact opposite of that – whether it was defense or scoring strikes, or even the little things that don’t make the scoreboard. As a coach, you feel responsible and think you have to find a better way to make sure we’re playing our best baseball, the way Fargo is and the way Minot clearly is.”

Minot tallied two runs in the fourth, one in the fifth, four in the sixth, two in the seventh and one in the eighth. The final run came on a single deep in the hole at shortstop off the bat of Klabunde that scored Kyler Stenberg.

Minot starter Taney pitched a complete game, striking out two and allowing just three base hits to Borg, Denver Blinn and Jake Faircloth.

“We wanted to play today, and we did that and won the first game,” Taney said. “Just to make it here is still a great opportunity. Obviously we want to be on the other side, but we can’t be upset with ourselves. We played as well as we could.”

For Fargo Post 2, though, its season carries onward. With eyes on Shelby, N.C., for the American Legion World Series, the North Dakota champion will first have to traverse the Central Plains Regional.

Bryant said that facing a stiff challenge for North Dakota’s toughest prepared his team for what comes next.

“We’ve got great baseball all over the state,” Bryant said. “Obviously Minot came here and showed us that. It doesn’t matter at all where your seeding is coming into the state tournament. You’re here, and you can do anything.”