Alex Eisen/MDN Infielder Carson Yale fields a ground ball in a Minot youth baseball practice last month, as the team prepared for the Cal Ripken World Series.

BRANSON, Mo. — The opening day of the Cal Ripken Major70 World Series started quite favorably for the Minot youth baseball team, representing the state of North Dakota.

But, nine runs in two innings by Pacific Northwest quickly dampened the mood and Minot lost its first contest of the international tournament, 10-5, on Thursday in Branson, Missouri.

“We were going along pretty well and I think we probably gave them too many outs,” Minot coach Ron Nissen said. “That’s going to come back to haunt you eventually.”

Minot held a 4-1 lead going to the bottom of the fourth inning. Drew Clock had an RBI single, Carson Yale stole home on a double steal attempt and Tyler Buchanon had a two-run double.

Things were looking up, until defensive miscues started to pile up.

“Defensive errors would be the main reason because we just couldn’t get out of innings,” Nissen said about having the lead slip away.

The mistakes didn’t show up in the official box score, as both teams weren’t issued any errors. Instead, Pacific Northwest was credited with 19 hits. Minot, on the other hand, scored its five runs on just four hits.

Every starter for Pacific Northwest had a hit with seven players tallying multiple hits. Drake Gabel and Ethan Goff both went 3-for-4 for Pacific Northwest.

Besides the Minot hits from Clock and Buchanon, Hunter Ruzicka had a double in the top of the fifth inning and was brought in on a sacrifice fly from Hunter Horner. Horner also had a single in the fourth inning.

On the mound for Minot, Eli Nissen went four innings and struck out five batters before handing the ball off to Yale.

“Eli Nissen threw a pretty good game,” coach Ron Nissen said. “He threw four of the innings and then defensively we kind of fell apart a little bit and they started putting up runs.”

Defeat aside, the team is enjoying the sights and sounds of playing in such a prestigious tournament.

“The atmosphere is awesome,” Nissen said. “Our boys are players. They are going to come back tomorrow and play as hard as they can… Hopefully we can put a ‘W’ up for North Dakota and Minot.”

Minot plays again at 3 p.m. this afternoon against Ohio Valley. They held off North Arkansas, 5-4, in their first group stage game on Thursday.

Alex Eisen covers Minot High School, Minot State athletics and high school sports. Follow him on Twitter @AEisen13.