Sean Arbaut/Minot State athletics Minot State baseball coach Scott Eul gets a celebratory water bath after clinching the NSIC title Saturday.

Minot State baseball coach Scott Eul is rarely at a loss for words.

The second-year coach is often the Beavers’ most vocal presence in the dugout, shouting words of encouragement or letting his players know, “you better run out that grounder!”

Of course, he’s also not shy about letting an umpire know that he’s not particularly fond of a call.

There were no such outbursts on Saturday. Not after MSU had just turned one of its worst athletic programs into one of its proudest in a two-year span. The Beavers made Eul’s vision for the team into a reality by completing a two-game sweep of the University of Mary and clinching its first Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference regular season championship in program history.

“Words don’t do much for what that’s like,” a near-speechless, stoic Eul said after the last out of Saturday’s doubleheader. “That was fun. Just fun. We played well.”

Not long after the interview, several players doused Eul with a surprise celebratory water bath. It at least got Eul to crack a smile, but the speechless elation still hadn’t worn off yet.

In two seasons, Eul has a record of 60-36. The past two seasons before Eul’s arrival, MSU was 21-67. The Beavers made the NSIC Tournament in Eul’s first season in charge and finished with a 29-22 record. NSIC coaches picked MSU to finish eighth in the preseason poll this season, but the Beavers won the league by two and a half games and set a new program best for wins in a season with 31 (31-14 overall).

“It was a different atmosphere, a winning atmosphere when (Eul) arrived,” senior Kyle Williamson said. “There was just a winning mentality with him. He came in and said, ‘We’re going to win.’ Other times, it was just, ‘Well, I guess we can win.’ But he came into this year, told us we were a great team and we were going to win the conference championship.”

Both Williamson, and his former high school and now college teammate, Wyatt Moore, agreed Eul’s energy was a big reason for the turnaround.

“He just changed our mentality right away,” Moore said. “He never thought we were going to be rebuilding for a couple years. He already thought we had the pieces.”

It wasn’t a surprise Eul expected to win, because that’s all he knew. Before MSU, Eul was St. Cloud State’s pitching coach and recruiting coordinator. The Huskies were 97-15 in Eul’s two-year tenure.

“This was my goal all along,” Eul said. “I wanted to win. And we did that early. I knew the group I had was pretty special and we just got after it.”

Eul was MSU athletic director Andrew Carter’s first new coaching hire. It was a little unorthodox of a hiring process because Carter was still in the process of moving to Minot and eventually started the same day as Eul.

After discussing Eul with former MSU baseball coach Brock Weppler, both were sold he was the best fit.

“Immediately, Scott stood out to me because he came from a great program in St. Cloud State,” Carter said. “His tenacity and energy sold both me and Brock as we were going through the process. His energy and passion really sold me on what he wanted to do.”

Eul and the Beavers will turn their focus on racking up an impressive conference tournament showing this week to pad their chances of receiving an NCAA Division II Central Regional berth.

Sports Spotlight is a weekly feature profiling interesting people affiliated with sports in the region. We welcome suggestions from our readers. Call Sports Editor Garrick Hodge at 1-800-735-3229 or email the sports department at sports@minotdailynews.com