Alex Eisen/MDN Surrey Blue Sox batter Coltan Francis takes batting practice Thursday in preparation for the State Class B Babe Ruth Tournament being held today through July 30 in Watford City.

SURREY — There was a time when making the State Class B Babe Ruth Tournament was seen as a longshot in Surrey.

“Dating back to the late 1990s, this team had only made it to the state tournament twice and there was actually a 10-year gap before we have gone three times in a row now,” Surrey head coach Jason Feller said.

The Surrey Blue Sox Babe Ruth team kept the streak going this year by finishing runner-up in its district. Watford City won District 1, but since they are hosting the state tournament this weekend, the second-best team from the nine-team district also got invited.

The previous two seasons Surrey had won the district to advance.

“We have eight losses on the season, six of them have been against Watford City,” Feller said. “So, yeah, Watford City has a solid team. But, we have had a good year as well.”

The Blue Sox (17-8) bring a youthful squad into the tournament with only two players aging out of the program at the end of the season.

That said, they will look to rely on some of those older players like Coltan Francis, Kekoa Munos and Isaac Flanagan, who threw a no-hitter a few weeks ago.

“We are pretty good defensively,” Feller said when asked about his team’s strengths. “We can do a pretty good job of playing the small ball game. But our big thing against Watford City, in particular, is we can’t seem to hit the ball against them.”

Worrying about a rematch with Watford City, however, would be looking too far ahead. The two teams are on opposite sides of the double-elimination, eight-team bracket.

Surrey gets Casselton in the opening round at 10 a.m. this morning. The other first round games to follow include Thompson vs. Hazen at 12:30 p.m., Langdon vs. defending champions LaMoure at 3 p.m. and hosts Watford City vs. New Rockford at 5:30 p.m.

“Obviously, you want to go there to try and win it,” Feller said. “But, realistically, it would be nice to go there and win a couple of games and improve on the year before.”

In 2017, Surrey lost both games at state. In 2018, Surrey won one game. So, it’s only fitting that getting two wins is the “realistic” goal this time around.

The State Class B Babe Ruth Tournament will run from today through July 30 in Watford City at the Rough Rider Center Baseball Field.

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