Submitted Photo The Minot State softball team celebrates its walk-off win over Concordia, St. Paul on Saturday, April 13. The Beavers won 2-1 in eight innings and also beat the Golden Bears, 7-5, on Saturday. Photo submitted by Sean Arbaut/MSU.

Reegan Floyd pitched an eight-inning gem for Minot State against Concordia-St. Paul, and now she was anxiously watching the Beavers’ offense when Brooklyn Morrison ripped a double to right field to open the bottom half of the inning.

Concordia-St. Paul came into the matchup atop the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) standings, having not lost in conference play at 14-0. The Golden Bears starting pitcher Erica McCullough had gone toe-to-toe with Floyd, allowing only one run herself, while striking out five Minot State batters, and she was looking to earn her 20th win of the season.

Then, Abby Lohse laid down a sacrifice bunt that advanced Morrison to third, and one batter later, Anna LaCount hit a sacrifice fly to center field to bring in Morrison.

As soon as Morrison’s foot touched base, and it finally sunk in for Floyd that the Beavers had indeed won, she started high-fiving everyone. Overcome with the euphoria of victory, Floyd screamed out, “I LOVE THIS TEAM.”

Her teammates echoed Floyd’s feelings, describing an electric weekend.

“When you have a long season like softball, you’re grinding through the fall and into the spring,” said junior outfielder Sophie Sparrow, a North Dakota native. “You get into these games that are intense and exciting, and when you come out on top, there’s no better feeling. You think, dang, all the work we’ve done is paying off and you’re telling people to listen to us.”

For others on the team, the moment was just another in a long, wonderful series of events that began with head coach Sal Rodriguez taking over the program in the summer of 2023.

Rodriguez is no stranger to Minot State athletics. The Crystal Lake, Illinois native attended college at the university, where he played baseball for four seasons. During his time with the Beavers’ he established multiple NCAA Division II-era records including most games played (187) and home runs (29). He earned All-Region and All-NSIC honors in 2018.

After earning his Masters in Sports Management from Minot State, Rodriguez became the Assistant Athletic Director for Revenue and Fan Development.

He also served as interim coach for the school’s softball program for two weeks during the 2023 season, during which time the Beavers went 4-2, including an upset of eventual regular-season champion Augustana University.

Minot State’s softball program has consistently been one of the most successful on campus. Since the program’s inception in 1970, teams have compiled 762 wins to 580 losses, for a .568 winning percentage. The last losing season was in 2016, one of just three since 2000.

While Rodriquez wasn’t tasked with doing a complete rebuild, he did need to stabilize the program with the goal to help it take that next step; and according to players, he’s done exactly that.

“I would say a big difference from this year and last year is he lets us play our own game in a very personalized way,” said Floyd. “He gives us a very good foundation to build off of, whether it be scouting reports or what the overall goal is for practice or the game or tournament ahead.”

For example, softball players are extremely superstitious.

Especially Floyd.

“A lot of it is my warm up. I refuse to throw more than five pitches of each pitch every time I warm up before a game,” she said.

Every morning on game day she has to have something carbonated like a Bubbler or Red Bull. Every inning before she starts throwing, she must pick her resin or the dirt, before throwing the ball into her glove at once.

Those are just a few.

Brooklyn Morrison is equally superstitious before games, and found Rodriquez’s approach a confidence booster.

“Just being able to do my own thing, do what makes me feel good and feel confident before I go into a game really helps me a lot, and I think it helps a lot of the girls out,” said Morrison. “When we have a warmup where it is ‘you have to do this and you have to do that,’ it’s not really personalized to what each player needs to be prepared before a game. I just think letting us do our own thing allows us to feel confident before we get into that game action and is really beneficial for everybody,”

Sparrow echoed Morrison about how confidence has improved among her teammates.

“Compared to last year, he came in here and just instilled confidence and a drive in us that I don’t think we had, and he let us play our own game,” said Sparrow. “He wasn’t pressuring us. He wasn’t giving us all these crazy ideas. He us go and do our job, which is really nice just feeling comfortable on the field.”

According to the team, everyone is relaxed with total confidence in each other.

“I think a lot of girls felt a lot of pressure in past years, but this year, he’s repeated the message that you know what you’re doing, go do it,” said Sparrow. “He knows we have the athletic ability to do our jobs, and he puts us in situations, but ultimately he lets us do our jobs. I think that’s huge.”

The results are being seen on the field, especially in the growth of some individual players from last year to this year, as roles got expanded.

Take Morrison as an example. Last season, she finished the year leading the team in at-bats with 135 and was second in both hits (36) and runs (24). She also tied for the team lead in home runs with four, while batting just .267 with an on-base percentage of .481.

This year, her at-bats dropped off as the Beavers played fewer games, but Morrison is hitting .391 to lead the team. She has 27 runs and 43 hits, including 10 doubles, two triples, three home runs and 14 RBI while generating 14 walks.

Anna LaCount has also gone from being a role player with just a .120 batting average in 25 at-bats last season to batting .378 in 90 at-bats this year. She has also scored 11 runs on 34 hits including leading the team with thirteen doubles.

Starting pitchers Gabi Dawdyuk and Floyd have both dropped their earned run average (ERA) from last year. Dawdyuk posted a 3.06 ERA a year ago, and this year, she leads the team with a 2.23 ERA, along with a team high nine wins. Floyd’s dropped from 3.43 to 2.81.

Having bought into Rodriguez’s coaching and seeing the fruits of that trust, the Beavers are focused on a successful NSIC conference tournament, having already clinched a berth for the second consecutive year.

“At the end of the day, you’re trying to hit a little yellow thing with a stick and not make anybody else catch it,” said Floyd. “So I think the more we can just keep it simple, dumb it down and trust our process and our preparation, we know we can do it.”

There’s one more reason why Floyd wants a successful conference tournament.

“We just need to play for each other, especially the seniors. They may never get to play another softball game again, and especially in a Minot State jersey, so the more we can represent our senior class and truly stick together and just hit the yellow thing with the stick, we’ll be alright.”