Kari GIbb/MDN The MSU Baseball team at a charity event after hosting the University of Minnesota Duluth in April of 2024, is preparing for the 2025 season and spring ball in Tucson, Arizona, starting March 1.

The weather this week in Minot has a winter cold temperature watch with the warmer days in the teens and the overnight lows in the negative teens, even to twenty below- not including wind chills- the idea of enjoying 70’s with a real feel in the 70’s sounds very nice.

The Beavers baseball team starts their 2025 season in Tucson, Arizona, on March 1 and will need some sunblock instead of polar fleece gear.

As the team packs up for the trip south, Minot State University (MSU) baseball head coach Sam Boisner starts his third regular season as the man with the plan for the Beavers.

“As we look to the 2025 season, we have put a huge emphasis on throwing strikes and getting ahead of [the] hitter with our pitching staff,” said Boisner. “Our players have done a great job this off season of committing to throwing a ton of strikes and improving everyday.”

The Beavers posted a 20-14 Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) record in 2023 that slipped to 12-27 in year two for Boisner over the 2024 regular season. The youth of the team last season.

This year’s roster has ten seniors, eight sophomores and nine freshmen. The group that stands out are the 21 juniors who were sophomores last season and really getting their feet on the turf in college sports at full game speed.

In 2024, MSU was seventh in the NSIC at the plate batting with a respectable .304 average, but struggled from the mound (9.29 ERA) and fielding where the Beavers had 90 errors and were 13 out of 13 in fielding stats for the NSIC.

“Defensively, getting both Shane Kary and Gunnar Kozlowitz back from injury is huge for us,” said Boisner. “Both players had extremely good defensive [players] in 2023 and missed all of 2024 due to injury. Noah Madas, Miles Iverson, and Colton Bagshaw have another year of experience and we have brought in four new players in the infield. We have had a ton of great competition in the infield and our team has a lot of confidence in all of those guys.”

The top pitcher from 2024 in the statistical ranks for NSIC – Jonah Prokott – graduated, there are plenty of options in the bull pen.

“Jonah graduated from MSU and has moved on to Graduate School,” said Boisner..” With our new additions and returners on the mound we look to compete very hard on the mound and attack hitters, We will look to a number of guys to step for us on the mound. We have brought in eight new pitchers to join our pitching staff and have a few returns that have continued to improve and look to have a great season this year.”

The top outfielder from last season is a senior this year. Grant Gabbert ranked second in fielding for MSU in 2024 NSIC statistical play. He will be joined by a crew.

“Gabbert will be returning for us in the outfield this season,” said Boisner. “Grant, Brent Riddle, Javier Guterriez and transfer Connor Hill are all seniors and have played a ton of college baseball. This group will bring a ton of experience to our outfield.”

The depth behind the seniors with the 21 juniors will give the Beavers the arms and legs to handle the game schedule for the 2025 season. With 50 games to play, the schedule will need the efforts of all in uniform to continually improve from game to game and week to week.

With any luck, the weather will do the same as the team opens at Corbett Field on March 29 as Southwest Minnesota State University comes to face the Beavers in a double header on Saturday and a second double header on Sunday, March 30.0