After innings worth of seeing deep fly balls hauled in by diving catches, the Vistas turned to a bunt and a checked swing as Minot rallied for a pair of runs late to capture the Justin Demary Memorial Tournament, 5-2, against Mandan on Sunday at Corbett Field, successfully defending their crown.

“It’s big for our program and for our town,” Minot’s Brody Mueller said. “Justin Demary was a big part of Minot baseball. It means a lot for us to win this and do it for him and the town.”

With the win, the Vistas (25-11) have now captured the tournament title five times, but this is the first time they have gone back-to-back. Minot won the inaugural tournament in 2017, and then claimed the trophy again in 2019, 2021, and 2023 before winning it for a fifth time Sunday (the tournament was not held in 2024).

“Anytime you play at home you want to play well,” Minot coach Pat Arnston said. “We had a good weekend. We swung the bats well and pitched pretty well. You don’t want to end on a sour note. That’s the tough part. We have some big conference games going on so you can’t throw all your arms. This isn’t the most important game of our season, but our guys did a great job and get to leave the field in a good mood again.”

Mandan (11-23) is no stranger to hosting the trophy, as the Chiefs won the tournament title in 2020, 2022. The Bismarck Governors are the only other team to have claimed the championship, winning it in 2018.

Trailing 1-0 entering the fifth inning with just a single hit on the books against Mandan starting pitcher Mason Oster, the Vistas took advantage of the Chiefs’ bullpen and a couple miscues. Tre Stewart led off the inning with a single to right and moved into scoring position when reliever Troy Gerhardt walked Kellan Burke. Mueller successfully executed a sacrifice bunt to move the runners over, bringing up clean-up hitter Braden Nelson.

“I bet on just one hand you can count how many times I’ve given our three-hole hitter the signal to bunt when we’re down,” Arnston said. “But we got the first two batters to reach base and your four-hole is up next, you gotta get those guys over and give us a chance to take the lead.”

Facing a 1-1 count, Nelson put the ball in play on a checked swing. Mandan catcher Adam Walker picked up the slow dribbler and threw to first, but Gage Miller couldn’t squeeze the catch and the ball got away, allowing Stewart to score from third and tie the game.

“I was hunting fastball and it just came in on me and got my hands somehow,” Nelson said. “It actually nicked my hand, but I just got it in play and did a job and helped start the momentum.”

The Vistas didn’t even need to swing the bat to grab the lead, as Gerhardt was called for a balk during the next at-bat, bringing in Burke for a 2-1 lead.

Minot did have one big swing in its arsenal, and it came off Mueller’s bat. Mueller came up to the plate with the bases loaded after Mandan elected to intentionally walk Burke with two outs. Despite falling behind 0-2 in the count, Mueller battled back and ripped a bases-clearing double to right to give the Vistas some breathing room and put the tournament title in clear sight.

“The at-bat didn’t start out too well,” Mueller said. “I took two strikes. I saw one ball and then he just left it for me in the middle inside and that’s what I was looking for and I mashed it. It was pretty big for our team.”

Minot had three hits over the final two innings after being held to just one hit through the first four. But it was less about Minot’s offense and more about the Mandan defense, specifically in the outfield. The Vistas sent 11 fly balls into the outfield over the course of the game, and eight of them were tracked down, making Minot feel like there were six or seven Mandan outfielders at times.

“Their starter did a real good job, but I thought our guys did a good job of adjusting to what he was trying to do and then we got some good swings and nothing positive happened,” Arnston said. “There’s been times where we’ve been shutout through four innings and only had one hit and I’ve been very irritated with our hitters, but this time I didn’t feel like that at all. That’s how it goes sometimes. They were playing very good defense.”

The Vistas were no slouch on defense either, as they had a few memorable plays to keep Mandan’s offense off the board. Nelson delivered a laser throw from right field and threw out Ryan Bitz attempting to tag from second to end the fifth inning. During the next inning, the Vistas turned an unconventional 6-4-2 double play, throwing out Gage Miller at second before denying Gerhardt a chance to tie the game at home plate to end the sixth.

“That’s what you need to pick up when you’re not scoring,” Arnston said of his team’s defense. “If they have guys on base, you need to find some accessory outs, some balls put in play that turn into more than one out can really change momentum and makes it really hard on the offense. If you’re not going to score a lot, you have to play really good defense and pitch well.”

Mandan did strike first, plating a run in the second on a pair of lead-off doubles by Gerhardt and Miller. Gerhardt delivered an extra-base hit to left and Miller followed with a shot that one-hopped over the fence for an RBI ground-rule double. Gerhardt and Miller both produced multi-hit games for the Chiefs.

Mason Stewart got the starting nod for the Vistas and pitched six innings, allowing one run on five hits, striking out two and walking one to earn the win. Gannon Hedberg came on to pitch the seventh to close out the tournament.

Mandan starter Mason Oster allowed just one hit during five innings of work. Oster threw roughly 80 pitches, striking out five and walking five before being replaced by Gerhardt to begin the sixth inning.

“There was a good pitcher on the mound for Mandan,” Nelson said. “We were barreling balls, but it just wasn’t going our way. They made a couple good plays, but it was just good to see the guys come out and keep fighting and I think we showed that today.”

The Vistas return to action on Tuesday for a double header against Fargo Post 400 beginning at 5 p.m. at Corbett Field.

MINOT VISTAS 6, SWIFT CURRENT (Sask.) 1

The Minot Vistas punched a ticket to Sunday’s title game by fending off Swift Current (Sask.), 6-1, in their first of two games on Saturday as part of the Justin Demary Memorial Tournament at Corbett Field.

Minot’s third victory in as many games guaranteed them a spot in the championship game, rendering its final game of the round-robin against Mandan to be a glorified exhibition, as Mandan had also advanced to the title game earlier in the day.

The Vistas cruised to a pair of victories in Friday’s slate of games, putting up 32 runs in 10 innings worth of at-bats, but Saturday’s opener proved to be a bit more challenging. Minot’s offense was held to just two hits over the first four innings, but the Vistas still managed to manufacture three runs over that span.

Minot took an early 1-0 lead in the first on a Burke sacrifice fly to plate Tegan Schindler, who led off the game by getting hit by a pitch.

It took until the third inning before the Vistas recorded their first hit – a hard-hit liner to third by Hedberg. It was the only hit of the inning, but Minot scratched across two runs without the need for another. The Vistas scored a pair of runs that didn’t require a bat. A wild pitch from Swift Current starting pitcher Jase Johnson allowed Drew Jordan to score from third. Tre Stewart attempted to score on the wild pitch all the way from second and an errant throw to the plate from catcher Aidan Robinson resulted in a 3-0 lead for the Vistas after three innings.

Swift Current (14-13) didn’t have much success swinging the bat early either, as Vistas starting pitcher Nick Thomas took a no-hitter into the fifth inning before a two-out single by Trey Harkes. Thomas found himself struggling to get out of the inning, walking the bases loaded and then walking in Swift Current’s lone run. But Thomas settled down and got Mason Fauser to fly out to center with the bases loaded to end the threat.

The Vistas offense picked up their pitcher from there, recording four hits and three runs in their final two innings. Tre Stewart and Burke delivered back-to-back extra-base hits in the fifth, with Burke’s triple bringing in Stewart. Nelson added an RBI single to left to plate Burke. Tre Stewart added an RBI triple in the sixth to be the lone Minot batter with a multi-hit game. Tre Stewart finished 2-for-3 with a double, triple, RBI and two runs scored.

After a rocky fifth, Thomas cruised the rest of the way, retiring six of the final seven batters he faced to cap off a complete game. Thomas surrendered just one run on one hit, striking out seven and walking five. Thomas continued the trend of starters going deep into games and preserving the bullpen during the tournament. Through three games, the Vistas bullpen has thrown just one pitch.

MINOT VISTAS 5, MANDAN 2

It may have been just a glorified exhibition by the time the game started as a result of both teams having already advanced to Sunday’s tournament title game, but that didn’t mean Minot and Mandan weren’t looking to close out the round-robin portion of the scheduled unblemished, nabbing the designation of being the home team for Sunday’s tilt as well.

At the end of the day, that honor belonged to Minot, which toppled Mandan, 5-2, Saturday night at Corbett Field as part of the Justin Demary Memorial Tournament. The two teams would meet again with bigger stakes on the line just over 24 hours later.

As for Saturday’s contest, the Vistas broke open a tie game with a 3-run third inning. Tre Stewart led off the inning with a single to right and the Vistas loaded the bases with back-to-back walks issued to Burke and Mueller. Nelson brought home Tre Stewart with an RBI single. Following Mandan’s second defensive double play of the game that resulted in Minot’s second run of the inning, Jordan made it 5-2 with an RBI double to left-center.

Minot scored five unanswered runs after falling behind 2-0 before its first at-bat. The Chiefs opened the game with a double off the bat of Peyton Koppy and a pair of walks to load the bases with no outs. An RBI groundout by Gerhardt put Mandan on the board and Oster tacked on another with a single through the left side.

The response by the Vistas was quick, as they pulled even by the end of the first inning. It all came with two outs. A single by Mueller and a double by Nelson, coupled with a misplay in left allowed one run to come in. Minot tied it one batter later on an RBI single by Carson Deaver.

The Chiefs put their leadoff man on base in four innings, but only managed to convert that into runs once. Mandan got the leadoff man on in the first, third, fourth and sixth. The Chiefs capitalized in the first, but stranded the runner on third in the third, got caught stealing in the fourth and was part of a double play in the sixth. In total, Mandan left five runners on base.

Minot starting pitcher Hyrum Maples regrouped after a rough first inning. He allowed just one baserunner to advance past second base over his final 5 2/3 innings of work. He was pulled with two outs in the seventh after surpassing 100 pitches. Maples earned the win, allowing two runs on five hits, striking out one and walking five. Schindler recorded the save, getting Bogner to fly out to center for the final out.