Minot native Kellan Burke joins the Hot Tots for his first season in the Northwoods League following a decorated career with the Minot High Magicians and the Minot Vistas. Burke was the 2025 Gatorade North Dakota Baseball Player of the Year and currently plays college baseball at Cloud County Community College. Mike Kraft/MDN

Whether it was in the spring with Minot High or in the summer with the Minot Vistas, if it was baseball season, Kellan Burke could be found playing the sport he loves at Corbett Field.

And when he wasn’t playing, he was a regular spectator at the ballpark, watching Souris Valley Sabre Dogs and Minot Hot Tots baseball games growing up. As his goal of prolonging his baseball career beyond high school looked more and more like a certainty, he envisioned himself being on the field in a Hot Tots uniform with the local community cheering him on in the stands.

Fast forward a few years and Burke is the latest Minot native to don the Hot Tots uniform, joining the summer collegiate baseball team as it begins its fourth season in existence. Burke joined his teammates for the first time on Saturday, May 23, as the Hot Tots conducted its first practice of the year leading up to Monday’s home opener against the Badlands Big Sticks.

“It’s going to be fun playing in my hometown for a new team,” Burke said. “It will be fun seeing old relatives around town and being able to play in front of them. It will be a good experience. It brings in the community. It brings in little kids. If they want to do it one day, it just shows them they can do anything. Being able to be a little bit of a role model for the little kids in my hometown, doing that for them and doing that for the community is a blessing.”

The decision to add Burke to the Hot Tots roster this season was a no-brainer for manager Brian Lewis, who begins his second season leading the team. Burke and the Hot Tots coaching staff and management were in constant communication during the offseason and were able to make the partnership work.

“Him being a hometown hero, Gatorade Player of the Year last year in the state of North Dakota and being right here in our backyard, we wanted to start that process early,” Lewis said. “Monica (Hocking) and Nate (Maddox) were on top of it and the young man wanted to play in front of his home crowd, so we were excited to get to add him and he put together a great year in college, so we’re fired up to see what he can do for us.”

The Hot Tots have had a Minot connection every season, as Jonah Shields was on the roster for three years from 2023-25. Shields is the son of current Minot State football coach Ian Shields. Burke’s connections with the city go a bit deeper, however, as Shields played high school baseball in Nevada. Burke played high school baseball right here in his backyard and became a household name in the community, winning the 2025 Gatorade North Dakota Baseball Player of the Year his senior season with the Magicians. Burke hit .541 that season with 53 total hits, including 10 triples, eight doubles and three home runs. He recorded 33 RBIs and scored 41 runs, helping the Magicians reach the state title game.

‘To have some local flavor for the fans and the fans support us no matter what and they have been great here, but when you can have someone that they can connect with a little bit better because they’ve seen him grow up and they know the family, those sorts of things make it great for the fan experience, especially when the guy can play,” Lewis said. “Jonah was awesome. He’s a great player. Kellan is going to follow in those footsteps as well and it’s going to be great for the fans.”

Burke recently completed his freshman season at Cloud County Community College in Concordia, Kan., helping guide the Thunderbirds to an historic season. Burke led CCCC with 86 hits, 21 home runs, 93 RBIs and 75 runs scored in 57 games played. He finished second in both batting average (.413) and doubles (16) as the Thunderbirds finished 50-7 for their first 50-win season in program history. They won their first Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference West Division Title and ascended to the No. 2 ranking in the final regular season NJCAA Division I poll.

Burke recorded a hit in 47 games and registered three or more hits in eight games. He logged three home runs in a single game against Seward County on May 2 and tallied 14 RBIs in a doubleheader against Pratt Community College on March 7. Burke was named to the all-tournament team at the NJCAA Division I Plains District Baseball Tournament, going 5-for-9 with two home runs, four RBIs and six runs scored.

“Coming in as a freshman, you didn’t know what to expect,” Burke said. “My first at-bat, I was more nervous than ever, but once I got those nerves out of the way, my confidence blew out through the roof and I was able to play as myself. It’s definitely a lot different than high school baseball. But it was definitely a blessing to have a good year with a really good JUCO in Kansas. Being able to do that with good players and good people is definitely a blessing.”

While Burke will be the lone representative from the Magic City on the roster, he won’t be the only North Dakotan. Mandan’s Isaac Huettl joins the Hot Tots this season, having last played in the Northwoods League back in 2024 with the Bismarck Larks. He played in 16 games that season, hitting .277 with five doubles, 11 RBIs and 14 runs scored. Huettl was an all-state catcher with Mandan during his senior season in 2022. Huettl also played Legion baseball with the Mandan Chiefs.

Huettl spent two years at North Iowa Area Community College before moving on to Division I Murray State, where he was part of a Racers team that played in the College World Series. He is now at Missouri Western.

“Isaac brings a lot of experience,’ Lewis said. “He’s been in the league. He’s caught a lot of games in college. He had a tremendous season this year at Missouri Western. He’s played at a lot of levels from D-I and D-II and so forth. The baseball in the state of North Dakota sometimes gets overlooked by the rest of the country, but there are really good players here and hopefully we can showcase a couple of them with those guys.”

Lewis said Huettl will be the primary catcher for the Hot Tots this season once he joins the team in the beginning of June. Burke may be called on from time to time to serve time behind the plate, but will be a common fixture in right field.

Burke and Huettl are the fourth and fifth players from North Dakota to put on a Hot Tots uniform over the first four years. Along with Shields, they join Fargo’s Zach Kluvers and Bismarck’s Paxton Miller as Hot Tots members from North Dakota. Both Kluvers and Miller played for Minot in 2023.

As is the norm in the Northwoods League, the roster has just a few familiar names from last year, but for the most part is completely new. This year’s 31-man roster features players from 16 states and one from Canada. California and Wisconsin are the most representative, with four players each. Three players each call Texas, Illinois and Florida home.

“I think our roster at the beginning of the season is stronger than the one we had at the start of last year,” Lewis said. “I really like where we’re at. We’ve added a lot of good players and hopefully we’ll be an exciting team for the fans. From Day 1, I’m hoping we have a bit more juice in the lineup. We have a few sluggers. Our slugging percentage is going to be better. I think we’re going to be able to hit the ball a little better in terms of doubles, triples, home runs. Also a strength early is going to be our middle infield defense. We stacked this roster early in the year with a lot of shortstops.”

As a team last year, the Hot Tots hit .252 with 56 home runs and 443 runs scored. They finished 28-44 overall, going 10-26 in the first half before putting together their best half of baseball in program history with an 18-18 record.

Even though the roster has been turned over from last year’s strong finish, Lewis said the momentum from the end of the season helps keep the program moving in the right direction.

“It’s kind of more of a reset because it’s all new guys,” Lewis said. “We do tell the guys what we’re trying to do, what the vision is for this organization and what the culture we’re trying to build. We’re trying to build off the fact that we had the winningest season last year and especially finishing 18-18 in the second half. They are all aware of that. We want to build off that. We don’t want to be a punching bag for the rest of the division. We want the rest of the division to understand that the Hot Tots are here and we’re here to play hard and we’re here to win.”