Box Score St. Cloud, Minn. --- Ninth-ranked Minnesota State advanced to its second straight Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference tournament championship game Friday with a 2-1 victory over Bemidji State on a beautiful afternoon at Joe Faber Field.
 
Back-to-back two out hits gave the Mavericks the first run of the ball game in the bottom of the second inning as sophomore Taylor Branstad slapped a single through the left side of the infield before junior Mike Andries belted a towering RBI double off the wall in left field. MSU made it a 2-0 lead in the third when junior shortstop Todd Standish reached on a hit-by-pitch, advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt and a single, before scoring on a sacrifice fly to left from sophomore third baseman Connor McCallum. 
 
MSU surrendered its first run of the tournament in the top of the fifth when BSU senior Lewis Baumann cut the lead in half with a line drive solo homerun to straight-away centerfield. That run also snapped a 32-inning scoreless by the MSU pitching staff, but the Purple and Gold would shutout the Beaver offense for the remaining four innings to secure the 2-1 win.
 
Junior righthander Bryce Bellin improved to 3-1 by striking out four and allowing four hits and a walk plus the lone earned run. Junior righthander Chris Williams pitched a scoreless eighth inning before senior righthander Mahlon Zimmerman shut the door in the ninth with a 1-2-3 inning to collect his eighth save of the season.
 
BSU senior Logan Kalis fired a complete-game in a losing effort as the righthander recorded five strikeouts without allowing a walk and surrendered six hits and a pair of earned runs.
 
Senior second baseman Lucas Skjefte was two-for-four at the plate, while Andries went one-for-three with a double and an RBI.
 
Now 34-8 overall, Minnesota State advances to the NSIC title game tomorrow at 3:30 p.m. on Joe Faber Field in St. Cloud, Minn., where it will face the winner of St. Cloud State and Bemidji State. The Mavericks have won three of the past four NSIC tournament championships (2012, 2010, 2009). MSU would need to lose twice to be eliminated with the double-elimination tournament format.