MILES CITY, Mont. – Bismarck State College used a hard-hitting offense and an excellent pitching performance from Bryce Libke and Mitch Sand beat Dakota County Technical College 9-4 the opening game of the NJCAA Region XIII baseball tournament on Sunday.

The Mystics (30-8) dropped a semifinal matchup 11-1 to Miles Community College in the final game of the tournament's opening day and will play Williston State College in a loser-out game on Monday. The winner of that game will have to beat Miles Community College in the championship game or games scheduled Monday and Tuesday, if necessary. The loser's season comes to an end.

Libke started and pitched seven innings to get the win over the Blue Knights. He gave up four runs in the first inning, but retired 20 of the next 22 batters he faced. He struck out nine and allowed five hits. Mitch Sand closed with two hitless innings.

BSC jumped on Blue Knights' starter Daniel Zang for four runs in the first inning. Griffin Stahl drove in two runs with a one-out triple and Brennan Phillips and Will Bachman collected an RBI each. Tyler Lewnau drove in the go-ahead run in the third and added another RBI in the fourth. JJ Ritter had a double, drove in a run and score twice and Darion Alexander doubled and scored two runs. Wyatt Tweet had three hits and scored two more runs.

The Mystics and Tetons square off at noon, MDT, Monday with the winner playing the Pioneers at 3 p.m. A second championship game, if needed, is Tuesday at noon.