Hanska opens play at 11 a.m. when they square off against the Farming Flames in a Class C quarterfinal match-up.

Later Saturday at 6:30 p.m. in a Class B quarterfinal clash, the New Ulm Brewers meet Foley.

Both Hanska and the Brewers have gotten to the Elite 8 before, and when they did, they got to the state title games.

In 2009, the Lakers lost to St. Cloud Orthopedic in the Class C title game, and in 2014 the Brewers — then in Class C — fell to Sobieski in the championship game.

File photo by Ari Selvey Hanska’s Jake Finstad (19) celebrates with his team after scoring a run during a Class C Amateur Baseball State Tournament game against the Pierz Brewers on Aug. 23 in Brownton.

Lakers manager Chris Koob said that his team’s biggest strengths — especially in the state tournament — have been their pitching and defense.

“Aaron Portner has been solid,” Koob said about his left-hander. “In his first game [a 6-4 win over Hawley] he did not have his best stuff, but he kept us in the game, and on Saturday [a 2-0 shutout win over the Pierz Brewers] he was lights out. And picking up Mitchell Bouwman [from the Marshall Athletics] in the draft was huge. He has shut the door in the last two games — Aaron was throwing a gem [against Pierz] and there was no sense in him going four times through the lineup when we had Mitchell in our back pocket.”

Getting to the Elite 8 and the final weekend means potentially three games in three days if you win and that can test any pitching staff.

“After the Elite 8 game, it is going to come down to who has the pitching depth,” Koob said. “Everybody has thrown their ace in the first two weeks and they will again on Saturday again, so it is going to be who has the depth after their top one or two pitchers.”

As far as Farming goes, Koob has seen the Flames play Friday.

“They have a draftee from New Munich [Ty Reller] who has started their first two games in the state — he is a left-hander who struck out 14 against Cologne — and he is tough. Their number two and three hitters are really good and they are both D-II baseball players. They are solid all around.”

Koob said that they will ride the left arm of Portner on Saturday.

“We want to try and win that game and do what we have to do after that,” he said. “I like our pitching depth — we have Sam Knowles who has been really good for us and we have not thrown him since the Region [2C] championship game, and we drafted Dominic Rose from Gibbon and Connor Jones from St. James, so we like where we are sitting right now. To play three games this weekend would be fun, but it is one game at a time right now.”

In Class B, the New Ulm Brewers are riding the wave of an emotional 18 inning 3-2 win over Princeton on a walk-off home run from Trevor Nissen in the bottom of the 18th inning.

The game was just three innings short of the longest state tournament game of 21 innings.

Brewers manager Al Flor said that the win had a lot of emotions as the game progressed to extra innings.

“There were a lot of them — a roller coaster.” he said. “But there was more frustration than anything else.”

There were a lot of players who had a hand (or arm or bat) in the win.

“Mitch [Bockenstedt] started the game and gave up an unearned run and then we did not start hitting,” Flor said. “Trevor put us on his back [with his first home run and the first Brewers hit of the game] and Andrew [Peters] followed with a game-tying home run [in the bottom of the ninth] and then Trevor to win it”

And Fairmont draftee Spencer Chirpich may well have a spot as he thew 12 innings of shutout ball in relief.

“He is a good pitcher. He is a bulldog,” Flor said. “He was the guy that we needed in that situation.”

Flor said that he felt his team should have hit better against Princeton.

“We needed to put the ball in play more,” he said.

Flor said that when Nissen’s game-winning home run left the bat, he hoped that it would stay fair.

“It felt that at some point that was what was going to happen,” he said, “We had so many opportunities with guys in scoring position.”

The Brewers now face Foley, who upset top-seeded Jordan.

“I was listening all week on how Foley is an overlooked team — I watched them play and they are definitely a good baseball team,” he said. “They have strong pitching and they jumped to a [4-0] lead over Jordan and never looked back”

Flor expects the Lumberjacks to throw left-hander Logan Winkelman against the Brewers.

Winkelman pitched D-I college baseball at the University of South Carolina — Upstate.

“He is strong for them. We will be ready for them but we have to execute,” Flor said.

Flor said that he does not know who he will start on the mound on Saturday.

“We have to hit the ball more — that is the key — we need to test their defense. You cannot do anything unless you put the ball in play.”