FAIRMONT — The Fairmont Martins have their sights set on one location: Green Isle.

After capturing the Region 13C championship, the team is looking to make a deep run in the Minnesota State Amateur Baseball Tournament to ultimately get to the championship game in Green Isle on Sept. 4.

Fairmont (23-8) swept Windom during the regional semifinals to earn the state bid before sweeping Milroy for the regional title, No. 1 seed and first-round state tournament bye.

“It’s a good mix of old guys and young guys that have both played on state tournament teams, whether it was in high school or even in the amateur state tournament,” Martins player/coach Levi Becker said about his team. “It (the season) probably started off pretty slow, but our offense kind of led us through the regular season and then the pitching really stepped up during the playoffs.”

The Martins open the tournament against the Buffalo Bulldogs at 5 p.m. Friday in Norwood in second-round state play.

The Bulldogs defeated Crookston, 15-1 in eight innings, during the first round of the tournament Saturday to get a second game. Jake Duske and Luke Merz each had three hits with three runs scored for the Bulldogs. Jon Euerle gave up a run on three hits with six strikeouts to get the eight-inning win.

“(Martins right fielder Adam Schmidt has) talked a little about them (Buffalo). He said that’s the team he figured we were going to play,” Becker said. “They’re a good hitting team and we’ve got good pitching, so we’ll see how it matches up.”

Upon entering the state tournament, the Martins acquired pitchers Collin Lovell from Windom and Joey Fitzgerald from Martin County, as well as previous draft pick Brandan Alfson from Pipestone.

“Alfson and Lovell both pitched in college pretty well,” Becker said. “Then you’ve got Spencer (Chirpich) and you’ve still got (Fairmont’s) Matt Lytle, Tyler Tennyson and Adam Schmidt that pitched through the regular season. If you make it to Labor Day weekend, you’ve got four games in a row, so I think we’ll have the pitching to do it as long as we get there.”

Between the four Martins and draftees, the team’s biggest strength lies in its pitching. Lytle also has experience pitching in the state tournament before, getting Milroy two wins as a draftee last season.

In addition to his pitching, Tennyson contributes to the Martins’ offense, leading the team in home runs, while Jack Waletich has the most doubles. Tennyson plays for Buena Vista University and Waletich is on the baseball team at Minnesota State University, Mankato.

“Those have been the guys we fall back on time and time again. They’ll come up with a big hit in the late innings,” Becker said. “They’re the ones driving in most of the runs for us.”

The biggest obstacle that the Martins face in getting to Green Isle, however, doesn’t come on the field but away from it. Many of the players have prior commitments, but are working around scheduling to make time for the game.

“Most of the college guys said they were going to come back and play. That’s the tough part is that they’re in college,” said Becker, who also faces the task of balancing the game with showing pigs at the Minnesota State Fair on Friday. “I was counting how many guys we’re going to have and it’s going to be close.”

If the Martins beat Buffalo, the team will play the winner between Lake Henry and Young America on Sept. 2 in Norwood, and two more wins on Sept. 3 will get them to Green Isle for the championship game on Sept. 4.

“It’s a sweet field,” Becker said about Green Isle’s baseball diamond. “It looks like we’ve got the pitching as long as we score one, two, three runs a game, we should (be OK). We’re going to run into some good teams, but to get to Green Isle, that’s our goal.”