Three weeks and the draft will be over!(!!!!)
So the mock drafts are starting to get closer to what may actually happen. And the latest one also includes thoughts regarding a certain cornerback with legal trouble.
The week start with both ⛳️ teams in South Carolina. When the putts were done the men finished atop the leaderboard while the women were in the bottom-half of the standings.
Track & field kept the Southeast vibes going with a trip to Knoxville. It served as the latest opportunity for the competitors to show they're on-par with the rest of the country.
Concurrent to the second day was the first of four by WIU at Newman. Rising star Cade Feeney spun a three-hit complete game and the team need every bit of it as their bats were stifled to only two runs. Just down the street ⚽️ drew 2-2 with ORU, I swear I didn't plan on that rhyme.
The bats warmed up on Saturday as both ⚾️ & softball managed to show-out for the fans. The Softies won 6-5 & 3-0, including a no-hitter by sophomore Lainey Lyle while the men went 10-7 & 6-3 to take the series.
Which leaves the 🏈 game. The nugget-supreme is that Christian Watson was just the fourth player in program history to complete a 100-yard return for a score. It took that and more but victory was secured, 23-20 and so everything rests on Saturday against the rivals. I wouldn't be surprised if there's an announcement about increased attendance limits for the game and the playoffs, but also won't be surprised if it doesn't happen either. How's that for a strong take!
Then came Sunday. Softball came to within a game of a sweep of South Dakota, 3-1 but a three-run sixth-inning in the fourth game spoiled the sweep opportunity. The men also got close to a sweep but then were pushed into extra innings, all the way to the 14th - then this happened!
⚽️ avoided that drama with a wire-to-wire win over ORU, 3-1. In so doing they pulled within a game of .500 on the year and concluded their schedule with the positive.
Beyond all that, Tod Brown's team got a commitment from Cadyn Schwabe out Thompson, ND by way of Des Moines CC. Great to see in-state players continuing to come for some of the less heralded sports!
Then, within the last few hours Christian Watson & Garrett Wegner were recognized as the conference players of the week! Just more proof of all that it took for the team to get the win.
Moorhead had a brief week on the surfaces.
Starting with a softball doubleheader of defeat by Minot, 10-1 & 5-0 it only got slightly better with time.
⚽️ lost 2-1 to UMary while the track team was in Vermillion Friday/Saturday.
Softball bounced back with another DH, this time against Crookston & eeked out a 1-0 win but then lost 5-1. 🎾 also got into the act as their successful season rolled on in Owatonna. They shutout Mankato but came up just short against SW, 4-3. They'll take their 8-3 record into the conference tournament in two weeks.
Softball ended the week with one more two-gamer and yet against split. Bemidji St. took game 1, 7-4 but an eighth inning tie was broken by Big Lake's Ally Helgoe to secure victory, 2-1.
A less-than-stellar start to the week by the Cornies had about as fun of a loss as you'll see on the ⚾️ field, 18-13 to Jamestown.
The next day the women's ⚽️ team was in the Cities to challenge Bethel but finished down 1-0.
A pair of softball postponements on Wednesday foreran the men on the pitch also at Bethel. This time a goal by Nate Weaver gave Concordia their first advantage of the week & they left the field up 2-1. 🏐 was also in the Metro, to face Hamline but were unable to make it a Thursday sweep, 3-1.
⚾️ was back on the diamond Friday against St. John's but also lost 3-1. In Morris the women's ⛳️ picked them up with a 16 stroke W.
⚾️ joined the party in the Cities with a pair at Hamline Saturday which they were able to split, 10-7 (W) & 5-4 (L). A third-inning grand slam by Thomas Horan helped them comeback from a first-inning 5-0 deficit and then he drove in the leading run in the fourth, CC held on from there.
The women of the bat & ball took on St. Olaf at home but left with a bitter taste, 12-2 & 3-1.
On the links the men took a few too many strokes against St. Johns, 297-292.
Saturday concluded with the track teams at late-season events. The men finished just off the lead in Collegeville while the women just made the podium at St. Benedict's.
Softball was back at it on Sunday but were chopped down two more times by St. Kate's, 6-4 & 8-0. Women's ⚽️ wasn't much better against the same university, 2-1. 🏐 hooked Gustavus but were shutout. Men's 🎾 went against St. Scholastica but were also unsuccessful, 7-2 but best for last, the women of the racket took care of business by that same score.
Minnesota had reached a point in the season of not being worth discussing but that prank of an organization found a way to overcome that.
Just yesterday it was announced that A-Rod (& a billionaire associate of his) would be purchasing the club.
It's a borderline laugh-to-keep-from-crying situation.
They just can't get out of their own way.
Maybe Rodriguez will prove more competent than the great-one has in his ownership of Charlotte but those wins may come in the aftermath of another relocation. The current moniker is not as synonymous with the state as the previous team to leave so it wouldn't be as negative in that respect. But now the decades of bungling by the front office appear to be ending so it would be a big, old stinker for them to move to Vegas or Seattle.
It's 100% speculation by the fans at this point because the dots are so easy to connect. The one saving grace may be the two year transition in ownership. If Rosas & Finch haven't lead them to the playoffs by then, then it will be over. But if they have then enough money may come in to help persuade the pair to keep the club at the Center.
That team is rarely boring!
The first full week was up and down for the Identicals. The good included the full force of their offensive potential and some pitching that was equally as dominant. The bad has been mostly Miguel Sano & Alex Colomé.
The trap is reacting to each game, and maybe every at-bat, as though it has the weight of the events during football games. When there are potentially as many 162 games that is an exhausting proposition.
As for the one that the way that the third series of the year ended, it may go down as a black mark on the calendar or maybe Seattle can actually be that good in August. That can't be used as a justification in the locker room but from the outside it needs to be considered. Inside the building everyone needs take another look at the drawing board and see what they can do to shore up the two glaring weaknesses before Boston takes the field on Monday.
And then there were four
...games, that is
The sixth-final game of the season had them in Omaha but three straight goals by the home team was too much of a hole for them to dig out of, 3-2 final.
It was a different story in Des Moines yesterday.
Aaron Huglen hit the net in the final minutes of the first period and Brennan Boynton shut them out before being replaced by Andrew Miller after collapsing on the ice. Team president Cary Eades posted that Boynton was evaluated at a hospital and allowed to return with the team but only time will tell how it may impact the D1 commits availability the rest of the way.
As for the two periods of puck that followed, Miller maintained the net-closure while Tristan Broz doubled the advantage five minutes into the second. And that proved to be enough to win.
They now trail Tri-City by four points while Omaha is just two back of the Bolts. Fargo almost needs to sweep the final four and get a break from T-C to regain the top spot in the conference for the playoffs.
The Birds continued their roster construction with a several more moves. From the free agency pool they signed pitchers Cam Hatch (unknown if there's any relation with the realtor) & Brent Jones as well as Correlle Prime & John Silviano to help man the infield. In addition they traded with Missoula for OF Jacob Crum but the compensation was TBD. With a little more than a month remaining until they start play each day may include a nugget about the team, so don't miss out!
Like a business with a soft-opening, so was the ND high school sports scene from the last week. Considering how early April can be, they're still ahead of the curve but nonetheless, it limited the amount of conversation that could be had about it. The last vestige of snow season locally concluded with Moorhead's weightlifting team. They had seven top-3 finishers for both the girls & boys at the state competition, including six champions.
Moorhead also got a posthumous record-entry when it was discovered that Brady Walthall had finished the year three points beyond 1,000. He's the 12th player in the Potatoes history to get into quadruple-digits.
Much more to come but those are great conclusions to the second portion of the year!