With the extended Snow & cold there was a lot of talk with regards to the Twins about who benefitted from such conditions, the pitcher or the batter. The commonly espoused opinion was that the pitchers would have the edge. When the weather went from mid Summer to late Fall on Tuesday I was wondering which part of the game would be benefitted in the local high school action. The options were few, fortunate for the players, so I ventured to West Fargo to watch the Bruins at the Mustangs.
At times it seemed as though the pitchers would be in the spotlight but then one inning later the batts for Fargo South or West Fargo Sheyenne would come alive. With the wind whipping toward right field, and straight into the faces of the pitchers I was hoping that the half filled bleachers would be treated to a home run. Several hits came close, much to the chagrin of the right fielders who had to try and read the flight of the ball in their direction. Something like half of the flyballs towards the right fence were caught while the others were narrowly misjudged. I can't say that I would have done any better if put in that position.
So the hits came, but so did the strikeouts. It wasn't until the middle innings that the advantaged members became clear. A low scoring game into the fifth inning, the Mustangs then found themselves with a bases loaded situation. Chandler Buchert stepped into the batters box with the pressure of scoring the runs to put his team ahead, possibly by a healthy margin. One clang of the bat hitting the ball later and he had driven in three runs while getting himself to second. It was the bottom of the fifth inning and I would have guessed from there that the home team had taken all of the momentum.
A mere one half inning later & it was a different story.
The Bruins responded by filling the bases as well and in VERY similar fashion, Tanner Beaton delivered for his team with a three run double. But he didn't stop there, thanks in part to the acumen & error of the Sheyenne defense, Beaton quickly found himself in a hot box between second and third. The acumen showed up as the right handed pitcher made an adept move, spinning to his left and threw the ball to the short stop. The lead that Beaton took from second meant that his only course of action to not automatically get tagged out was to go for third base. As the toss went that way, it ricocheted off his helmet and went off into foul territory. Foul indeed, for the Blue & Orange, as it prolonged the inning and made the odds of at least one more run coming in all the higher.
Not long after, another Tanner stepped up to the plate with runners in scoring position. This time it was Tanner Dubois who had the chance to extend his team's lead. One more swing of the bat and another double made it's way into the score book. That concluded the offense for the evening.
So I don't know which could be called the winner. On the merit's for 14 runs being scored I may lean toward it being the batters but there were nearly as many innings with zero runs as there were with multiple. I don't like ties so I'm not going to call it a tie but it even with the offense that was produced I think that both the hitters AND the hurlers could take positives away from last night.
Both teams are chasing the Bulls of West Fargo so the doubleheader that Fargo South has with them on Friday will be a defining point of the Bruins' season! And hopefully the weather returns to "normal" so that there are as few variables to have to navigate as possible.