Minnesota made some splashes in pursuit of a defensive turn around. The first addition was nose tackle Dalvin Tomlinson that they plan to use along side Michael Pierce. It won't surprise me if it goes as well as the Sheldon Richardson signing from a few years ago but like that one it's a one-year deal so any mis-fitting would not be long-term. Not long after, they came to terms with Patrick Peterson to help shore-up the backend of the defense. Will they still probably use a mid-round pick at corner - yes. With all the inexperience at the position this could be the latest version of what Terence Newman was in Minnesota. So, as another one-year experiment It won't surprise me if it pays higher dividends.
As far as the draft goes, the league penalized the Purple for a 2019 salary-cap violation with fines and the loss of a seventh round pick. Spielman will wheel & deal his way into several more but it's the action by the league is the most surprising of the developments this week.
With a little more than a month to go until the draft the mock-a-thon rolled on!
The ⛳️ teams lead off the week with a 9th place finish by the men and a weather-shorted stint by the women.
On Tuesday the winners on the diamond concluded a four-game set against Dayton with a 9-3 win thanks to sound, fundamental baseball. Zach Smith got the win with his four outs but he was one of nine pitchers to take the mound.
A cancellation for Softball meant that 🤼 was next on the docket at the national championships.
Fast pitch got back on the field Friday versus South Dakota & as they have so often in recent years dominated, 9-1 spun by Paige Vargas. They played the hosts early in the evening but couldn't quite muster the same level, falling 11-9 to Kansas.
⚾️ got the chance to sustain their winning ways against Western Illinois and did so with an 11-2 trouncing. True freshman Cade Feeney of Bismarck struck out seven over 6 2/3. The offense obviously picked him up from there!
🏐 closed out the day in the mile-high city with a 3-0 defeat. They were back on the court Saturday but with no better success.
A double-rematch with WIU went the ⚾️ teams way with 7-3 & 8-4 wins. Ben Smith pitched six innings in the first one, finishing with nine strikeouts while Evan Sankey K'd seven over the same number.
Softball also had a doubleheader but went down 9-5 to Kansas & 1-0 to Tulsa.
As for the 🏈 game, you'll have to tap the link!
In the wake of the win "Superman" Hunter Luepke was named conference Offensive Player of the Week! If you saw what he did then it came as no surprise!
The bat & ball teams went into a break with one more game each today. Softball lost their fourth in a row, 3-5 while ⚾️ had their eight-game winning-streak snapped, 7-9. It was the longest road streak in the nation and now they're "only" 14-4. So Newman seems primed to have two teams worth going out to see this year when the weather gets even better!
Moorhead St. was reduced to a pair of softball games against Crookston this week. They dropped the first 8-12 and the second 6-11. That doesn't give much to talk about since losses aren't dwelt-upon but the upcoming week has more to look forward to!
Cobber softball took their season to another gear with four games at mid-week in Mankato. They dropped the opener against Gustavus but then beat Bethany Lutheran 6-5. On Thursday they scored five runs unanswered to win 7-1 over Finlandia only to cap it off with a 4-0 win over Bethany to move to 7-5 on the year.
⚾️ picked it up with a pair against Crown on Friday. A six-run second inning helped propel them to a 10-2 victory but things went rotten in the corn field after that. The second game ended 5-4 while women's 🎾 was shutout by Gustavus.
Neither the men nor the women could do better on Saturday against St. Thomas, 0-9/0-9. 🏐 was also blanked by Bethel, 0-3.
The 🎾 teams were back on the court Sunday against the "Royals" but they again finished as shutouts against Concordia.
Anthony Edwards' star continued to rise with an offensive performance for the ages against Phoenix on Thursday. Not only was it the high mark for all rookies league-wide so far this season, it re-wrote the franchise rookie record as well as being accomplished by the third youngest player to ever score 40 points. The outing in the desert was the cherry on top of a dominant three-game stretch in which he scored 105 top in three games.
The ultimate goal is for them to retain their pick in the upcoming draft while still finding ways to improve the effectiveness and continuity of the players that will be on the roster moving forward. It's a tight-rope to walk but maybe Rosas can pull-off this impossibility as well! If they do continue the recent stretch of competitive, i.e. winning, 🏀 then the priority needs to shift to getting as many wins as possible to jack with what Golden State could get with the pick.
It's all pretty obvious but sometimes the most obvious things get overlooked & ignored because of their nature.
It was a good news/bad news kind of week for the Bolts. They took the ice against lowly Sioux City for a home pair but lost both 3-2. With the results Tri-City & Omaha both moved uncomfortably close to the conference leaders.
That's the bad news
The good news is that defenseman Jack Peart, forward Tristan Broz & head coach Pierre-Paul Lamoureux will be representing the organization in the All-American game on April 7th in Plymouth, Michigan.
They'll be on the road for the final three games of the month.
The birds made a pair of moves related to each other. They traded cash to Kansas City for right-handed pitcher Frank Duncan and then got money back from Missoula in exchange for catcher Zach Almond. That's minor-league ⚾️ for you!
The quiet of seasonal transition began to set in this week but the high school level still managed to make news. North Dakota's contribution came as Kindred played to it's first boys 🏀 championship in Minot over Edgeley/Kulm/Montpelier.
Which leaves plenty of happen on the Minnesota side.
Moorhead & Barnesville's boys 🏀 teams are alive into the section semi-finals while Hawley & Barnesville aren't done yet either. On the ice Moorhead's boys will go for a spot at the state tournament against Roseau on Thursday but their girls were eliminated by Roseau in the second round.
Moorhead's Jacob Andreason got a jump on many of the other Winter sports as he represented the Spuds at state for the 100 m breaststroke. Moorhead's gymnastics & 🤼 also finished their seasons this week.
While most of the finishes come with the sting of loss none of the experiences should be taken for granted!
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