The defensive makeover continued this week with the additions of multi-dimensional safety Xavier Woods and cornerback Mackensie Alexander after a one year experiment in Cincinnati. They also swung a trade with Arizona for young-veteran guard/center Mason Cole. At the cost of only a sixth round pick he will likely provide more this season than any of the offensive linemen taken in the sixth or seventh round.
The defense will still be addressed several times over during the nine picks that they currently have in the top 168 picks. But all the moves they've made further solidify that the offensive line is priority 1, 2 & 3.
The moves also mean that the Mockathon continues to gain clarity of which players to be aware when the clock starts running!
The class of the Summit League's ⚾️ has been Oral Roberts for a long time. NDSU traveled to Tulsa for a four-spot test against them. The series opened with a 12-inning, 6-3 win that was quickly followed by a 5-4 loss by the Bison. In the win Peter Brookshaw coaxed three of the eight walks and crossed home twice. The teams returned to the diamond on Saturday but that one finished in the Eagles favor, 5-3. The Sunday afternoon rubber-match included a 9-0 start by the Bison and a comeback in the final innings. Brookshaw, Bennett Hostetler & Tucker Rohde accounted for six of the nine runs by Fargo as they forced 10 walks but struckout 14 times. ORU finished with 3 & 5 which may be better or worse, depending on how you want to look at it. The club will be in Omaha for four before opening at home on the 9th.
As for the rest, track & field's men & women were in Wichita for a couple days of competition that as usual went very well for the Green & Gold!
Friday also included the first of two against SDSU in ⚽️. Game 1 finished 2-1, Bunnies, while the second was a 1-0 win for them as well. 🏐 picked it up with a 3-0 win over UND that included a 41 assist day by Kelley Johnson. Back at it on Saturday with the same result, except this time it was "only" 34 assists for the sophomore this time.
Softball had the first two of four at WIU, opening with a 6-2 loss but rebounding with a 16-0 smashing. Paige Vargas pitched all five innings in the win, only needing 63 throws. The W was capped by a three-run homer by Montana DeCamp. The back-half of the quad started with a 15-9 win by NDSU that was close until NDSU pulled away in the fifth inning with six runs. In the finale the Leathernecks took the lead in the bottom of the first inning and never looked back, 11-3. Darren Mueller's squad has not been as dominant as usual, I guess you could say that's a bit of a theme this Spring, but progress has been made with two weeks until their home opener.
Moorhead State went 5-5 this week, the wrong way. It started with a doubleheader sweep of the softball team by Jamestown on Wednesday.
⚽️ traveled to Minot on Friday but were outdone 3-1.
🎾 closed out the week in Bismarck but even their 7-0 start to the year wasn't to be sustained, 5-2 against Sioux Falls and 7-0 against Augustana.
The one bright spot of the week came when Lorenzo McGhee was named to the All-Central District second team, an 11-player list. With the departures that Northern State has experienced since their season ended the men's 🏀 team could be primed to clear the final hurdle in Sioux Falls. They'd probably prefer to do that against one of the nation's best programs but a conference tournament victory would be sweet either way!
Concordia started the week slowly but hit their stride in the final days of the week.
Losses by ⚾️ & 🏐 Tuesday & Wednesday were followed by a split doubleheader against the Dragons on Thursday. They scored 18 runs during the fifth & sixth innings to come from behind & win 19-10. As you would expect, everyone got in on the hit parade!
In total contrast, game two finished with Moorhead State ahead 2-1 after Samantha Gjerde's smart base-running in the sixth.
The tide had been turned though and ⚾️ kept it rolling against Morris. The Cobbers strung-together the first six runs and closed it out with two more in the seventh to win 8-1. Moorhead's Ty Syverson got the 2-5, striking-out 8 and earning his third win of the season.
On Saturday men's ⚽️ was pushed to overtime by Jamestown but Brendan Koplin prevented a draw 3-3 in the 96th minute. The guys on the 🎾 court did stub their toe 6-3 against Northwestern-St. Paul while the women edged the Eagles 5-4. In Collegeville the men finished between Morris and St. John's on the board. At the same time the women's track & field were at St. Benedict and likewise finished one spot below the leader.
Softball was back on the diamond on Saturday as well and hung 36 runs on North Central while surrendering 0. Senior pitcher Megan Gavin struck-out all 15 batters that she faced in a program-first performance during game 1. The hot bats were only getting started as they scored 21 in the second game of the day.
🏐 also had a DH, against Augsburg & St. Mary's but they were dusted 3-0 & 3-1.
Back on the diamond Sunday, softball used a 14K, 1-hit performance by Gavin to cruise past Morris 8-0. The second game of the back-to-back was more of a challenge but Amber Taylor did just enough to earn her seventh victory of the season, 6-5. ⚾️ closed the week with their fifth win of the season, 9-5 over Morris.
Minnesota made a move with Alex Kiriloff that had been speculated about frequently but still kind of came out of left field. Instead of opening the year with the highly-touted prospect they optioned him to St. Paul to start the year. If he spends the first few weeks of the year there then the team saves a full year of financial control.
The business of sports can be contentious from the athletes perspectives but it again shows that they aren't that far removed from the people who have to deal with corporate thinking frequently. In the starkest terms it would be stupid to waste a year of playing time for a few weeks to open a season.
Then, in the last few hours they made another move that wasn't exactly blatantly obvious with a five-year extension with Randy Dobnak. It reportedly could be worth as much as 30 million dollars but is a base 9.25 million over the life of the contract. As a back-end of the rotation guy who can also help in the pen that's another shrewd move for them to make!
Opening day is just around the corner so news about the club will keep coming, make sure you don't miss out!
Fargo closed out the month with three on the road.
In Waterloo on Friday Cody Monds & Ryan Richardson shot the Bolts to a 2-0 lead in the first eight minutes of action. Before the period was done the lead was cut in half but Fargo got that back and then some, the rest of the way. The Bear (Hughes) pushed it back to two a minute into the second and then Richardson got his 11th to secure the win six minutes into the third.
On Saturday in Sioux Falls they were doubled-up 4-2 but rebounded with an OT game in Lincoln. Andrew Miller was only challenged 17 times but the 17th was the breaking point as they dropped the contest 3-2.
Of the eight games that remain in the regular season four are at home, in alternating fashion with the final two games on the road. The next two, against Omaha, may prove to be the defining set of games of the season as both Tri-City & Omaha are still nipping at Fargo's skates.
It was a quiet week for the Birds but they did make another trade just ahead of the weekend. In exchange for two players that will be determined later they added catcher Manuel Boscan from Milwaukee. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that that's a sign that they like the idea of him handling duty behind the plate quite a bit. I know, that's a pretty bold statement but I'm going with it anyway.
As the last vestiges of the Winter season were whittled down, Moorhead's boys 🏒 kept their season alive into the Cities with a 5-1 drubbing of Roseau. They'll hook Lakeville South on Wednesday at 1 at the X.
Their 🏀 counterparts hung with Maple Grove til the final minute but weren't able to extend their season any further, 56-65.
With many Spring sport practices already underway the lull until the prep scene is back to full buzz will go by in a hurry! But if Moorhead's last standing can go a few more days that would be great!!
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