NDSU kicked off the week with a BIG showdown by the ⚾️ team against Minnesota on Tuesday. They fell behind twice over the first three innings and remained that way until the 8th but then Nick Emanuel drove in a pair and Minnesota wasn't able to answer. The Herd added two more in the ninth for good measure, to win 7 - 4. Both of the diamond teams took the field on Friday but all three ended in defeat for team Green. It got only slightly better on Saturday as ⚾️ took one off Northern Colorado while Softball dropped both of their chances. In the win, Brock Anderson & Calen Schwabe each accounted for 3 RBIs. In Tulsa the 🤼 started the conference championship, Cam Sykora & Andrew Fogarty advanced to today's finals. Sykora became the first winner for NDSU in the Big 12 while Fogarty was runner-up for the third straight year. Up in Sioux Falls, the 🏀 teams managed to win each of their openers by a combined 6 points. Great for the ladies but should be eye-opening for the guys as Denver nearly pushed them to the NIT. On the bright side, SDSU did lose last night. Both of the bat and ball teams closed out their time in warmer climates today as well. Softball lost 6 - 8 while ⚾️ came back from down 3 - 1 to win 9 - 3.
Moorhead started the week with semi-final 🏀 by the men against Northern State. The national championship contenders prevailed but with the result, I'm curious whether the team will be granted an at-large bid into the D-2 tournament. It's a semi-long shot but not a total impossibility. Softball was the only other sport for Moorhead this week and they only prevailed in 1 of their four goes, a 7 - 5 win.
The Corn started rolling with some ferocity this week. ⚾️ started the week with a doubleheader in Winter Haven, FL. It took all of 3 games but they walked off on a Max Boran single. In the replay, they didn't take that long to claim the W, as they built a 13 - 1 advantage on out of 15 hits. 🎾 wasn't as fortunate to start the week as the men & women each lost both of their outings. They bounced back on Tuesday with 4 - 3 wins against Midway but Softball split in their double-feature with a 4-0 win & 8 - 3 loss. Both teams returned to the diamond on Wednesday. ⚾️ fell 11 - 1 while Softball split again, with an 8 - 5 win this time. And again on Thursday, won 2 - 1 and losing 2 - 0. 🎾 had a split by the women as well while the men won each of their chances. When ⚾️ went out, they won 5 - 2 & 17 - 2 and the 17 run game was very balanced. In their next time out, however, they were on the wrong end of a 7 - 3 and Saturday wasn't much more kind to any of the others. The 🎾 teams each lost 9 - 0 and 🏒 lost in the conference championship, 3 - 2 to St. Thomas. ⚾️ wrapped the week today with 7 - 0 & 7 - 4 scores in which they were the low scorer.
Fargo started the weekend at home against Sioux Falls then drove on through to Omaha for a one-off this afternoon. On Friday, they answered a first-period goal with four of their own by Carter Randklev, Joseph Dunlap, Brian Kramer & Lynden Breen before each team shut each other out in the third. On Saturday they traded goals during the first and third periods before settling it with a shootout. It took four tries but Kaden Bohlsen split the knot and seal the home sweep. Today included the kind of offense that can appeal to those who aren't fond of the sport for a lack of scoring. Fargo jumped out to a 2 - 0 lead by Adam Gajarsky & Aaron Grounds but Omaha tied before the clock had reset. The lead changed hands in the second only to become a tie again in the third off Breen's stick. He then proceeded to score the go-ahead goal 20 seconds later. Omaha managed one more tie before Bohlsen got his second game-winner in as many days. 9 goals in total, if you were wondering about the math. With the wins, they put themselves .005% behind Omaha for second place in the Western Conference.
Because of all the tweets, grams, Facebook posts and photos from the SHAC during the tourney, I'm just going to let all that stand. The night before Concordia hosted the section semi-finals which put Fergus Falls VS Pelican Rapids to go to state and the Vikings won in classic March fashion but don't just take my word for it!
And for every winner, there is the loser. Moorhead made it to the section semi-finals but couldn't get past Buffalo to earn a rematch with Maple Grove. It's the time of year for the bittersweet of a successful season that ends too early. Which is why moments like Pelican's are all the more enjoyable.
The Spuds took their shot at State this week in 🏒 but lost out on consecutive days to end their successful season as well. Meanwhile, back across the river and up the road, Central Cass won their way to fourth place at the class B girls tournament. There's a lot going on but I think I hit on everything salient.
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