11-18

Minnesota is seven steps closer to the best three days as a pro 🏈 fan!

Here's the latest mock

NDSU's week began with a sixth place finish by women's ⛳️ in Elkhorn, Nebraska while the men won their second tournament in a row, this time by six stroke better than SDSU.

Friday began a wretched weekend as ⚾️ lost 6-8 to ORU while Softball's opener against Iowa State was cancelled. The men split on Saturday, 14-11 in the win & 18-2 in the loss. NDSU scored the first six runs and 11 of the first 12 but the fifth & eighth got it close. In the rout the biggest inning was the fourth - five scores - so it was just one of those days for all of NDSU's tossers.

Softball didn't fare much better, losing 10-4 to the Cyclones.

And of course there was the regular season finale at the Dome.

Due to today's weather all four of the transition-day events were canceled. Like I said, it was a wretched weekend for the Green & Gold.

In the aftermath of loss at the Dome came the tournament field layout. If NDSU is going to repeat as champion again then they'll need to get by Eastern Washington in the first round. That's far from an impossibility but will be a challenge nonetheless! Being clear of the four other Valley teams is a surprising & welcome aspect of the bracket. The rest about the playoffs will be over there.

⚽️ opened the week with a 6-0 loss against Bemidjist St. Monday and then on Friday finished down 2-1 only to concluded the week with a 1-0 loss by Minot St..

Softball did get one win over SW MN, 2-1 despite the Mustangs threatening late. They more than made up for it with a 7-0 win in the rematch.

Moorhead State was also bit by the snow on the softball field but not before squeezing in one of the two against Sioux Falls. It finished as a 14-0 loss so maybe the snow should have come a little sooner.

The only other event to get finished was in Sioux Falls with the women's ⛳️ landing below 11 other teams on the leaderboard.

The Cobbs got the week rolling the wrong way with a men's ⛳️ postponement & losses by men's ⚽️ 2-1 to St. John's & 3-0 to Augsburg by 🏐 on Wednesday.

Softball helped execute a course-correction Thursday with a pair of 9-1 wins over Hamline. Each of the runs scored came when Concordia was comfortably ahead and in the second game five of the nine came via the long-ball.

On the heels of that, ⚾️ played to a split - winning 5-0 & losing 3-2. Sean McGuire opened the W with a two-run homer and scored the fourth run as well. In the loss they nearly completed the comeback from down 3-0 but were unable to get either McGuire or Matt Gruber in from scoring-position in the sixth.

They didn't have long to stew on it with another doubleheader yesterday against St. Mary's. The pair finished 10-3 & 8-7 with the Maroon on the wrong end. In the one-run loss it was a four-run eighth & two-run 10th that did them in. Men's ⚽️ also played to extra time against Augsburg but the final two scores of the match were off Cobber feet to secure them a 4-3 victory. The women's team wasn't as fortunate as they lost in extra time 2-1.

Men's 🎾 was dispatched by Hamline 7-2 while the women took care of the Ham's 8-1. Softball got to 4-0 on the week with 3-2 & 11-5 finals. The deciding run in game 1 came off the bat of Landry Maragos in the sixth while game two was decided much earlier thanks to eight runs over the third & fourth, all in-the-park. They were a mere two runs shy of a 6-0 week, after they beat Gustavus 6-1 and lost 3-2. They went from a wire-to-wire win to only leading at the end of one half-inning in the second. That's nearly as drastic a change as you'll find.

⚾️ on the other hand was unceremoniously pushed out of the week by St. Mary's. After going ahead 1-0 in the second they gave up 11 runs to none. The 🎾 teams didn't fare better as SM rolled the men 9-0 & the women 7-2. ⚽️ was able to keep it from being a clean sweep with a 3-1 win over St. Mary's men that was trending towards a shutout up to the 80th minute. The women's match against Augsburg was even closer but ended as another L for Concordia, 1-0.

That's a lot but the upcoming week has even more in store!

Minnesota went from playing poorly to not being able to play at all. The silver-lining to their unplanned break is that it could give them enough time to get their heads right and subsequently get of the schnide. It's the eternal optimism required to be a pro sports fan of a Minnesota team, even just one of them.

But optimism & pessimism can sometimes sort of coexist. Only time will tell if they can make the most of the pause.

As they needed to, the Bolts got back on track against Waterloo in their regular-season home finale.

Jack Peart opened the set with his first goal of the season just before the first intermission. His fellow defenseman, Owen Gallatin, doubled the lead 76 seconds into the second only to have the Bear stretch it to 3-0 27 seconds after that. Brennan Boynton was back in net and held up the advantage he was given, blocking 23 of 25 shots. In-between the two scores that did get by him was the fifth of the year by Gallatin to secure the double-up.

Fargo came back even better in game 2!

Tristan Broz got scores 18 & 19 of the season before 10 minutes had elapsed in the first period. Jacob Braccini added his 11th 8 seconds into the next frame and again Boynton rode the bull to victory from there. This time it came after Nick Strom & Aaron Huglen also got in on the act, pushing Fargo ahead 5-0. The one for Waterloo didn't come until there was less than three minutes remaining in the contest.

Fargo heads to Sioux City for the regular season finale Friday/Saturday against the fifth place team in the West. With only one point separating them from conference-leading Tri-City the pressure - and the thrill - is still very much in play for Fargo. The fly in the ointment is that T-C just lost three in a row to Des Moines, which pushed Sioux City out of the four spot, and has three games remaining, not two. It's setup to be a great fight to the finish!

The only bit of news this week that related to the Birds was more about the facility they call home. Ao1 announced they'll be resurrecting their charity softball game just over two months from now on June 26. It's the third year in a row that the event has been planned, but like so many other things, was foregone last Summer.

The up & down of the weather wasn't able to totally shutter high school level events. Moorhead lacrosse began their second season on Thursday at home against St. Cloud Tech, winning 9-4 and then were at Brainerd yesterday, finishing ahead 14-2. The girls also had a 2-0 start to the year, winning 8-5 in their opener against Brainerd, Thursday & 17-5 over SCT Friday. As new as it still is to the region the interest is still low but being that it's a cross between 🏒 & 🏀 I have a feeling it will catch-on well!

North's softball team also had their first action of the year, against GF Central on Friday. It finished as a shutout but both teams made some nice plays which were fortunately captured!

Along with those & many more events this week came the announcement of two ND all-star game rosters, first was for the Shrine Bowl while the other was for Optimist volleyball. Barring another round of world-altering events they and the rest of the slate of games should go off!

To close out this one, in the event that you missed it, former West Fargo prep star Andy Young made another memorable moment in his young professional career on Thursday!