We're finally nearing the real thing!
As the next two colleges did, NDSU sent competitors to Des Moines for the Drake Relays. And as usual, both the men and the women did exceedingly well in their events through the conclusion on Saturday!
Closer to home, ⚾️ was in Brookings for a quartet. The opening pair on Friday finished 5-0, NDSU & 3-2, SDSU. In the win Parker Harm threw a three-inning save with six strikeouts. The senior hurler from Mandan may be able to translate those sorts of performances into a professional career. The Blue Bunnies blew-out game 3, 12-2 but NDSU rallied in the finale to win 13-12 in 10. There were as many lead changes as errors, 3 by each team.
At the Tharaldson Park NDSU took game 1 against Omaha, 3-1 but also split the day, 5-3. In the win Omaha only lead for a half of an inning, the top of the second and Lainey Lyle did the rest. Sunday wasn't as kind as they dropped game 1 8-0 & were unable to even it out due to the weather.
The women's ⛳️ also began the end of their conference schedule on Saturday in Kansas. They're currently in seventh place, 46 strokes off Denver's lead. Taylor McCorkle has had the best individual performance, currently in a tie for 18th, 13 behind the leader. They will have a chance to improve their standings Monday & Tuesday.
And then there's the playoff game.
With a team that is as young as the current one is, everything they are able to do right now is a bonus for the Fall. Should they be able to beat Eastern Washington more often than not? Yes. But it took in-game development for them to comeback and advance to the next round. Which means that they get another week to work with all the young guys and that is the real win.
But a second half shutout by the defense and six touchdowns by the O is a great way to go into the game against another familiar non-conference opponent! The trick will be building on the successful recipe that they managed to implement during halftime and the second half.
Moorhead had another light week, begun by the fastpitch on Wednesday against Mary. Game 1 was close, finishing 5-4 in favor of the home team while UM made it a 2/2 day with an 8-2 win in the rematch.
Then came the highlight of the week as Nadir Yusuf set a new school record in the 10,000M by 46 seconds. In so doing he became the first Dragon individual ever to win at the relays in Des Moines. As if that wasn't enough, the time earned his a spot at nationals. But there's more, it was the best time of any runner in the conference this year and fourth best in the country. The win was the first for Moorhead State at Drake since 2017 when the women's distance medley relay had the best finish.
On Friday, 🎾 advanced 4-0 in the conference tournament over Sioux Falls but Winona St. got them 4-3 on Saturday. ⚽️ season also concluded with a small tournament at home that they were able to win, 3-2 over Sioux Falls.
Softball was back on the diamond but Augustana got them 9-0 x2 while Wayne State won 4-1 & 5-7 to end the week.
The Cobbers week started with the women's 🎾 losing 7-2 to St. Benedict and only slightly improved Wednesday when softball lost 4-0 & 9-5 against Bethel. The only other event that went off as scheduled finished with the men's ⛳️ team edging Fergus Falls 310-328.
Women's ⚽️ had Thursday to itself but finished down 3-2. 🏐 followed that with a shutout loss against St. Thomas while the track teams also competed in Des Moines.
Another busy Saturday included a split by ⚾️ against Macalester, 11-4 (W) & 6-1 (L). They scored the 11 runs from only nine hits and were ahead 9-0 before the fourth inning was through. Matt Gruber had the greatest individual impact with two hits and three RBIs. Softball wasn't quite as successful, losing 6-0 & 9-6 to St. Thomas.
The ⛳️ teams were back in action as well, with each finishing in 10th places at their invitationals on Saturday but the men moved up one Sunday while the women dropped to the bottom of the board. ⚾️ and softball both had postponements today while each of the 🎾 teams went down 9-0 against Macalester.
Minnesota's battle to the bottom continued in Utah on Saturday night. Even with six teams in contention for the top-three most ping-pong balls the Howl can win a little without it completely derailing their chances. The top team in the West, with only three losses at home all season, is not when anyone would have expected them to pull off a W. But Anthony Edwards keeps progressing and the team put together it's best three quarters of defense yet this season to pull off the 101-96 stunner. With 11 games remaining it's going to be a dog-fight to the finish as Houston is currently riding a 13-game losing streak while the other four are not making much better efforts to finish ahead of their opponents an night of the week.
We're still early in the season but the results continue to be far worse than expected. Even so, holding out on making any determinations until May or maybe June still seems prudent.
Despite sitting atop the West standings for most of the season Fargo fell off at the end and will now have to get by Tri-City for their season to continue. It's already been said but it's only a slightly better outcome than missing the postseason all together. A win against Sioux City in either of their final two games could have gotten them home-ice advantage with the 2 seed. As it is, they'll play Friday/Saturday evening with Sunday afternoon set as the possible rubber-match.
With the proximity to the start of the season it had become a bit of a foregone conclusion but the Birds officially announced Chris Coste as the fourth manager in the team's history after acting as the interim last Summer. It sort of makes him the unofficial president of the local ⚾️ scene and may be the finally jigsaw piece ahead of the season starting.
In the midst of everything else going on, only made it to one softball game as Moorhead visited West Fargo and captured some of the best images yet! The trend toward consistency continued with many more results on both sides of the state lines but none more outstanding than the rest.
Fargo's semi-amateur team opened the season in Rapid City but came up two points short. They'll open the conference portion of their schedule next Saturday against East Grand Forks' team on their new home field at Moorhead high.
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