In the wake of the draft there was a lot of talk about the trades that KA-M made, putting lipstick on the pig. Many of the same people trying to pump up the moves would probably have cautioned against putting stock in draft grades until results on the field are in - funny how that works.
On a better note, the Purple are confirmed as one of the teams set to take their act on the road. They will face New Orleans in London as the "road" team week four, preserving the Purple Palace for all nine regular season games! Practically speaking, the League should always have the team with the worse venue as the home team.
They also announced the signing of fullback Jake Bargas and the decision to forego the fifth-year option of Garrett Bradbury's contract, which was of little to surprise to anyone who has followed the team since he was selected.
The week began with the highlight as Nate Deziel set the League record for lowest 54-hole score at the championship! With his ticket punched the brief wait until the tournament field announcement began, he will tee off in Stockton, CA.
⚾️ began it's week with their home opener against Mayville State, winning in go-away fashion, 10 - 0. It would be their only taste of victory as Miami took all three games off them over the weekend.
Softball ended their regular season with three against St. Thomas, winning the first two but struggling at the plate in all three.
The final week of the school year began with two more losses by the softball team.
At mid-week they hosted the Ron Masanz Classic, winning 13 events.
Concordia started the week with it's first softball sweep, beating Carleton 5 - 2 & 12 - 7. They liked the taste enough to have it again Tuesday as they took the field against Augsburg. Megan Gavin's 17 total strikeouts helped them to the victories and moved her into second place on the conference's all-time K list. She cleared the 700 mark with 16 more against St. Scholastica on senior day, which proved to be an inauspicious ending for the future hall of fame pitcher.
Macalester was the first one of the week for ⚾️ . They split their third-straight doubleheader to keep postseason hope alive. That was aided with a sweep of St. Mary's Wednesday. They continued to do just enough with a dramatic split versus Carleton Thursday. Trouble came Saturday against Bethel as the Royals took two but followed with another walk-off win to clinch a spot in the conference tournament. They'll finish the regular season Monday and play Bethel Thursday.
The conference meet also kept ambitions afloat while adding some hardware! The meet was also the site of a gutty performance by Wade Rhonemus in the decathlon. The Ole Open also yielded some good results on both the men's & women's side for Concordia.
Mysteriously splitting with Baltimore during the early portion of the week wasn't enough to put a pall on the club as they finished with a sweep of Oakland. Even as the temps rose their bats remained on the cool side, which makes it all the more impressive that they won five of this week's seven games, continuing their hot streak from last week. Along the way Josh Winder made League history with his first two starts! They will need guys to continue stepping in & playing well as the injury bug bites but the early cushion they're creating in the division does take some of the pressure off.
While their season came to an end last week the Bolts continued to make news since last Sunday. First they hired St. Cloud St. assistant Nick Oliver to be their new head coach. Still in his 20s, it's another step in his professional ascension. The team then got right to work adding talent for his first season with the two phase draft Monday & Tuesday. One of those new additions, Leo Gruba, along with forward Cole Knuble were ranked in the top 125 for the upcoming Hockey League draft.
With the season now just around the corner the team announced some changes to their attendance policy. On the heels of that the games began and they blasted the New Jersey Black Sox 23 - 3 over two exhibition games Friday & Saturday! They were set to have another exhibition Monday but it was cancelled which means they will next take the field for the regular season opener Friday in Winnipeg.
Reminder that scores are added daily plus there's a new home for recruiting news, so check back often!
The first loaded week of the Spring has come & gone! Here are the highlights
West Fargo & Sheyenne both exploded on the softball field in routs while North & Valley City had a 25-score adventure with the Spartans finishing ahead by 3. The West Fargo's kept it going Tuesday against North & Valley City, while preventing the pair from keeping the games close. The Mustangs rose to a crescendo with a 19 - 2 win over Shanley Wednesday. North bounced back with a 12 - 2 win over Shanley while West Fargo had a 9 - 2 outcome over Davies.
Out of town Hillsboro got it's first win of the season 16 - 6 over Enderlin. Thompson did even better, 18 - 1 versus Langdon. The Burros high was short-lived as Central Cass beat them 10 - 0 Tuesday. The Squirrel's repeated it Thursday in a cross-county clash. Things only slightly improved for the Eagles as Kindred took care of them 13 - 1 & 7 - 4. Which just left the jam-packed jamboree at the North Fargo complex, several games of which were captured Saturday.
Across the river D/G/F had a 12 - 2 win over Thief River. Fertile/Beltrami beat Sacred Heart 10 - 2. Ulen/Hitterdal did four better while holding East Grand Forks to the same output. Moorhead joined in with a 10 - 0 victory against Park Rapids. On the other diamond Ada/Borup beat Northern Freeze & Lake Park/Audubon by a 21 - 1 combined score during mid-week. Fertile then hung 13 - 3 on LP/A while NF went down 13 - 1 against Ulen.
The good ⚾️ continued as Sheyenne, Shanley & South all started with big wins. West Fargo then hosted D/G/F for a Wednesday afternoon special. North followed with a pair of shutout wins over Davies while scoring 15 & 13. On the outskirts Kindred had a walk-off win over Oakes. Northern Cass's Keegan Neva had a 16-strikeout performance Friday against Kindred and then the Jags got a one-hitter from Camden VanWechel in their first game at Enderlin's Invite. They ended on a high-note, beatting Hankinson Co-op 16 - 0. The weekend also included Maple River with a 12 - 2 win over Harvey & Hillsboro beating Oakes 11 - 2.
The week also included a chilly Monday at Fargo South as 16 🏃 teams descended, many of the performances can be seen, with West Fargo's girls & Red Rivers's boys accumulating the most points. Moorhead's Alonn Salman added a meet record in the 100m at the Wayzata Relays.
In addition to that, Moorhead's girls lacrosse bounced-back from a one-sided contest against Minnetonka to beat Brainerd 16 - 11. The boys also added to their win column 8 - 2 over Sartell/SR/R.
On the 🎾 court there was a string of shut-out wins as Sheyenne beat GFC & Mandan, Shanley topped Wahpeton & North held off South. North was a point shy of doing the same to West Fargo Thursday.
The pitch also produced with Davies & Sheyenne taking care of West Fargo & Shanley 3 - 0. The Mustangs then had a 4 - 1 day against South to end the week.
⛳️ also yielded some noteworthy outcomes. In Detroit Lakes Shanley's Zach & Jake Skarperud finished tied for first as Davies put together the best team score, tying Red River with 310. Jake Skarperud repeated the feat over two days at Edgewood while it was Sheyenne just behind Red River on the team leaderboard.
There was also news beyond the lines as South announced Davies assistant Trevor Olson to be it's new head girls 🏀 coach.
In addition to a few late roster announcements the mean had their first match Saturday in Sioux Falls. Efforts to learn what the final score was were unsuccessful but it has become clear that for at least this Summer the organization won't be having a women's team. That doesn't seem like the most effective approach to growing interest in the game locally but that hasn't seemed to be a focus and there are likely good reasons for the organizations decision.
Post 400 was in Watertown for a pair of games Saturday, coming a run short in extra innings of taking both games. They were able to make that up Sunday with a 2 - 1 win followed by an 11 - 5. Jacob Topp & Logan Sullivan each hit double-digit strikeouts.
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