The Week That Was

As if any more examples of life's fragility were needed, NDSU was connected to another one this week as 🤼 signee Damian Mendez passed away.

On a lighter note, Recruitment news continued to come in this week for the Herd, including a quarterback from a rarely-tapped location.

It was also announced that six members of the women's ⛳️ team are among this year's All-American Scholars.

This week included a few kernels. Two of them related to recruitment as women's ⚽️ & men's 🏒 announced their recruiting class. The other came Tuesday as an announcement of a resignation by head men's ⚽️ coach Andy Kohel.

The week included a few formalities as deals were announced and Rudy Gobert was introduced. Then the youngsters had their first action in Vegas, beating Denver as Josh Minott had a statement game with 22 points, 10 rebounds, 3 assists & a block while hitting two of three from deep, as did Wendell Moore who chipped in 10 points. The second game went far less smoothly with the two roster front-runners struggling to get much of anything in the box scores, though Minott did flash with his defensive intensity. Kevon Harris was able to pick up some of the slack with 17 points but the 70 - 63 rock fight didn't allow for a lot else.

That came after a 30 minute conversation about the team Thursday.

The Replicants started the week with another Central Division series win over Chicago only to drop the following set against Texas. Even so they continue to hold a moderate lead on the rest of the Central. With lowly Kansas City being the only team not several games behind them in terms of total games played the quality of their lead continues to be questionable.

What is less murky is that the pitching staff continues to be an area of considerable concern, which is unlikely to change for at least two weeks. On the brightside, it was announced that Luis Arraez & Byron Buxton are bound for the all-star game while Carlos Correa & Jhoan Duran are waiting to see if they will get a replacement role. Given the team's dependance on the bullpen it's a no-lose situation for our fireballer.

For the first time this season the Birds hit a rough-patch, losing three in a row but then got back on track with an 8 - 2 win over Sioux Falls Saturday & took the series Sunday 9 - 8. Following the all-star break they will have a four-game set against Chicago starting Thursday.

It was a two-match week for the men. Mid-week they hosted Minneapolis City, finishing with the advantage 3 - 2. They then had their final road match of the set schedule in La Crosse, WI and won going away, 3 - 0. Firmly entrenched in third place of the North Division of the Midwest Region they will tie a bow on the schedule Friday against the sixth place Minnesota Twin Stars.

The week's action kicked-off with a drubbing of Ada by D/G/F. A day later Moorhead & Post 400 had a 37-run rollercoaster with the Blues finishing ahead by three after jumping out to a 13 - 0 lead. At the same time Post 2 & West Fargo were having a pitcher's duel at Jack Williams, with the home team taking it 5 - 0. WF, along with a few of the other local teams, then hit the road for the weekend, with their first stop being Moundsview. The Patriots kept the games close but were yet again on the wrong end of the final scores.

In their first action of the Gopher Classic Post 2 played to a 3 - 3 tie with Brookings while Moorhead gave up one more run than that in a loss to Omaha-Burke. MHD bounced back against Bloomington by having their own four-run game while limiting them to two. Post 400's opening set of games were also tightly-contested but their three total runs were what Thunder Bay & Hopkins each finished with to secure the wins. Saturday wasn't any better as Forest Lake & Yankton got the jobs done. West Fargo had a better time of it against Coon Rapids while the Deuce shut-out Lino Lakes before getting edged by Millard West to end Saturday.

Moorhead started Sunday on a high-note, no-hitting Sioux Falls and could have matched WF for the longest run in the tournament of any team from the area as they ran their tournament record to 4-1 with a 5 - 4 win over Wausau but didn't get necessary help from Omaha-Burke to advance out of pool play. West Fargo extended their stay with a Sunday sweep. As for the rest, P2's Sunday doubleheader started with a 5 - 0 win over St. Louis Park as Zach Lamont threw a 3-hit shutout, the finale finished 3 - 1 in favor of Anoka. Post 400 was blanked by Mankato in their last game.

On the lower level Kindred came up just short two times against Wahpeton while Casselton was run-ruled by Gardner. Kindred bounced back by taking a pair off Post 2's JV with Matt Pearson striking out 11 in the first game. Kindred had it's final home game against Detroit Lakes, 5 - 3 for the Vikes. D/G/F got back on the field versus Hawley but weren't able to manufacture enough trips across home plate to win. The Rebels kept it rolling with a dominating effort against Post 2 Friday and a split against Post 400 & Bismarck Saturday.