Will "Minnesota Scores" even try to keep up with spring high school sports schedule information? It's normally a go-to site. That's in normal and orderly high school sports seasons: the fall and the winter. Things get haphazard in the spring. No comparison to fall and winter. The weather and the conditions are of course the factors.
As I write this, there are still piles of snow in various places. The rain fell last night (Wednesday). I have a snowdrift just behind my house that is still so big, I can't get a ladder in place to attend to my rain gutters. And now we're getting rain.
So what's it like for the high school kids to try to get outside? Will a feeling of "desperation" set in, as athletic directors seek to get their schedules going? To what extent can the parents and fans enjoy themselves, like on Tuesday of this week? I doubt that a whole lot of them turned out. Am I happy the games got played? Not if it was an ordeal for the kids. Maybe they would say it was not. Youth has resilience.
A saying in baseball is that the pitchers are ahead of the hitters at season's start. That appeared to be illustrated on Tuesday. The Tigers got their first game in. Congratulations I think. The Hancock bats were sure not ready. Or was it a case of our pitcher being super-duper? The MACA pitcher was Drew Huebner. He pitched six innings and struck out 15 batters. Not exciting for the fans to watch, as it's nice to see a ball in play more often. The outfielders just stand out there. Quite a contrast with basketball!
Huebner's pitching was part of the 10-2 season-opening win by the Tigers over the Hancock Owls. Action was here at Chizek Field.
What are the odds of games being played either today (Thursday) or Friday? Sometimes I do get surprised by how sports adapts to the weather. Still I'm skeptical right now. When on earth is the "softball complex" going to be deemed ready? I'd eat my hat if anything happened there before the weekend, or even early next week. But we'll see.
Our high schools need to take a serious look at whether these outdoor activities should even be attempted prior to May. I have written this before. Why do we assume this huge letdown from fall and winter in terms of the level of excitement with high school sports? Spring need not be any different. Something needs to get organized indoors. I mean, it sure works for fall and winter.
The Tigers took over their Tuesday game in the sixth inning. This they did with a nine-run rally.
It was Trevor Buss who began our scoring with a solo home run in the second.
Meanwhile Huebner on the mound showed a no-hitter type of flair. Chase Evink of the Owls broke up the no-hit bid with a single. Ambrose Rinkenberger doubled to drive in Evink. The game was still close but that would end in the sixth. Ozzy Jerome broke the game open with a double that cleared the bases. Jerome sent the ball into the gap. The score was made 5-1. The Tigers never looked back.
Huebner was totally in the groove with his pitching at the start: a skein of nine strikeouts.
Hudson Ver Steeg was the losing pitcher for the Owls. Let's acknowledge Donovan Curfman for his home run in the seventh. Davin Rose had his pitching arm exercised for four innings and allowed one run.
Softball: Tigers 7, Browerville 1
MACA softball made the pretty substantial trip to St. Joseph on Tuesday. The Tigers won their initial game of the new season, 7-1 over Browerville. Haley Kill pitched the whole way for the orange and black. Action was at College of St. Benedict. Kill set down ten Browerville batters on strikes.
Nice to see Cate Kehoe back in action after her injury hiatus. We missed her in tennis last fall. Kehoe got back in the swing with a home run. Amaya Raths showed a hot bat with a double and triple among three hits. Raths drove in two runs. Nora Boyle chalked up two hits and two RBIs. As a team we pounded out 13 hits.
Track and field: 'Waska meet
The Minnewaska school grounds were a "go" for Tuesday track and field action. So the Tigers sprang into action.
Lydia Fynboh sprinted to first place in the 100m dash. Heika Hall was No. 4 in the 300m hurdles. The high jump saw Mya Schmidgall and Hall place fourth and fifth respectively. Our boys team had Derek Waldbeser placing second in the 110m hurdles and 300m hurdles. Jack Tollefson and Blake Bruns were third and fourth respectively in the 400m.
Then in the pole vault, Grayson Gibson took fourth and Noah Malek fifth. The shot put had Mitch Moser placing fifth. The 4x100m relay unit of Vladimir Rosillo Lara, Mitch Moser, Grayson Gibson and Kendall Waldbeser took third.
Perham had a fine day with the team championship in both genders. The Tigers were fifth in both. Now pray for better weather conditions?
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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