UMM wins with command versus MLC

UMM came out of its recent series of games vs. Martin Luther with great satisfaction. Nothing but wins! 

"Martin Luther" means of course we're playing religious people. The real Martin Luther led a rejection of the Catholic Church. Pretty dicey. And right now the Catholic Church is in the midst of conflict and controversy with what is going on between Pope Leo and the U.S. presidency of you-know-who. Why does the nation put up with this? Why doesn't everyone just roundly condemn the president for claiming that the pontiff "wants Iran to have a nuclear weapon?" 

All past presidents have felt the need to respect the Pope as a revered religious leader. The Catholic Church is not perfect because human beings are not perfect.  

Martin Luther College of New Ulm has a "knight" as its logo. Looks like a knight right out of the movies. Looking at this reminds me of a movie scene that made me laugh out loud. It's from the Mel Brooks movies. This was "Silent Movie" that had Brooks himself as one of the three leading actors. I have always felt this was an underrated Brooks movie. 

"Silent Movie" was really a silent movie. Only one spoken line and that was by Marcel Marceau the famed mime! He blurts out "no!" in a scene. Funny. But the specific scene I am referencing in relation to "knights" includes Liza Minnelli. Brooks and his two partners are trying to get Minnelli's attention. They want to make a pitch to her for being in the threesome's planned "silent movie." Liza is seated at the commissary on a movie production lot. 

The three protagonists approach her disguised as "knights" and dressed fully as such, with all the metal! So they simply try to sit down with her. Pretty hard in a knight get-up. So we hear the sound effect of metal-on-metal as the three simply try to sit down. They keep falling over. Real slapstick or physical comedy and it sure worked with me! 

Martin Luther College of New Ulm is certainly Lutheran but not part of the Lutheran mainstream. The college is affiliated with the Wisconsin Synod which in my mind is sort of an extreme or fringe faction. Since we're talking about the Pope let's bring the Holy Father into it: the Wisconsin Synod of the Lutheran Church believes the Pope to be the antichrist! So the college would have to answer for that. I don't know why those people stick their neck out in this way. This would only hurt church membership IMHO. 

Churches are struggling to maintain their flocks as it is. But to each his own I guess. 

Yes the Catholic Church has had problems. But right at the present time my sympathies are with those people. 

Before I drop the subject of Martin Luther the person, I'll remind that he was one of the biggest anti-Semites in world history. He wrote a thesis that I would hate to quote because it's so raw and offensive. Martin Luther's words were used in the build-up to the holocaust of WWII. It was that bad. You just have to look at the historical record. 

Maybe the bottom line is that I don't like the divisions in humanity caused by organized religion. I rather admire the Jewish people as long as we're not talking about the outrages caused by Israel and its leader. 

Maybe it's true that "in the beginning, man created God." 

 

Mary Landherr

Cougars shine in three games

Well, the UMM softball team sure had its prayers answered going into the series of three games vs. Martin Luther College. The Knights proved no match for our Cougars who won 13-0, 11-5 and 12-2. Pretty one-sided. All three of these games were played at MLC. 

Taking a look at the 13-0 win, the Cougars pounded out 16 hits. They committed no errors! Our big inning was the second: seven runs. Three Cougars stood out in the boxscore, each with three hits. These hot bats were wielded by GingerAnn Lucas, Mary Landherr and Kendra Schmitz. Landherr drove in three runs. Lucas scored three. Lucas and Alyssa Thornton each had a double. The Cougars turned a double play. 

Alyssa Thornton pitched five innings for the 'W' and she struck out three batters, walked none.

 

Game 2

The 11-5 UMM win saw the Cougars come on strong in the late innings, the sixth and seventh. We finished with seven hits and had two errors. MLC actually out-hit us with ten. 

Kendra Schmitz

Kendra Schmitz was the only Cougar with a multiple-hit game and she went two-for-three with a run and an RBI. Landherr nd Ro Diver each drove in two runs. 

Morgan Wilhelm pitched the whole way for the win and she scattered ten hits. (I remember the major league baseball pitcher Hoyt Wilhelm from my youth, the knuckleballer!)

 

The Friday game 

The 12-2 win by UMM over Martin Luther on Friday saw Cougar bats produce the robust total of 15 hits. Taylor Johnson, Olivia Losee and Kendra Schmitz each had three. Losee and Thornton each had three RBIs. Landherr and Schmitz each had a double, and Taylor Johnson socked a triple. 

Alyssa Thornton pitched three innings and Marissa Anderson pitched two. Each stuck out a batter. Thornton got the win. 

Let's hope the weather gets milder as the diamond action continues.

Olivia Losee

 

- Brian Wiliams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com