Makenna Hufford showed a supreme power bat with her two home runs and a double. She drove in three runs and scored three.
Shannon Dougherty connected for a home run and had two hits. She drove in a run and scored two. Emma Bowman joined the top tier of contributors with her two-for-four line including a double. Her RBI total was three and she scored a run. LaRae Kram had a hit, a stolen base, two RBIs and a run scored.
Sydney Dietz turned on the jets to steal two bases, plus she had a hit and drew two walks. Katelyn Wehking and Hannah Fischer each had a hit and a run scored. Brianna Marty drew two walks and scored two runs.
Two Benson Braves had two hits: Marissa Connelly and Sarah Brandt. One of Sarah's hits was a double.
The Tigers played flawless ball in the field. Our eleven runs came on eleven total hits. Benson had a line score of 4-8-3. On to pitching: Brienna Dybdahl picked up our win with the full seven innings. Her sharpness was underscored by nine strikeouts and no walks issued. Benson had fair success vs. her with eight hits. The losing pitcher was Bella Wolter who walked four batters and had no strikeouts.
The Tigers' big inning was the fourth with eight runs streaming home. Benson scored one run each in the second through fifth innings. The MACA win was coach Mary Holmberg's 600th. It's awe-inspiring. I remember working with Benson coach Barb Schwarz when I wrote sports for the Hancock paper and Barb coached the Benson-Hancock kids in summer. B-H had a formal partnership in the sport for a long time. Ken Grunig was coach. His main gig was as Hancock band director. The Hancock Record is defunct.
Baseball: Melrose 8, Tigers 5
Thursday was not so upbeat for the MACA boys of the diamond. It was a day of home action at Chizek Field. Visiting team Melrose, the Dutchmen, prevailed by an 8-5 score. Melrose seized the upper hand early.
A bright spot was Zach Bruns' three-for-three line. Riley Reimers' bat produced two RBIs. Pitcher Brandon Jergenson had a rough outing but four of the eight runs he allowed were unearned. The winning pitcher was Tyler Rademacher.
Gabe Schwieters knocked in two runs for Melrose who improved to 8-5. Meanwhile the Tigers came out of Thursday at 9-6.
The Tuesday Tiger win
Please click on permalink below to read my summary of the Tuesday 9-4 baseball win over BOLD. Riley Reimers had the key hit: a double. This post is on my companion blog, "Morris of Course," and it also includes a review of the softball team's big 14-3 win over Minnewaska. Thanks.
Softball at home today
I'm posting this on Friday where the schedule shows a home game for the MACA softball Tigers, "home" being the new place out east of town. It's our second game at the new facility. We'll see how it works out on days when there is a generous fan turnout, which of course is something we should all hope for. "The more the merrier."
I have doubts that a large fan turnout will be entirely satisfied there. This is speculation of course. Either the fans can find ways to see the game in an enjoyable way, or they'll just be happy to be there. If everyone's happy, there's no basis to complain.
I can't help but think we were all misled by the early reports on the project out there. I'd argue the term "softball complex" was misleading. It got us thinking that something pretty spectacular would be seen by now. As the weeks passed, I noticed this was not happening.
In its essence, this project was about one new varsity field. Everything else is quite modest or secondary, and the pre-existing UMM field appears to be unchanged. UMM fans have been very happy there. I'll suggest they will find the new field less accommodating. But time will tell.
I don't know about all the signs acknowledging sponsors. It gets to the point where it seems a little tacky. Will these names be there forever? A suggestion: Whenever an opposing team comes with a substantial number of fans, Morris fans should stay out of the limited bleachers behind home plate and be cordial hosts: allow the visiting fans to sit there. Seating is so limited. I actually find this to be unbelievable. Who planned all this?
The dugouts are too long and large and this impedes fan viewing. I guess the new Hancock softball field has dugouts where some fans can sit on top! Seems strange but it might work fine. It shows that the Hancock planners were sensitive to fans' needs. So the Morris dugouts include storage space? Why couldn't a separate little storage building be built off to the side?
I'll bet the area around the field will be muddy today. Well, good luck anyway, but I just don't see how the City of Morris could justify contributing $150,000 for this. There are any number of ball fields around Morris. Are baseball and softball the only way for our young people to get healthy fair weather exercise? Well, I don't think so. When I was a kid we'd play sandlot baseball where we'd be self-starters. I guess that's out of an old Norman Rockwell painting. You'll say "who is Norman Rockwell?"
- Brian Williams - morris minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
No comments:
Post a Comment