Riley Asmus unstoppable in big win

The MACA diamond teams are showing they can be merciless when winning! So even though our school board is making pretty noticeable staff cuts - noticeable enough to draw 125 members of the public to the recent meeting - this apparent austerity is not affecting sports or at least certain programs. 

The last time I wrote about softball, the Tigers had just taken care of business in a 26-0 win over Benson. Mercy! 

This morning (Saturday) as I check the prep sports news, it's redux. This time it's with baseball. Here we see a crushing 22-3 victory over Lac qui Parle. Bart Hill has retired as LQPV coach. So he did not have to deal with this misfortune for the Eagles. Bart is of course a Morris native. He had a heckuva run with his LQPV Eagles. 

In the present time the Eagles are licking their wounds. Our Riley Asmus was like a wrecking drew at the Madison diamond. Riley's bat launched three home runs among five total by the orange and black. What a crowd-pleasing game for the Tiger partisans who made the trip! Riley is committed to Creighton for his future athletic pursuits. 

Look at Riley's boxscore line: five-for-five! He drove in ten runs. He crossed home plate five times. It doesn't end there. We saw his pitching flair on display too. He got the "W" by his name. He set down six Eagle batters on strikes. 

The other MACA home runs were off the bats of Drew Huebner and Justin Giese. The complexion of the game was established right in the first inning: nine runs for the Tigers. Let's acknowledge it was a bleak afternoon for the LQPV fans. Dylan Keimig supplied a LQPV highlight with a home run. Also hitting safely for the home team were Davis Patzer, Gavin Meyer, Tyler Erp and Brandt Schommer. Schommer's hit was a double. 

The MACA offensive review shows Andrew Marty with a hit in his only at-bat, a double. He worked the LQPV pitching for three walks. He crossed home plate four times. Riley Asmus had a double to go with his home run blasts. 

Ozzy Jerome had a hit, drew three walks and scored two runs. Alex Asmus had two hits and got hit-by-pitch twice. He scored a run and drove in a run. Jack Kehoe had a hit and a run scored. Jonah Huebner scored a run, drove in one, walked and stole a base. 

Jackson Hallman stole three bases and scored a run. Justin Giese went two-for-two with one of his hits a home run. He scored two runs, drove in three, drew a walk and stole a base. Hunter Smith doubled and scored a run. 

Drew Huebner had a two-for-three line including his round-tripper. He scored three runs. Kye Suess drew a walk and scored a run. 

Riley Asmus shared pitching duties with Jack Kehoe. Asmus worked four innings and Kehoe one. Asmus fanned six batters and Kehoe two. Only one walk issued by the Tiger pair. 

Onward and upward now for the MACA baseball crew? Just like the softball team? The school staff cuts sure aren't having any effect with these programs! Do I understand correctly that hockey is being made self-supporting? Is the public going to be good with this? You know what might happen: we'll hear cries for other programs to be self-supporting as well. 

I mean, why not? Why not football? Football is not even a safe sport for our boys to be playing. 

Some people consider band and choir to be "extracurricular." This has always been bandied about, whether music is extracurricular or part of the core learning. I don't care as long as it gets financial support. And wouldn't you know, band is not affected at all by the staff cuts. 

So we saw quite the exciting band concert this past week at the concert hall. The band program absolutely flourishes. Never a doubt about how committed the band directors are. We can always feel assured that the directors are idealistic people who go for the moon. Believe me, I have seen a number of Morris teachers through the years develop weaknesses when it comes to this. There have been times where I've had a hard time containing my discontent. 

There was a huge audience for the band concert which involved grades 5-8. I sat next to the mother of the seventh grade bass clarinet player. I told her "we all remember who the bass clarinet player was when we were in high school band." 

As an aside, let me say that I visited the Morris Public Library twice last week and did not see Anne Barber there. Certain people had assured me she'd be back. I can't believe it totally until I see her there sometime. I'm actually a little cautious about going to the library now. I mean, after all that has happened. Unfortunately there has to be a winner and a loser at the end of all this - maybe that's the most dispiriting aspect. 

I have never met our city manager. I refuse to make any negative assumptions about her. Is there anything the city council and mayor could have done to prevent the actual controversy, because controversy is never a good thing? The council has surely discovered how popular Anne is. She has ties to the UMM community. 

Do y'all think Donald Trump has a chance to become Pope? So many people have actually put DJT on a level with God and Jesus. We see this locally.

 

Addendum: The bass clarinet player when I was in band here was Peter Timmons! He has had quite the career as an attorney.

 

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