#0: Gopher baseball (Last Week: -2). Sunday afternoon both the Gopher baseball and Gopher softball teams were playing at home at the same time. I don't know if you've ever seen either game on campus, but Siebert Field and Cowles Stadium are right next to each other. In fact, they "share" the same behind-the-wall area; I can believe that a major-league slugger, given a fat meatball to swing at, could launch a homer from Home Plate in other ball park and have it land in the outfield of the other ballpark. That's how close they are. (And by the way, with the athletics complex now done, it looks pretty good. It's a walkable area not unlike going through campus itself. And you can go through this complex in order to get to the entrance of either Siebert or Cowles if you want to.)
Right up to the start of both ballgames, I didn't know which game to go to. There were a number of factors I had to run through my head, all of which made me procrastinate in my decision. The main one, actually, is Mother's Day. I don't know if there's going to be a big dinner in Mother's name. If we are going out to eat, I haven't been told which day; that day, I probably have to be home in the late afternoon. Moreover, while both teams are playing at home, only the baseball team is playing at home next week. Meanwhile, not only is the softball team not playing at home next week, this weekend was the regular season finale for them. And finally, the Loons play at TCF Bank Stadium Saturday afternoon, which is around the same time the baseball team plays Michigan St. at Siebert, which precludes me going to that game.
Beyond the factors, there were preferences. The baseball team had what is considered to be The Most Anticipated Series In Big Ten Baseball This Year, as the Gophers played Indiana, regarded as the two-best teams in the conference, even though they don't have the two-best records in the conference. That should make for a good, or at least important, series, but then again, Minnesota might lose. By contrast, the Gopher softballers, in second-place in the B1G themselves, was hosting a really bad Penn St. squad. They should win Sunday, I thought. Then again, they should have won Friday, but they were upset at home, 2-1, in Eight Innings. Any prospect of them hosting a Regional, faint as they were, vaporized with that defeat. And on top of that, I'm still salty that this team was ranked #1 in the polls, did not even host its Regional, and then proved the NCAA right by failing to win its Regional. I still blame the softball team.
In the end, I decided that I would take a chance on being able to see one game from the baseballers vs. the Spartans next week. Also, I had to fax something for Mother, and I don't know if I could do that in a long baseball game. College softball is only seven Innings, and chances are it would be fewer than that, especially from the wake-up call that came from Friday's shock defeat. There were some things I needed to do last/Sunday afternoon, and that was the final factor in deciding to walk to Cowles instead of Siebert.
I know that this entry is for the baseball team; bear with me. After the softballers mercy-ruled the Nittany Lions (and, now that I see the softball bracket, ended the Lions' season), I sauntered through the athletic complex to see if I could get a close-up of those sweet, solid red Indiana jerseys that team was wearing yesterday afternoon. I couldn't without stepping up to the front gate, so I walked to my car. But not before being able to see a close-up of the big outfield scoreboard which, if I recall correctly, had the Hoosiers leading the U. somewhere in the Fifth by a score of 5-3. I hate witnessing losses, it was about 3 o'clock in the afternoon, and I had chores I could do, so I think I made the right decision.
But blow me down, the Gophers came back to beat the Hoosiers, 7-6, in ten Innings! Those boys tied it with three in the Eighth Inning -- and in a sign of how powerful the line-up is, those three Runs were all solo Home Runs. (Terrin Vavra opened the U.'s scoring with a Homer in the Second.) And in the bottom of the Tenth, Luke Pettersen singled through the right side of the infield to bring home Cole McDevitt and complete the comeback.
And that in fact completes a sweep of the Hoosiers; they beat them 4-1 Friday and 9-1 Saturday. The Gophers are on a four-game winning streak (they blanked Concordia-St. Paul 5-0 Tuesday), and they are tied with Michigan atop the standings. The squad will certainly be the top-ranked B1G squad in the polls. And now, after sweeping a really good (and higher-ranked) Indiana club, there is faint talk that the U. could actually host a Regional this year. That would be something. These guys are clearly tops in the WMNSS this screening week, and talk of hosting a Regional lifts them up negative spots.
This weekend's series against Michigan St. is the last one at home for these guys. It may be the most unheralded seat in town. And if seeing the crowd from the other side of Cowles Stadium is any indication, more people have discovered the joy of Siebert Field this year than they have in any previous one.
#-1: United FC (Last Week: -1). All I can say is, thank the gods for Miguel Ibarra and Bobby Shuttleworth. The Loons were playing the last 40 Minutes of their game against Vancouver a man down after rookie Striker Mason Toye, making his first start of the year for MNUFC, elbowed Kendall Watson out of frustration in the Whitecaps' box and immediately got Red-Carded. But Ibarra, who apparently has the heart of a hummingbird, finally made his non-stop pestering pan out with a second-effort Goal from the equally hard-working Darwin Quintero in the 60th.
I hope that with the heart that he's shown this and last year, Adrian Heath now has complete trust in Batman. All Ibarra does is give 100%. It may not pay dividends, but the effort is there. Heath does have enough trust in Ibarra that earlier in the week, before the Transfer Window closed, MNUFC traded a different Winger, Sam Nicholson (who just got here), to Colorado for Defender and One Of Us, Eric Miller. (Note: I'm surprised, in a good way, that both Miller and Nicholson started their first games after being traded for each other.) Once again the Loons need help on D and went to the Rapids to find reinforcements. That trade last year, which sent back Marc Burch and Sam Cronin, immediately stanched the bleeding Backline last year; early indications with Miller after one match shows that this could be happening this year as well.
Have to note Shuttleworth's heroics in shutting out the Whitecaps (the team's first clean sheet of the season) Saturday afternoon. MNUFC was badly outshot, especially after Minnesota went up 1-0, but he made save after save to keep them off the scoreboard -- especially on a leaping save from Vancouver sub Brek Shea. (I really wanted to embed highlights from both the Ibarra Goal and the Shuttleworth Save here, but I can't find a decent video for either of them. Weird in this day and age.) So a four-game losing streak has turned into a two-game winning streak, and as it stands right now, they're in the playoffs. That's what home cookin' does for ya! They play five-of-six, virtually the entire month of May, at TCF Bank Stadium. But this week will be tricky: They go to the brand-new Banc Of California Stadium and play LAFC Wednesday night, then come back to host San Jose (that game where the Gopher baseball team will be playing Michigan St. not too far away from the stadium and Siebert Field) Saturday afternoon. Tricky week aside, things are looking up for this squad.
#-2: Gopher softball (Last Week: 0). I pretty much recapped this club's screening week in the baseball entry. None of the games they played against Penn St. went the natural seven Innings: There was Friday's match which they went on to lose in eight; they came back Saturday by slaughtering the Nittany Lions, 19-0, in the minimum five Innings; and in the contest I watched, they also mercy-ruled the Lions, 8-0 in six. While this team probably will not host a Regional, they definitely are in the NCAA Tournament, even if they flame out in this weekend's conference tourney, being played in Madison, Wisc. Note that this is single-elimination involving all but the teams with the two-worst league records (which are Penn St., which had faint hopes of making the tournament and Rutgers). The Gophers' first game will be Friday early afternoon versus either the host Badgers or Purdue. The Semifinals and Final will be played Saturday.
#-3: Twins (Last Week: -3). Went 4-3 this screening week, and although it's important to note that the Twinks had lost 11-of-12, including the first two games of their series at home against Toronto, they currently have won four of their last five, so maybe we all can put that horrible losing funk behind us. Credit for finally stopping that funk goes to Fernando Romero. The organization's best pitching prospect was called up for Wednesday's game against the Blue Jays, and he responded by going 5 2/3 Innings and allowing no Runs while striking out five. And even though they went to Comiskey and promptly lost the first game of the series to the White Sox Thursday, they took the last three. The White Sox: MLB's slump-buster?
They remain on the road this screening week. Romero makes his second start in The Show tonight (Monday night) at Busch against St. Louis in a two-game series. After taking a rare Wednesday off, they are in Anaheim to play the Angels and newly-minted 3,000-hit man Albert Pujols for a four-game set for the weekend.
#-4: Vikings (Re-Entry!). Forgot to talk about the NFL Draft in last week's WMNSS. All I can (and will; I have about 45 minutes before I have to wake up for work) say about the draft is that I'm disappointed that they didn't get more Offensive Line help. Yes, I hear that O-Line prospects were relatively meager this year, but that doesn't mean the Vikings didn't need the help. Instead, they spent their First-Round pick on Mike Hughes, a Cornerback from Central Florida who was kicked out of North Carolina his freshman year for fighting. On top of that, Hughes has a rape rap on him that's been dismissed. I'm saying that this isn't a guy one takes a chance on, and certainly not when the Vikings have decent bodies (not necessarily depth) in a position relative to other positions.
This is shaping up to be a make-or-break year. If this is any indication, this club will once again fail to come through in the face of overwhelming self-imposed expectations.
#-5: Wild (Re-Entry!). I also am tardy talking about the ouster of General Manager Chuck Fletcher. Let me say that while he seems to be a good guy, eight years of not even reaching the Western Conference Finals is enough.
I am still pessimistic about the long-term prospects of this team, and those worries are only exacerbated when Owner Craig Leipold said that this franchise needed a tweak and not an overhaul. I don't know if Leipold understands that he has one of the oldest teams in the NHL. And he may not know (at least I didn't) that there is the appearance that the two long-term signings Fletcher made Independence Day 2012 of Ryan Suter and Zach Parise has instilled a culture where those two guys run the show.
Hey, all the credit to Fletch for making the signing, and to Leipold for okaying the money. The Mild were dead in this town, not having made the playoffs the previous four years prior to the Double Major signing. But frankly, I don't care how you win -- just win. If you lose, it doesn't matter if you showed you cared by signing top free agents. There are many teams still in the playoffs who have won by building through the draft. Those teams are in a better position now than the Wild. And these guys need just a tweak? All I can see out of these guys now is longstanding mediocrity, if not a painful slide into irrelevance.
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