D3baseball.com Daily Dose

I’m in Duluth tonight, taking in two UMAC games, the St. Scholastica vs. Bethany Lutheran elimination games and it has definitely been interesting up here so far. Bethany gave up 16 runs in the first three innings of the first game before throwing in the towel and let St. Scholastica exhaust themselves. The Saints are now playing their fourth game in the last 30 hours and their third against the Bethany Lutheran Vikings.

A last minute decision and despite the 30-4 final score from game one I am not regretting it one bit, although I am sure I’ll be cursing this choice when I’m barely past Wyoming, Minn., still an hour away from home at about 1 a.m.  The Saints put 29 hits on the board in the first game, 13 of them doubles but never pushed a batter passed second base.

I’ve been down shooting some on the field throughout the two games but also spending a lot of time in the press box with the broadcasters for St. Scholastica on the FAN 560 AM  who have most definitely been a riot (at times) and mildly ludacrious but, for homers, they are most definitely a good pair. I met Joe a few years ago at the Metrodome.

Tomorrow I’ll be heading down to Dundas, Minn. for the MIAC tournament where St. Olaf and St. Thomas were victors this afternoon. Their second games were postponed due to rain this evening and they will be pushing those back to tomorrow at 1 p.m.

We recieved an email from a mother of a first-year player in Texas who was curious as to why they (the NCAA) don’t announce the teams earlier than this weekend and, well, this is why. Rain is something we need in Minnesota but not something we have gotten enough of at the right times lately. It’s clear and 47 in Duluth, Matt Turk is at the IIAC tournament and through his Facebook I’ve read that the rain delay there was 2:26 and reports of rain in Northfield/Dundas started rolling in from my photographer around 5:30 but it didn’t delay either of the games going there, just mucked up one of the fields pretty bad.

It doesn’t look like I will be able to avoid the rain on my way home.

I’m uploading photos from game one, and editing the early stuff from game two; we have the two MIAC games online already (thank you Caleb Williams) and we should be getting a pair of games from the Liberty League care of Matt Milless sometime in the next day or two.

No word yet on when the MIAC Sunday championship games will take place; the schedule set for tomorrow has the 2nd round games starting at 1pm and the elimination game starting at 5pm at Dundas Memorial Park.

Oh and thanks to Joe and Kenny for their plugs throughout the evening. Time for a break before shooting the final two frames. It’s 13-9 in the bottom of the 7th right now.