8

The Lorian

Sports

March 19, 2015

coachs corner

No one cares about

your bracket
Graham Slam

photo courtesy of Jim Naprstek

Senior Adam Kennedy digs in at the plate during the Duhawks four-game stand in Jacksonville, IL,
last weekend. Kennedys pair of home runs leads the team through 10 games.

Scoring fest
Loras, opponents
combine to score 85
runs through 4 games

an inning that can sometimes be hard to dig our(Saturday, March 14th)

selves out from.
r
h
e
Early Sunday afternoon,
Loras.................... 010 052 041 13 16 1
the Duhawks were again up
MacMurray........ 001 011 200
5 10 5
by Katie Truesdale | sportswriter
against the Pipers for their
Loras: Patrick Walsh 3-5, 2 rbi, bb, hr
The weekend started off
first of two games on the day.
MM: Andrew Frazier 3-4, run
strong for the Loras Baseball WP: Adam Schwoebel 6.0 ip, 2 er, 3 so, 4 bb
Despite a strong offenteam as they headed to Jack- LP: Dillon Hodges 5.0 ip, 1 er, 4 so, 3 bb sive performance from the
sonville, IL, for two games
Duhawks, the Pipers came
against MacMurray College
out even stronger. Hamline
Hamline
10,
Loras
1
and two games against Hamscored a whopping 20 runs
(Saturday, March 14th)
line University.
on 18 hits on their way to
h
e
In four high-scoring con- r
a 20-9 victory. Despite his
tests, the Duhawks could Hamline............... 114 100 030 10 11 1 strong offensive performancLoras....................000 001 000
1 4 3
only muster one win, drop- Loras: Patrick Walsh 1-3, run, bb
es on the weekend, Walsh
ping their record to an even Hamline: Andy Sammon 2-5, 3 rbi
struggled from the mound
5-5 on the season.
WP: Aaron Stoneberg 7 ip, 0 er, 5 so, 3 bb
against Hamline, allowing
The Duhawks were ini- LP: Alex Steines 4.1 ip, 7 er, 3 so, 3 bb
12 earned runs through 4.6
tially up against MacMurray
innings.
College on Saturday, walking
For their final game of the
Hamline 20, Loras 9
away with a 13-5 win over the
weekend, the Duhawks once
(Sunday, March 15th)
Highlanders behind Junior
again met up with MacMur r
h
e
Patrick Walshs 3-5, 3 rbi, 3
ray College. After the DuLoras.....................051 120 0 9 11 4
run performance.
hawks scored three runs to
Hamline.............. 042 086
x 20 18 2
Senior Adam Schwoebel Loras: Cole Reeg 3-4, 3 rbi, bb, run
take the lead in the bottom
held off MacMurray from Hamline: Rick Tormey 3-5, 4 rbi, hr, 2 runs
of the first, the Highlanders
the mound, allowing only WP: Nick Kukurich 2.1 ip, 0 er, 3 so, 3 bb
took no time answering with
two runs through six innings. LP: Patrick Walsh 4.2 ip, 12 er, 6 so, 2 bb
six runs of their own in the
In their second game of
top of the second.
the day, the Duhawks took
MacMurray 17, Loras 10
MacMurray held the
on Hamline University. It
lead
for much of the game,
(Sunday, March 15th)
seemed that their offensive r
but put the Duhawks away
h
e
groove was short lived, as MacMurray........ 060 040 070 17 19 0 in the top of the eighth,
Loras only run came in the Loras.................... 320 100 040 10 15 3 w h e n t h e y a d d e d s e v e n
sixth inning on a throwing Loras: Patrick Walsh 2-4, 2 rbi, 2 bb, 2 runs r u n s . L o r a s a t t e m p t e d
error that scored Walsh from MM: Brett Mammenga 4-5, 3 rbi, 3 runs
to rally with four runs of
WP: Mike Raines 3.0 ip, 0 er, 2 so, bb
third.
their own in the bottom of
LP:
Will
Petrosky

4.0
ip,
9.0
er,
5
so,
4
bb
Junior pitcher Alex
the inning, but fell short as
Steines struggled from
the Highlanders took
the mound, allowing
the final game of the
Season statistics
seven earned runs on
weekend, 17-10.
(Through Sunday, March 15th)
nine hits through 4.3
After their 1-3 weekinnings. Hamline would
Batting
end in Jacksonville, the
take game two, 10-1.
Player................ G h rbi hr slg% ob% avg
Duhawks find themIf you dont come Patrick Walsh........... 8 12 8 1 .633 .526 .400 selves even with a reready to play and leave Spence Bonner......... 8 13 6 0 .485 .459 .394 cord of 5-5.
everything on the field Nolan Ritter............. 8 8 5 0 .381 .481 .381
Loras begins conferTony Heiser............. 7 11 5 0 .448 .438 .379
anyone is beatable,
ence
play this Friday
Adam Kennedy........ 8 12 10 2 .688 .429 .375
said junior Lucas Jac- Ryan Koester............ 5 3 1 0 .375 .444 .375 and Saturday with a
que. One of the key as- Anthony Flattery...... 7 9 4 0 .370 .406 .333 pair of double-headers
pects that we as a team Luke Leibforth......... 8 8 3 0 .333 .433 .333 at home against Simphave to continue to do Dan Pecoraro........... 4 2 0 0 .333 .500 .333 son.
is communicate. Hav- Lucas Jacque............ 8 5 8 0 .273 .357 .227
For our first coning the ability to talk Cole Reeg................. 8 8 5 0 .351 .275 .216 ference games, were
to each other and let Totals..................8 93 55 3 .441 .422 .333 taking a deep breath
Opponents..........8 86 56 1 .437 .413 .310
each other know what
and realizing that its
Pitching
is expected in every
not going to be given
Player...........
app-gs
ip
w-l
bb so
avg
era
situation is a big thing
to us, said Walsh. We
Patrick Walsh............1-1 6.0 1-0 2 5 .174 1.50
we need to continue to
learned this weekend
Alex Steines.............. 2-1 5.2 0-0 3 6 .143 1.59
work on.
that we need to fight
Adam Schwoebel..... 2-2 11.1 1-0 4 10 .311 3.97
Another aspect is Robert Hovey...........2-0 4.0 0-0 1 6 .250 4.50 e v e r y i n n i n g o f e v being focused on the Nick Spiess...............2-0 3.1 0-0 0 3 .308 5.41 ery game. Conference
task at hand, he con- Nick Petruzzi............6-0 5.2 1-0 5 6 .333 6.36 games are the most
tinued. We need to be Kody Massner..........3-0 7.0 1-0 2 6 .321 9.00 important games of the
Connor Schreck.......4-0 4.1 0-1 1 5 .364 10.39
focused on every pitch, Brad Schwind........... 3-1 6.0 0-0 4 6 .393 10.50 season and I think we
every out, every inning, Will Petrosky............ 3-3 12.0 0-1 13 11 .373 11.25 will be ready when it
of every game; because Totals.................. 8 67.0 4-2 38 65 .310 6.58 comes to playing those
one slip up can lead to Opponents.......... 8 66.2 2-4 31 40 .333 7.02 games at home.

Loras 13, MacMurray 5

help, its that time of year again.

The field of 68 is set, the brackets are
hot off the presses, and sportswriters
all over the nation are starting editorials with the
sentence, Whelp, its that time of year again.
Three things are going to happen over the next
month or so. First, youre going to fill out a bracket.
Regardless of your degree of college basketball
knowledge, youre going to convince yourself that
Ryan Graham
youre a modern-day Nostradamus. Next, the
sports editor
tournament will begin and your bracket will go up
in flames, like within an hour. Despondent, youll
proceed to back every person you come in contact with into a corner
and engage in the March Madness conversation. You know the one.
Like a husband exiled to the local dive bar after a fight with the ol
ball and chain landed you in the dog house, youll search for someone,
anyone who will listen to your struggle.
Ill tell you what, Larry, Villanova really screwed me last week,
youll say, to some stranger not named Larry. My Final Four is a
mess!
Lets get one thing straight. No one gives a rats ass about your
bracket. Not your friends, not me, not Larry nobody.
Yet for some reason, we feel the need to cram our March Madness
woes deep down into the throats of anyone in our general vicinity.
March Madness turns us into monsters, into evangelical missionaries,
spreading the good word of shared disappointment. Well stop at
nothing until everyone knows our pain.
The alternative is even worse. Occasionally, youll multiple-guess
your way to a respectably accurate bracket. Youll have six of the Elite
Eight teams and all four of the Final Four teams still alive, and as a
result, youll walk around with an upturned nose, lording over all the
peasants who listened to that idiot Jay Bilas.
But in reality, the NCAA tournament is a crap shoot. Even head
coach of top-seeded Kentucky John Calipari acknowledged this.
I think I have the best team and the best players, Calipari told
ESPN. Does that mean well win? No, it doesnt.
A team of grindy, white, four-year starters can come out and hit 100
three-pointers over five games on their way to a Final Four appearance.
Weve seen it happen before, and Ill bet you anything it happens again.
If you just so happen to hit a vein with some hot-shooting mid-major
team like VCU or Wichita State, it says nothing about your college
basketball knowledge. If anything, it says more about your lack of it.
Basketball is a weird sport where anything can happen. Kentuckys AllAmerican forward Willie Cauley-Stein might pick up four fouls in the
first half of a game. Wisconsins Frank Kaminsky could trip and twist
both ankles, rendering him as unathletic as his pasty complexion would
suggest. Dukes Jahlil Okafor could get exposed to a chemical explosion
and lose sight in his left eye, who knows?
No one knows. So your predictions, be they spot-on or wildly
inaccurate dont matter.
With that said, here are my predictions for this years NCAA
Tournament. Keep in mind, I know just as much about college
basketball as I do about scented candles. The following predictions are
based solely on things I think I remember people saying one time.
Midwest Region
Sweet Sixteen:
n No. 1 Kentucky over No. 12 Buffalo (Why do all teams from Buffalo
have a mascot that resembles some sort of Buffalo? We get it, your city
is also the name of an animal.)
n No. 3 Notre Dame over No. 10 Indiana (I think I heard that Notre
Dame had a good offense? I dont know.)
Elite Eight:
n No. 1 Kentucky over No. 3 Notre Dame (Apparently Kentucky hasnt
lost any games this year. Its amazing what a few $1,000 handshakes
can accomplish.)
West Region
Sweet Sixteen:
n No. 1 Wisconsin over No. 13 Harvard (Down go the Crimsonites!)
n No. 2 Arizona over No. 11 BYU (Ending the centurys-old debate over
sex before the big game.)
Elite Eight:
n No. 1 Wisconsin over No. 2 Arizona (HOT TAKE OVER HERE)
East Region
Sweet Sixteen:
n No. 5 UNI over No. 1 Villanova (Ali Farokhmanesh lives on.)
n No. 2 Virginia over No. 14 Albany (Albany is the capital of New York!)
Elite Eight:
n No. 5 UNI over No. 1 Villanova (This has absolutely nothing to do
with being a UNI fan.)
South Region
Sweet Sixteen:
n No. 1 Duke over No. 4 Georgetown (I have no idea why Georgetown
is here. I literally just picked a random team.)
n No. 3 Iowa State over No. 7 Iowa (Only because this would be awesome.)
Elite Eight:
n No. 3 Iowa State over No. 1 Duke (Eat your heart out, coach K.)
Final Four
n No. 1 Kentucky over No. 1 Wisconsin ($20 says Frank Kaminsky cries.)
n No. 3 Iowa State over No. 5 UNI (Is this really my Final Four
matchup? Jesus Christ)
National Championship:
n No. 1 Kentucky over No. 3 Iowa State
Final score: Kentucky , Iowa State 46
I think I nailed it.