Lancers Get Their Groove Back

At least for a weekend, the Mount Marty College baseball team looked like the team coach Andy Bernatow was confident in when the season began in February.

MMC has won five straight — the longest active streak in the Great Plains Athletic Conference — after its sweeps of Hastings Saturday and then-second place Nebraska Wesleyan Sunday (NWU is now in third).

All three elements of the game stepped up in this weekend’s 4-0 home weekend.

On the mound, the Lancers allowed nine runs in four games, with seven of those runs coming in Sunday’s second game. The 2.70 earned run average the team posted on the weekend was bolstered by eight shutout innings from the bullpen — three by Jason Schmidt Saturday and five by Josh Cleveland Sunday. The pair combined to allow two hits and struck out seven.

At the plate, the Lancers bat .361 over the weekend — nearly 80 points better than the season average coming in (.284) — with an even bigger leap in slugging percentage. MMC hit three home runs this weekend — two from slugger Jason Schmidt and Derrik Nelson’s first career homer — and had 10 doubles. (The power numbers may have been aided by a couple of typically windy spring days, with the wind blowing out each day.)

Defensively, the Lancers had just two errors in four games, after averaging a less than stellar 1.3 errors per game coming in. Only one of the team’s 10 runs allowed this weekend was unearned, while they had allowed 28 unearned runs in 39 games coming in.

MMC still has work to do to get to where they’d like to be. At 8-8 with four games to play, a conference regular season title is out of reach (Doane is 13-3) but a high seed in the GPAC tourney would give the Lancers a chance to make a run in the post-season tournament, May 3-5 in Lincoln, Neb.

If the Lancers are going to make a splash at Haymarket Park, the home of the University of Nebraska baseball team and the centerpiece of the GPAC baseball tourney this year, they are going to have to continue doing it all — pitching, hitting and fielding — like they did to get themselves back on track.

Coyotes in Sioux Falls: Good idea?

BY JEREMY HOECK
jeremy.hoeck@yankton.net

A scheduled home football game for the University of South Dakota with the defending national champion is moving nearly 70 miles north this fall.

USD receiver Will Powell (P&D File Photo)

In a bold move to tap into the state’s largest market, USD announced Thursday that it is moving its showdown with last year’s FCS champion North Dakota State to Howard Wood Field in Sioux Falls on Saturday, Oct. 20.

So continues an effort by USD to reach out to the state’s biggest alumni base.

“We’re excited to show people in Sioux Falls what Division I football is like,” athletic director David Sayler said by phone shortly after the press conference in Sioux Falls. “They’ve probably seen it before, but now they’ll really feel it.

“The best way to do that is to bring in a team that has good regional exposure.”

You can read more online at http://www.yankton.net, or by following Jeremy on Twitter at twitter.com/jhoeck

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My first reaction to hearing this news a while back was, “Really?”

As someone has been around the USD circle for 10 years, it’s not exactly a surprise that the school wants to strengthen its foothold — or some might argue, start a foothold — in the state’s largest city. It makes sense, really: Biggest alumni base, more sponsorship opportunities, etc. With the success the Summit League basketball tournaments have had in Sioux Falls, there is no doubt a strong interest for Division I athletics in that city. USD is simply trying to take advantage of that.

On the other hand, I can understand why some people are puzzled by this move. You’re taking arguably your biggest home game of the season and moving away from the DakotaDome, a place where USD has a significant homefield advantage. Remember, the Coyotes upset top-ranked and defending national champion Eastern Washington in Vermillion last fall.

In essence, you’re giving away the biggest home game of the season. North Dakota State, which is unquestionably one of the most well-followed teams in terms of fan support in the region, will no doubt bring with it thousands upon thousands of green and yellow clad fans. Sure, USD’s move to open up tickets to season ticket holders first will help the Coyotes avoid a massive allotment of NDSU fans, but I question the selection of that game in particular. If this is truly a test-the-water kind of experiment, why not start with Illinois State or Western Illinois, see how it goes, and work from there. Maybe move next year’s South Dakota State game there?

What’s to stop Sioux City from stepping up and offering a chance for USD to host Northern Iowa in Sioux City? (Location would be an issue, I know, just an example). Or for that matter, why not hold some sort of basketball exhibition with Mount Marty College over here in Yankton.

Spurred by the success of South Dakota State, USD no doubt wants to increase its exposure across the state; to show that, hey, there are two Division I schools in South Dakota. That’s partly why I understand the rationale behind Thursday’s announcement, to start a tradition of Coyote athletics in Sioux Falls. On the other hand, there are inherent risks with taking games — especially one like North Dakota State — away from your true home, in Vermillion. Improving the gameday atmosphere is something USD needs to tackle first, in my opinion, before trying to cater to alumni bases in cities, no matter how far away they are.

Agree? Disagree? Let us know.

Did Charlie Westbrook improve his NBA stock?

By all accounts, University of South Dakota senior men’s basketball player Charlie Westbrook did himself some favors at the Portsmouth Invitational.

(It was a 4-day tournament played in front of NBA scouts)

In three games, Westbrook shot 16-of-39 from the field and scored 37 points, twice reaching 15 points. He also recorded nine rebounds, eight assists and six steals out in Virginia against some of the top seniors in the country.

For good measure, his team won 2 of its 3 games.

At this point, it’s hard to say whether Westbrook will be selected in this spring’s NBA Draft, but at the very least, he improved his stock at Portsmouth.

In this ranking of the top seniors by DraftExpress, Westbrook comes in at No. 37, directly ahead of Purdue standout Robbie Hummel and in front of some other notable names.

I’m hoping to chat with Charlie again Monday to get his sense for how he did.