Scoring fest Loras, opponents combine to score 85 runs through 4 games by Katie truesdale | sportswriter

The weekend started off strong for the Loras Baseball team as they headed to Jack-sonville, IL, for two games against MacMurray College and two games against Ham-line University.

In four high-scoring con-tests, the Duhawks could only muster one win, drop-ping their record to an even 5-5 on the season.

The Duhawks were ini-tially up against MacMurray College on Saturday, walking away with a 13-5 win over the Highlanders behind Junior Patrick Walshs 3-5, 3 rbi, 3 run performance.

Senior Adam Schwoebel held off MacMurray from the mound, allowing only two runs through six innings.

In their second game of the day, the Duhawks took on Hamline University. It seemed that their offensive groove was short lived, as Loras only run came in the sixth inning on a throwing error that scored Walsh from third.

J u n i o r p i t c h e r A l e x Steines struggled from the mound, allowing seven earned runs on nine hits through 4.3 innings. Hamline would take game two, 10-1.

If you dont come ready to play and leave everything on the field anyone is beatable, said junior Lucas Jac-que. One of the key as-pects that we as a team have to continue to do is communicate. Hav-ing the ability to talk to each other and let each other know what is expected in every situation is a big thing we need to continue to work on.

Another aspect is being focused on the task at hand, he con-tinued. We need to be focused on every pitch, every out, every inning, of every game; because one slip up can lead to

an inning that can some-times be hard to dig our-selves out from.

Early Sunday afternoon, the Duhawks were again up against the Pipers for their first of two games on the day.

Despite a strong offen-sive performance from the Duhawks, the Pipers came out even stronger. Hamline scored a whopping 20 runs on 18 hits on their way to a 20-9 victory. Despite his strong offensive performanc-es on the weekend, Walsh struggled from the mound against Hamline, allowing 12 earned runs through 4.6 innings.

For their final game of the weekend, the Duhawks once again met up with MacMur-ray College. After the Du-hawks scored three runs to take the lead in the bottom of the first, the Highlanders took no time answering with six runs of their own in the top of the second.

M a c M u r r a y h e l d t h e lead for much of the game, but put the Duhawks away in the top of the eighth, when they added seven r u n s . L o r a s a t t e m p t e d to rally with four runs of their own in the bottom of the inning, but fell short as

the Highlanders took the final game of the weekend, 17-10.

After their 1-3 week-end in Jacksonville, the Duhawks find them-selves even with a re-cord of 5-5.

Loras begins confer-ence play this Friday and Saturday with a pair of double-headers at home against Simp-son.

For our first con-ference games, were taking a deep breath and realizing that its not going to be given to us, said Walsh. We learned this weekend that we need to fight every inning of ev-ery game. Conference games are the most important games of the season and I think we will be ready when it comes to playing those games at home.

8 The Lorian March 19, 2015 Sports

No one cares about your bracket

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Ryan GRahamsports editor

Whelp, 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 youre a modern-day Nostradamus. Next, the 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 All-American 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 RegionSweet 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 RegionSweet 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 RegionSweet 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 46I think I nailed it.

season statistics(Through Sunday, March 15th)

BattingPlayer ............... G h rbi hr slg% ob% avgPatrick Walsh .......... 8 12 8 1 .633 .526 .400Spence Bonner ........ 8 13 6 0 .485 .459 .394Nolan Ritter ............ 8 8 5 0 .381 .481 .381Tony Heiser............. 7 11 5 0 .448 .438 .379Adam Kennedy ....... 8 12 10 2 .688 .429 .375Ryan Koester ........... 5 3 1 0 .375 .444 .375Anthony Flattery ..... 7 9 4 0 .370 .406 .333Luke Leibforth ........ 8 8 3 0 .333 .433 .333Dan Pecoraro .......... 4 2 0 0 .333 .500 .333Lucas Jacque ........... 8 5 8 0 .273 .357 .227Cole Reeg ................ 8 8 5 0 .351 .275 .216Totals .................8 93 55 3 .441 .422 .333Opponents .........8 86 56 1 .437 .413 .310

PitchingPlayer .......... app-gs ip w-l bb so avg eraPatrick Walsh ...........1-1 6.0 1-0 2 5 .174 1.50Alex Steines ............. 2-1 5.2 0-0 3 6 .143 1.59Adam Schwoebel.....2-2 11.1 1-0 4 10 .311 3.97Robert Hovey ..........2-0 4.0 0-0 1 6 .250 4.50Nick Spiess ..............2-0 3.1 0-0 0 3 .308 5.41Nick Petruzzi ...........6-0 5.2 1-0 5 6 .333 6.36Kody Massner .........3-0 7.0 1-0 2 6 .321 9.00Connor Schreck ......4-0 4.1 0-1 1 5 .364 10.39Brad Schwind .......... 3-1 6.0 0-0 4 6 .393 10.50Will Petrosky ........... 3-3 12.0 0-1 13 11 .373 11.25Totals ................. 8 67.0 4-2 38 65 .310 6.58Opponents ......... 8 66.2 2-4 31 40 .333 7.02

loras 13, macmurray 5 (Saturday, March 14th)

r h eLoras ................... 010 052 041 13 16 1MacMurray ....... 001 011 200 5 10 5Loras: Patrick Walsh 3-5, 2 rbi, bb, hrMM: Andrew Frazier 3-4, runWP: Adam Schwoebel 6.0 ip, 2 er, 3 so, 4 bbLP: Dillon Hodges 5.0 ip, 1 er, 4 so, 3 bb

hamline 10, loras 1 (Saturday, March 14th)

r h eHamline .............. 114 100 030 10 11 1Loras ...................000 001 000 1 4 3Loras: Patrick Walsh 1-3, run, bbHamline: Andy Sammon 2-5, 3 rbiWP: Aaron Stoneberg 7 ip, 0 er, 5 so, 3 bbLP: Alex Steines 4.1 ip, 7 er, 3 so, 3 bb

hamline 20, loras 9 (Sunday, March 15th)

r h eLoras ....................051 120 0 9 11 4Hamline ............. 042 086 x 20 18 2Loras: Cole Reeg 3-4, 3 rbi, bb, runHamline: Rick Tormey 3-5, 4 rbi, hr, 2 runsWP: Nick Kukurich 2.1 ip, 0 er, 3 so, 3 bbLP: Patrick Walsh 4.2 ip, 12 er, 6 so, 2 bb

macmurray 17, loras 10 (Sunday, March 15th)

r h eMacMurray .......060 040 070 17 19 0Loras ................... 320 100 040 10 15 3Loras: Patrick Walsh 2-4, 2 rbi, 2 bb, 2 runsMM: Brett Mammenga 4-5, 3 rbi, 3 runsWP: Mike Raines 3.0 ip, 0 er, 2 so, bbLP: Will Petrosky 4.0 ip, 9.0 er, 5 so, 4 bb

photo courtesy of Jim naprsteKSenior 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.