SHOTS from the Hip

Groundskeeper extraordinaire Jim “Juice” Johnson worked his magic on Saturday making Firehall Field game ready for the home opener against New Richmond. With standing water and large areas of infield mud staring the Cardinals coaching staff in the face, the prospects of playing appeared dim. To the rescue came Johnson and his expert knowledge of ball fields. Bravo to Mr. Johnson for saving the day.

North Dakota State took two of three from St. Thomas in a series that was moved to St. Paul because of the weather. Peter Brookshaw and the Bison dropped game one of the series by a score of 6-0, but bested their Summit League foes in the other two games by scores of 5-1 and 8-7. Brookshaw clubbed his sixth home run of the season on Sunday. The Bison sit atop the Summit League standings with a record of 7-2 and will host Omaha-Nebraska at Newman Field in Fargo this weekend in a big series with the Mavericks.

From the WIAA: A new football rules exception that allows a passer to intentionally throw an incomplete forward pass for the purpose of conserving yardage, and the redefining of the term “chop block” – both of which are intended to minimize risk of injury – are the two most notable rules changes coming to high school football for the 2022 season.

“With this year’s rules changes, the committee once again showed its focus on minimizing risk in high school football,” said Bob Colgate, NFHS Director of Sports and Sports Medicine and liaison to the NFHS Football Rules Committee.

Rule 7-5-2 EXCEPTION 2 now permits a player to purposely throw an incomplete forward pass without warranting an intentional grounding penalty provided the passer is outside of “the pocket”.

Some numbers after three baseball games. The pitching staff ERA has a combined 2.45 and allowed a total of 12 hits after three games. Ben Rohl has tossed six scoreless innings and is hitting over .600 on the season. The Cardinal defense has committed four errors in three games. At the plate Prescott is hitting .240 and their opponents are hitting .174 on the season.

Reportedly there was a noticeable difference in the dugout behavior of this year’s New Richmond baseball team compared to the previous handful of seasons.

Weather and field conditions continue to hamper all spring sports this season. The 2022 season still pales in comparison to the spring of 2013. That season the Prescott Cardinal baseball team did not play their first game of the season until April 26.

Next season the Middle Border Conference schedule will be significantly different. All teams will play their two games against conference opponents in the same week. This means Prescott will play Altoona on Tuesday and Thursday during league play. Proponents of the change believed it will require teams to throw more than “their ace” each time they play a particular opponent. The proposal was endorsed by all Middle Border Conference schools last week.

From the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources: The DNR invites the public to attend the Bear Aware Webinar at 6 p.m. April 19 to learn about living among black bears. Wisconsin is home to a thriving black bear population estimated at more than 24,000 bears. Although the black bear primarily lives in the far northern third of the state, bears are becoming more common in the lower twothirds of the state than ever before due to a growing population. By understanding bear behavior, people can reduce negative human-bear conflicts. Webinar attendees will hear from DNR and USDA-Wildlife Services bear experts about bear habitat and history and get tips for reducing the potential for bear conflicts around homes and businesses.

Headshaker of the week. During Saturday’s game at Firehall Field the visiting team was taking batting practice on the field while wearing their baseball spikes. In the process the visiting team tore up sections of grass along the left field foul line. All this while the two station batting cage was empty. What’s worse, when asked to stop tearing up the dirt a New Richmond veteran assignment coach became volatile and confrontational with Groundskeeper Jim Johnson. Additionally, New Richmond pitchers were using the mound during infield practice. Once again, we’ll give the kids a pass on this one, but the adult coaches should know better. It was a headshaker.

By Cripe Olson