Bayside Chatter: Spring sports in the air

Talk about it

Your spring came real early when you see the Parks and Recreation crew outside already working on the ball fields. The Mariner softball team travels to Hoyt Lakes Tuesday to play Mesabi East.

Both the softball and baseball team travel to Moose Lake on Thursday for games. The first home games are scheduled for April 15 when both squads take on Esko.

Select teams

Five Lady Mariners made their respective select teams this spring in hockey. Taylor Udenberg, Rachel Dilley and Rebecca Dilley all made the District 11 Select 15 Team. Taylor Guzzo made the Section 7 Select 16 Team and Natalie Krynski made the Section 7 Select 17 Team. There was no report yet on the boys squads.

A number of younger Mariners also participated in the Minnesota Selects Festival at St. Cloud. This event, for both boys and girls, is for kids 10-14 and is independent of USA Hockey. Cora Carter played with the North 1999 team which took third place and Giovanni Marolt played with the North 2000 team which finished second. Chad Smuk, Alex Murray, Jordan Fralich and Lucas Small all played with the North 1996 team which finished in third place.

Hockey camp

Don’t forget that deadline of April 1 for getting your hockey camp applications in order to get a discount. However you may be able to slide if you get it in before the next Blue Line Club meeting. The final deadline for entry into the camp is July 1.

Twins tickets

If you plan on going down to Minneapolis and walking up to Target Field and buying a ticket to a Twins game without dealing with a scalper, you may already be out of luck. The Twins have already sold over 24,000 season tickets for a stadium that seats 39,500 and the first day of single game sales went thru the roof. As of less than 10 days ago, 45 games were sold out and 32 had limited tickets.

Big Leagues

The Major League baseball season gets underway in a couple of days and the Yankees in the American League and Philadelphia in the National League have to be considered the favorites to repeat. The Yankees will be challenged in their division by both Boston and Tampa Bay. Seattle should dethrone the Angels in the West if Cliff Lee stays healthy, but will be pushed by both the Angels and Texas. The Twins are the favorites in the Central with the White Sox their top challenger. Philadelphia will be pushed by Atlanta in the East and St. Louis and the Cubs will battle it out in the Central. Colorado should emerge from a weak field in the West.

Boys basketball

With the conclusion of the boys’ state basketball tournament, the winter high school sports season has come to a close in Minnesota. Hopkins won their fourth title in six years in 4A and St. Paul-Johnson finished unbeaten with a four point victory over Grand Rapids. New London-Spicer won it all in AA and Minnesota Transitions in A.

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