Evidence: Bison are perfect 10
A prominent sportscaster once said, “Once is an accident, twice is a trend, three times is evidence.”
If that is true, the Big Ten Conference better start paying a little bit more attention to NDSU.
The “accident” came in January when the Badgers took an embarrassing loss at the hands of the men’s basketball team.
The Bison were led by Ben Woodside, Andre Smith and Brett Winkelman — three players who were in their first year of playing for NDSU. That game is well-documented and was beginning to fade into Bison history books until last week when lightning struck again.
The “trend” showed up when the Bison softball team took a trip to Madison, Wis., and grabbed some bragging rights of their own, defeating the Badgers 5-1 in the second game of a doubleheader.
The Bison did not take out the Wisconsin “B” team or score most of their runs on a fluke play — they smacked around the best two pitchers the Badgers have in their rotation. Jackie Currie, Kelly Cantrell and Andi Padilla combined to drive in the five Bison runs. Padilla also pitched one scoreless inning in relief. Oh, by the way, all three are freshman.
Tuesday night provided Bison fans with a bit of “evidence.” The baseball team has struggled for most of the season, but that didn’t matter when the team went to Iowa City and defeated the Hawkeyes 11-8. The Bison were led by Jared Sullivan’s three hits and four RBIs, including a two-run homer in the third inning. Luke Otto chipped in two hits and two RBIs of his own.
Otto is a freshman and Sullivan is in his first full season with the Bison after an injury-shortened stint last year.
So let’s recap the facts: Three Bison wins over Big Ten schools, all three teams led by first-year contributors in those games, all three games on the road.
Looking ahead, the Bison football team will take on Minnesota next season at the Metrodome.
Should the Gophers be worried? Maybe. Maybe not.
Either way, scouting some of the new faces in the Bison program might not be a bad idea for Glen Mason.