Busy busy busy…
The one thing I feared when I started a blog happened…that I’d have some lapses in posts. Well it’s been quite an interesting two weeks, highlighted by a lot of severe weather, some ballgames and other things. June 17th saw the tornadoes hit in Freeborn County Minnesota, and then last Wednesday morning I was wrapping up an “all-nighter” from overnight Tuesday into Wednesday after flash flooding and storms hit the area. I think it’s the first time since operations moved from our old 19th SW location into Radio Park that I’ve pulled an all-nighter. One of those things that you sometimes just have to do.
That’s how my radar screen looked at 11:00 PM on Tuesday night June 22nd with the storms pushing through. The pink boxes are tornado warnings, the yellow boxes are severe thunderstorm warnings. The red balloons are either funnel cloud or tornado reports in the last few hours, while the green balloons with the white dots are hail reports.
I always hate to say that for the most part I enjoy doing severe weather coverage. I guess it’s more the fact of passing along information immediately to listeners and doing the “fly by the seat of your pants” radio at times when it’s warning after warning after warning like we saw several days in the last two weeks. I know some of you have passed along your compliments about our severe weather coverage and I thank you for those.
The baseball bounces…
An interesting last 72 hours in high school baseball in Cerro Gordo County. Mason City High extended their streak of wins over Newman Catholic on Sunday at Roosevelt Field with a 4-2 win. Then last night, Clear Lake pulled out some seventh inning magic and found a way to score four times in the seventh for a 5-4 win over the Mohawks in their annual Cerro Gordo showdown. It was the first time Clear Lake had beaten the Mohawks since a then #10/3A Lions club knocked off a freshly-ranked #1/4A team back in 2003 at Roosevelt Field in Mason City. Some debated after the game whether or not last night’s win was one of the biggest in Clear Lake history. It for sure was one of the most dramatic finishes I’ve done of a Clear Lake baseball game.
I have a feeling both teams will take last night’s game and move forward in grand fashion for the rest of the year. Clear Lake is looking for a second place finish in the North Central Conference. After a loss on Monday night to Hampton-Dumont, the Lions have three conference losses, and Hampton-Dumont’s best chance of being dealt a second loss in conference play was dashed last night as the Bulldogs came back from a 4-0 deficit to re-start a suspended game to beat Algona in extra innings. Hampton-Dumont only has one loss in the conference, and the planets will have to align correctly at this point for the Bulldogs to drop three of their final conference games with the hope that Clear Lake could win out in their conference schedule. Not likely, but not many gave the Lions a chance to knock off the Mohawks last night heading into the game, let alone going into the bottom of the seventh.
For Mason City, it may be one of those good reminders that a team can’t shift into cruise control after opening up with winning 22 of their first 26 games. Troy Rood wants to see his club win a conference title as well as a state title. I have a feeling it’s good things from here on out for the Mohawks, but people also must remember that the CIML Iowa Conference equals quality baseball, and that a loss or two shouldn’t be the end of the world for MCHS.
You can listen back to comments from Clear Lake coach Seth Thompson and Rood by clicking here
