{"id":117141,"date":"2019-04-30T04:56:21","date_gmt":"2019-04-30T09:56:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=117141"},"modified":"2019-04-30T04:56:27","modified_gmt":"2019-04-30T09:56:27","slug":"random-thoughts-mother-nature-and-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2019\/04\/30\/random-thoughts-mother-nature-and-more\/","title":{"rendered":"Random Thoughts: Mother Nature and more"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SCOTT TRUXELL\/<\/strong>independent sports editor<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This week\u2019s Random Thoughts center around Mother Nature, baseball rankings, Bluffton pitcher Libby Schaadt, former OSU quarterback Tate Martell, the NFL Draft<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mother Nature needs to cooperate<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We got off to a fairly decent start to the spring sports season in terms of weather, but Mother Nature hasn\u2019t been so cooperative as of late. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, we may have to wait until May 9 or beyond to find out if Van Wert will win at least a share the Western Buckeye League baseball championship. It would be the school\u2019s first since 1984.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rain has also held up the Northwest Conference baseball championship race. Lincolnview and Paulding remain undefeated in conference play and the two teams are scheduled to meet this Thursday. However, both have makeup conference games to play after that one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The same can be said for the NWC softball championship race involving Bluftton, Crestview, Paulding and Allen East. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Something else \u2013 scheduling is getting a little tricky because sectionals begin next week for softball and the following week for baseball.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Baseball rankings<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first baseball rankings were issued by the Ohio High School Baseball Coaches Association on Monday (see story below).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of thoughts \u2013 Division II is loaded and Division IV is no slouch either. In fact, at least one Division IV will exit the tournament sooner than expected, simply because so many good ones are clustered in the Northwest Ohio region. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

In any case, it\u2019s nice to see the region so well represented in the poll.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Impressive<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many of Monday\u2019s games were postponed, but not Bluffton-Lima Central Catholic softball. Bluffton won 9-0, and Libby Schaadt finished with 16 strikeouts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Very impressive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tate Martell<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I read an article yesterday that after the spring game, former Ohio State quarterback Tate Martell is far from being a local to be named as the starting quarterback at Miami (FL).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, it seems to be a dead heat between Martell, last year\u2019s starting quarterback and another signal caller.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If he doesn\u2019t win the job, then what? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

NFL Draft<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I watched some of last week\u2019s NFL draft (probably more than I should have), and have read some of the so-called \u201cdraft report cards.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s the thing \u2013 how can anyone, \u201cdraft expert\u201d or otherwise accurately grade a draft minutes or hours after it ends? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, it\u2019s fun to read what people have to say, but we won\u2019t know for at least two or three years if any team\u2019s draft was successful or not. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you have any thoughts on any of the above subjects, feel free to email me at sports@thevwindependent.com<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent sports editor This week\u2019s Random Thoughts center around Mother Nature, baseball rankings, Bluffton pitcher Libby Schaadt, former OSU quarterback Tate Martell, the NFL Draft Mother Nature needs to cooperate We got off to a fairly decent start to the spring sports season in terms of weather, but Mother Nature hasn\u2019t been so cooperative […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-117141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-08 02:02:54","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117141\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}