Sugar River Euchre

Much like the Big 10 Conference, any Sugar River Euchre League team can beat their opponent on any given night. That is exactly what happened this past week. The two top teams were knocked down a notch last Thursday night, thereby opening the door for an exciting final week of regular play. The door will be held wide open if Kleeman’s defends their home turf and defeats the Express. If that happens there is a very good chance of a four-way tie for first place, making a playoff necessary.
This past Thursday saw the top seeded Express stopped dead in their tracks by the Norsk Pranksters. Dave Hook and Corey O’Hern pulled 113 points out of the hat for the Pranksters while none of the Express engineers could release their brakes to get any momentum going. With the 33-point win, the Pranksters put themselves in a position to possibly be part of that potential four-way tie. The second seed, the Kleeman’s Hay Shakers, were not given a very nice welcome by the Walk-On Trolls. The Trolls started out slow but with the help of Garrett Leis and Pat Baier’s 115 points, the Trolls defeated the Hay Shakers by 9 to get their first win of the half.
Cowboys Randy Schmid and Ferdie Schmitz had 112 arrests to their names, which was countered by the 112 slick moves made by Shufflers Randy Skogen and Steve Vogt. That left the outcome of the match to the hands of the other six couples. To end their four game losing streak, the three remaining Shuffler couples outscored their opponents by 31 points.
Kurt Beutel and Tracy Funseth also scored 112 points for the J&M Bar River Rats in their 72-point victory over the Sportsman’s Bar Cheese Eaters. The River Rats held all the Cheese Eaters below 100 points.
In the battle between two of the three Pine Bluff teams, Mounties Mary Humphrey and Bruce Milestone recorded this week’s high score of 118 points. Pipe Benders Chris Booth and Tiny Zander held them to a 13 in the second frame to prevent the perfect score. This match also had this week’s low score. Jerome Krantz and Ross Neshiem just couldn’t get the wrenches turning fast enough and were only able to couple together 70 points. The Pipe Benders just didn’t have the water pressure to douse the 78-point scorcher started when all four Mounty couples scored over 100 points.
Standings: Express 7-1; Kleeman’s 6-2; Mounties 6-2; Pranksters 6-2; Cowboys 4-4; Sportsman’s Bar 3-5; Jones Plumbing 2-6; Shufflers 3-5; J&M Bar 2-6; Trolls 1-7.
March 10th Schedule: Express @ Kleeman’s (7:30); Sportsman’s @ Shufflers (7:00); Mounties @ Cowboys (7:00); Pranksters @ Jones’ Plumbing (7:30); Walk-On @ J&M Bar (8:00).