A special night at the ballpark for Minnesota State schools as its kicks off a scholarship campaign
By Ryan Schaal
Staff Writer
The Minnesota Twins hosted a Minnesota State Excellence Scholarship Campaign at their home game on Sept. 4. Anoka-Ramsey Community College students, staff, and faculty were invited to attend the game to kick-off the scholarship event and some students even had the chance to lead some pre-game activities on the field.
The goal of the scholarship event was to raise $50 million over the next two years, which will help to make attending college more affordable for students. The on-going scholarship drive is being run by the individual foundations at all of the 37 colleges and universities in the Minnesota State System.
“This money will help make attending college more affordable for our students. The event was meant to be a fun kick-off event of the fundraising campaign, call attention to our colleges and universities, as well as our students and their financial need,” said Noelle Hawton, the chief marketing and communications officer at Minnesota State.
There were even eight mascots from various Minnesota State schools in attendance.
The game itself was less exciting to hear about, as many know that the Minnesota Twins had a rough season, and this was just the icing on the cake.
The White Sox jumped ahead early leading 3-0 before the Twins even got to the plate. The Twins went down 1-2-3, and then the White Sox scored again in the second. Byron Buxton, who had been slumping all year, got his opportunity with the bases loaded and capitalized. He hit his first career grand slam to tie things up at four.
Fast-forward to the ninth inning, which is where the Twins have fell apart for most games this year. They were up 10-9 going into the top of the ninth, all they had to do was get three outs. But, they blew the save and gave up two runs in the inning and were down 11-10 going into their half of the inning. They tied things up at 11 with a Kurt Suzuki double. With the game going into extra innings, the White Sox pulled ahead by two in the top of the 12th on a Tim Andersen double. The Twins threatened in the bottom half, but it was to no good, as they lost 13-11.
Hopefully the Minnesota State scholarship campaign will be more successful than the Twins’ season this year.