Ice Bats Split a Pair at Home

Austin's leading representatives in the hockey world, the Ice Bats, hosted the New Mexico Scorpions on Friday and the Memphis Gorillas on Saturday at the Chaparral Ice Center. Austin toppled the Scorpions in a topsy-turvy 5-4 outing on Friday but didn't fare as well on Saturday, losing 2-1 to the visiting Gorillas. Friday's nine-goal matchup was a thrilling affair where the Bats never trailed but the Scorpions managed to hang in there and threaten until the final moments. John Ronan put the Bats up for good with 14:12 remaining in the third and goalie Miquel Beaudry held the Scorps scoreless for the remainder and secured the win. Terry Virtue contributed two goals for the Bats. In celebration of our most-beloved holiday, Presidents Day, the Ice Bats sported American-flag-adorned jerseys to show the rest of the world who No. 1 is and will always be. USA, bitches. We won't go into detail on Saturday's loss so as to not get too depressed, but the Gorillas bested the Bats and goalie Tony Quesada 2-1 with John Ronan scoring the Bats' lone, unassisted goal. Friday night the Bats had a special treat for fans in the form of live music from Austin's own HiFi Scenery. While the intermission performance proved to be nothing short of a complete disaster – the band relegated to the penalty boxes with the drummer setting up on the ice and then breaking down before playing a single beat and the crowd paying far more attention to beloved mascot Fang and his frisbee dispersal – they managed to rock the crowd as well as they could in a post-game lobby performance. While not winning this sports-blog writer over, their drummer did impress with solid skills and fine-sounding kit. Vocalist Mems Deville has a bad case of lead singeritis but God bless 'em in their pursuit to rock the kids. The Bats have another weird road-home-road schedule this weekend hosting Rio Grande Valley Saturday night at 7:30pm.