SportsRecreation
Peninsula Daily News
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
B3
M’s, Padres knot up at 6 The Associated Press
Perfect
season
The 2010-2011 YMCA basketball season ended Feb. 26 with the Black Knights finishing undefeated in the 5th-6th grade boys division. Above, in the front row from left are Hayden Gresli, Colton McGuffey, Bryan Tietz, Lorenzo Deletorre, Brady Shimko and Hunter Dougherty. In back row, head coach Wicus McGuffey, Chance Humphries, Chris Amsdill, Matthew Reader, Bo Bradow and assistant coach Ben Wesler.
Buckeyes back at No. 1 By Rusty Miller
The Associated Press
Continued from B1 There’s also a great deal of resolve there which maybe the Mariners didn’t completely know about Ackley when they drafted him with the second overall pick in 2009 after an incredibly successful career with the Tar Heels. Ackley’s introduction to pro baseball was about as rough as it can get. Known for hitting, Ackley started his pro career at Double-A West Tenn and almost immediately stumbled. After going hitless in a doubleheader on May 3, the guy who left North Carolina as the top hitter in school history at .412, was hitting just .139. Then in mid-May, it flipped. He started to get more comfortable at second base and at the plate. He hit .305 in his final 54 games at West Tenn, then followed up by hitting .274 with 12 doubles, five homers and 23 RBIs in 52 games at Triple-A. If that wasn’t impressive enough for Mariners scouts to see, Ackley then was named MVP of the Arizona Fall League, hitting .424 and leading the league in on-base percentage, slugging and runs scored.
Penn State tonight
Two rings Lighty already has two Big Ten championship rings. He said he shows them to his teammates. “It’s big for us; everyone wants a ring,” he said. “So hanging another banner up would be great.” Matta is a sterling 18356 in his seven years at Ohio State, where he has become known as an elite recruiter.
10 appearances, including nine starts. The left-hander got in trouble almost immediately Monday when Josh Wilson led off the first inning with a single and Jack Cust singled with two outs. Similar to LeBlanc, Mariners starter Doug Fister improved in his second inning after making several adjustments. Fister, who was 6-14 with a 4.11 ERA in 28 starts last season, allowed four consecutive batters to reach base in the first inning but pitched a perfect second. “There was some rust to be kicked off, but it was good,” Fister said. “It’s just a matter of constantly being focused on body positions and finishing and focusing on the location of pitches.” Fister left pitches up to Ryan Ludwick and Orlando Hudson in the first inning and paid for the mistakes. Ludwick singled in a run and Hudson doubled high off the center-field fence. Will Venable had an RBI single bats for the Padres and Jason Bartlett was 2 for 3 with a run scored. Greg Halman had a tworun homer for Seattle and Johermyn Chavez connected in the ninth off Padres reliever Ernesto Frieri.
Mariners: 2nd
COLUMBUS, Ohio — After getting through its toughest stretch of the season, Ohio State is back at No. 1. For the third week in a row The Associated Press Top 25 poll has had a new team on top. The Buckeyes climbed a spot over Duke, which lost at Virginia Tech on Saturday night. The Buckeyes welcome their return. “I tell our team all the time we want to be No. 1 at the end of the season,” coach Thad Matta said on Monday. “We want to be playing our best basketball in March. Moving to No. 1 is a tribute to how hard our guys have worked all year. We appreciate the recognition and our guys certainly deserve it.” The Buckeyes were No. 1 for four weeks after reeling off a 24-0 record. Then came losses at Wisconsin and at Purdue in a span of nine days, sandwiched around a win over Michigan State.
Coming off two wins, and with two regular-season games remaining, the Buckeyes have a quick turnaround after Sunday’s 82-61 home win over Indiana with a game at Penn State tonight. Then comes a showdown at home with No. 10 Wisconsin on Sunday. The Buckeyes (27-2, 14-2) need one win to clinch at least a share of their fourth Big Ten championship in six years. Two wins, and they’re assured of their third outright title in that span. David Lighty, a fifthyear senior who is the Buckeyes’ defensive specialist and third-leading scorer, said the immediate concern is winning the conference title. “It means a lot. That’s our No. 1 goal right now,” he said. “That’s our first step to reaching our second goal. So you’ve got to take care of the task at hand. “It’s like coach always says, it’s one game at a time. When we do that, everything else just falls into place.”
PEORIA, Ariz. — Some pitchers can simply concentrate on mechanics early in spring training. Wade LeBlanc figures he doesn’t have that luxury. LeBlanc is competing with veteran Dustin Moseley and rookie Cory Luebke for the fifth spot in the San Diego Padres’ rotation. Even with 38 major league starts on his resume, LeBlanc believes he’s auditioning with every pitch. His first test on Monday wasn’t as clean as he would have preferred. He allowed two runs in two innings as the Padres tied the Seattle Mariners 6-6. “You take a guy like me that is competing for a spot, I don’t want to say it’s the regular season, but it’s close,” LeBlanc said. “There’s still a spot riding on the pitches that you make. In my position, and in my opinion, I have to be more mentally ready to get some outs rather than just work on mechanics and things like that.” LeBlanc was 8-12 with a 4.25 ERA in 26 games for the Padres in 2010 before he lost his job late in the season. After starting the year with a 3.30 ERA in 16 starts, LeBlanc was 4-5 with a 5.91 ERA in his last
“Once I started to feel more comfortable at the plate and at second base, I think it all just started to click and I was able to slow the game down a little bit and feel better about what I was doing and feel more confident,” Ackley said. “It all went from there.” That kind of continued growth is what the Mariners envision from Ackley this season. If he proves ready to start the season on the major league roster, Seattle’s management won’t hold him back. The reality is that Ackley will need more time in the minors, a little more time to prove he’s ready before making the jump and solidifying a young and talented right-side of the Mariners infield along with first baseman Justin Smoak. “I feel like I’m pretty ready, as close to ready as I’ll be, and with some more practice there at second base, more reps, that I’ll get to the point where I feel really confident playing there and go out there every day and make plays, and not worry about it, and take that into hitting or anything like that,” Ackley said. “I don’t think it’s something I’m too far from.”
Labor: Lockout The Associated Press
Indiana’s Jordan Hulls (1) pressures Ohio State’s Jared Sullinger (0) during the second half of their game Sunday, in Columbus, Ohio. Ohio State won 82-61. He has had to replenish the cupboard several times, after losing freshmen stars Greg Oden, Mike Conley Jr., Daequan Cook, Kosta Koufos and Byron Mullens to the NBA draft after just one season.
Imagine how good Also, imagine how good the Buckeyes would be if Evan Turner — last year’s consensus national player of the year and the No. 2 pick in the NBA draft — had returned for his senior season. Matta is 285-87 in 11 years as a head coach — an average annual record of 26-8 — during stints at his alma mater, Butler, along with Xavier and Ohio State. Now the Buckeyes play in big games on national
television all the time. He and his players have gotten used to the glare of the spotlights. “I always tell our guys, for me to say, ‘Today’s a big game’ would be wasting my breath,” Matta said. “They have a very good sense of what it’s about. I can remember many, many years ago as an assistant, I’d call my buddies and say, ‘You’re not going to believe this, but we’re going to be on ESPN tonight. “Now, it’s a midnight tipoff, but it’s the only time we could get on. Make sure you stay up and check me out.’ Now it’s, we’re on television again. It is what it is.” Ohio State received 45 first-place votes from the 65-member national media panel, easily outdistancing
Kansas, which moves up one place with 14 No. 1 votes. BYU, which had five first-place votes, jumped from seventh to third, while Pittsburgh remained fourth, tied with Duke, which had one first-place vote.
Rounding out top Purdue, Texas, Notre Dame, San Diego State and Wisconsin round out the top 10. The next 10 are Louisville, Syracuse, North Carolina, Florida, St. John’s, Connecticut, Georgetown, Arizona, Villanova and Kentucky. Rounding out the Top 25 are Vanderbilt, Missouri, Xavier, Texas A&M and newcomer Utah State.
Continued from B1 sets of playbooks, one for use if there is an agreement and offseason workThe league filed an outs take place, and one in unfair labor practice the event there are no charge against the union OTAs or minicamps. with the National Labor “There have never been Relations Board in midany restrictions on when February, saying the you could or couldn’t hand NFLPA “consistently has out playbooks or do the failed to confer in good normal offseason stuff,” faith” during negotiations Cardinals coach Ken for a new contract. Whisenhunt said. The NFL claimed the “Obviously, we have difunion’s plans to decertify ferent schedules planned,” overrode its interest in Broncos coach John Fox reaching a new CBA, a added, “but all 32 teams charge union spokesman are dealing with this.” George Atallah said had Judge David Doty in “absolutely no merit.” Minneapolis is dealing If the union decertifies, which it must do before the with an NFLPA motion that $4 billion in TV rights CBA expires at 11:59 p.m. fees from the NFL’s netThursday night, Commiswork partners should be sioner Roger Goodell and placed in escrow rather the NFL in essence would than spread among the have nobody to negotiate with. teams in 2011 — even if no Then again, the players games are played. wouldn’t have executive The league’s agreements director DeMaurice Smith with the networks calls for representing them anypayments to be made more. whether games take place Already, some teams next season or not, and the have withheld 2011 playNFL says lockout protecbooks from veterans, partion is a normal part of ticularly teams with new coaches, offensive or defen- such contracts. sive coordinators. Doty’s decision likely Indeed, several teams won’t come before Thursare putting together two day night’s CBA deadline.