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Show I THE UNIVERSITY JOURNAL • SOUTHERN UTAH UNIVERSITY • WEDNESDAY, APRIL 30, l997 ..., 'BIRD~· SPORTS n,1 'Birds split with Cougars By CHAD LAMB JOURNAL SPORTS EDITOR After being swept by the Cougars two weeks ago in Provo, the 'Bin.I baseball team avoided a second sweep as they split a series and picked up their eig hth w in of tl;ie season with BYU Monda y afternoon. BYU won th e first game 6-7 with SU taking the second ga m e 4-3. In Provo, the Cougars used 26 run s to ho ld off the 'Birds and complete a sweep, howeve r, here in Ceda r it wasn' t as easy as SU held BYU to nine hits and seven runs in the first gam e, w hi le allowing the Cougars just s ix hits and three runs in t he second ga m e. The Couga rs ca me into Mo nda y's co ntes t as one of the top hitting teams in the country with a team batting ave rage of .367. T he 'Birds managed to s low tha t average dow n a little in t he first ga me, but not e nough to pick up a w in wi th th e Couga rs ho lding off a late 'Bird ra lly in the one- run wi n . BYU jumped o ut to a 7- 1 lcad by th e end of the fift h inning behi nd th e batting of David Decke r and Brad Winget. Decker picked up hi s fi rst -of-th ree hits in the first inning as he s ingled to left fi eld. After a s to len base, D ecker wo uld be th row n o ut at third, but he lped Troy Farns wo rth m ake it to second, .with Farnsworth eventually scoring fo r the fi rst run of the gam e. The ' llirds answered back in t he botto m of th e fi rst as Sco tt Ca rl son opened with a do uble to right center, eventually scoring thanks to a Phil Downi ng si ngle to center fi eld. Th Cougars then w<:nt on a tea r scoring six stra ight runs w hi ch in cluded a home run by D.C. Ne lson picki ng up two RBI in th e process. SU he ld the Couga rs score less fo r the rest of the ga me, an d made a late gae rally wit h fo ur runs in the sixth inning. Scott Sudbury ho mered to left fi e ld driving in C had Newman, and Scott Vest hit anoth er h om e run to cut the deficit to two runs. T he last run of the game for the ' Birds was scored by Newman. Dave Phillips had a chance to tic it in the final inning as he reached third base, but never had th e chance to score as BYU used two different pitchers to secure the v ictory. The close victory in the first game co ul d h ave been an inspiration fo r the 'Birds, as SU picked up a one- run win of th e ir own . Both tea m s went sco re less fo r the forst two innings, then BYU wo uld pick up a run in th e third as Scott Robinso n ho mered to left fie ld giving th e Couga rs a 1-0 lead. The third innin g turned out to he very productive fo r th e 'Birds as Jere my Scho lzen scored the first run, th en Justin Garrett and N ewman added two more after a N ewma n ho m e run. T he 'Birds held a 3 -1 lead unt il the final i nni ng, when BYU notched it up at 3 -3 afte r a Spencer Oborn ho me run . However, SU was not abo ut to let this one go as Ryan Flox stepped in as a pi nch hitter, and eventuall y drove in Gavin Duckworth fo r the w inning run . The 'Birds picked up seven hits an d held the Cougars to s ix. N ewman fini shed w ith t wo hits, one run and two RBI. Scholzen finis hed with one hit and one run in two-at -bats. T he win left th e 'Bi rds with a record of 8-33 on th e season and a 3- 12 record at ho m e. In picking up th e ir eighth win of the season, the 'Birds m ade it possible to boost t heir win record to do ubl e digits. Th ree ga mes remain before th e end of the season w ith a contest this weekend on the road against CS North ridge. SU will play one gam e beginning at 4 p.m . Thursday, and wi ll finish up w ith a doub leheader Friday beginn ing at 11 a.m . Gavin Duckworth slides into second in the seven th in a 4-3 win over BYU yesterday. Duckworth eventually _scored the winning run. Track getting ready to end year Golfers take Origi na ll y schedul ed to take the weeke nd off, the SU 400 m eter hurdles giving her a third-place fini sh . tra ck and field tea m sent participants to th <: C larence Head Coach Eric Ho ul e sent just a few athletes to the Ro biso n in vitational he ld at BYU th is past weekend. meet leaving the option o pen for them tO com pete as Al tho ugh the 'Birds did no t field an entire team, SU un attached competitors. T he rest of the team spent the fa red well in fo ur different events. weekend preparing fo r next wee k' s Cardina l In vite at Am y Ballard, who has performed well a ll year in the Stanfo rd U niversit y. Th at event will be the fina l meet of discus event, fini shed 2nd with a the season, along with o ther athletes th row of 152-9. Ba ll ard has already who w ill compete in the Modesto broken the school reco rd this year in Re lays at Modesto Jun ior Coll ege the discus with a th row of 155-10, that same weekend. and has a lso fa red we ll in the shot The team will now look forward to put th rough o ut the season. qua lifyi ng certain athletes for th is Sopho mo re Taurus Jackson set a yea r's N CAA C hampion ships. Ted school record in the 200-mete r event Hansen qual ified last year and has as he ran with a time of 2 1.18. an outs ide chance at q ualifying aga in Ho wever, his time wasn't fast this year. enough as he fa iled to qualify fo r th e O ne thing that hurt the tea m this fina ls. Jackson did com pete in the year was its status as an 400-m eters, finis hing with a time of independent. Most of th is year has 48.63, good eno ugh fo r a 4th pl ace been a warm up in getting ready for finish. next year's appearance in th e MidT he o ld record fo r the 200-m eter Continent Confe rence. Building for was 21.80 set by Jackson ea rli er thi s the fu ture has been the team 's goal yea r. Jackson also came close to th e all year. Similar to the o th er teams 400-meter record, onl y . l 7 of a here at SU, the track team is also second shy. The current record is looking t o make an immediate held by Jeramie Murray with a time impact in the new conierence, and of 48.46. will hopefully be ready to compete Other 'Birds competing in fo r a championship. Saturday's events were David Taurus fackson set a school-record in SU cap tured a conference Forsberg, finishing seventh in shot the 200 meters with a time of 21.18, but championship under Houle in 1995 put wich a throw of 48-9, and Natalie was unable to qualify for the finals in while members of the America West Swasey with a time of J :00.96 in the Saturday'~ meet at BYU Conference I fifth at Idaho The SU golf team closed its 1996-97 season in Idah o with a fifth place finish in the Idah o State Bengal C lassic. The 'Birds fi nis hed with a to tal team sco re of 923, just ahead of instate rival Weber State and the host team Idaho State. Rob Ka as was th e top dog for SU as he compiled a score of 226 (+ 10), good enough fo r an 11th -place fin ish in the 5 4-h o le to urn ament.. Scott Ho useho lder of Cal-State San Bernadina took top honors in th e tournament, scoring a 209 (-7) in three rounds to fi nish we)J ahead of second-place finis her Matt Thurmond of BYU who finished I -under pa r (2 15). San Bemadin o a lso fini shed first as a team , with a total score of 878 (+ 14) with BYU fin i.shin g second (882 ). The 'Bi rds continued to improve in each round, begi nning wi th a 3 19 and 304 in the first two rounds Mohday, and finished with a 300 in the final round yesterday. Blair Bingham fared well as he fir. ished 20th with a total score of 231 (+ 15), foll owed by fellow teammates Tyler Barlow andDave Loughton (+1 6). Barlow an d Loughton both tied along with Scott Busch and Shane Langstaff of Idaho State with a 232. Cameron Cowan and Chris Stover also contributed with Cowan finishmg 2" Stover 30th. -- .. ·- . . ........... . .. |