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Show Thursday, April 26, 2007 Page 8 OREM TIMES f, f) M M IJ II I I Y SPORTS, PEOPLE AND OUTDOOR FUN Gentry Dabling Mountain View High School Four years, 16 seasons for Oowiney Downey's reign at Orem coming to an end as she wraps up softball, track competition Russ Lyman prep Next yi-ar. when the Orem High School noil team hit s the links, Ihe girls b.iskHb.ill I'-ain maki-s ;i run into the stall- lout nartifiil, the softball team laces up its cleats, or the t rack team i hallenges for another state title, they uill lie doing so without a very familial famil-ial hue ' hat ol Ki-time letter winner I Jelvse I Jnwncv. ( hei the past lour years, Downey's name has Ix-r omr svnonymous with ui i ess. haul woik and versatility. In a high sc hool sports landscape where many athletes choose to locus on one spoil. I lowney has become a force in loin She's lettered in lour sports since she was a ninth grader, what more is there to say said )iem girls basketball basket-ball coach Ross Reed "That's pretty unheard of " What's even more unheard ol is the fact that she has accomplished all that w hile maintaining a 'W7 (il'A. Downey's uncommon journey started start-ed when she was young. After developing develop-ing interests in all four sports Ix-fore starling high school, she was often told that she was going to have to pick and choose which sports she would do in high school. I lowever, she didn't see things that way. "After my first year of doing all four of them, I realized that I could do this," she said. "It was hard at first but it progressively pro-gressively got easier and more fun. If I didn't do the sports I'd feel like I didn't have anything to do during the day." I)wney got her start in softball by playing little league baseball, then was able to convert her skills onto the soft-ball soft-ball field in time to contribute to Orem's state runner-up team her freshman year. She is currently one of the top shortstops in the state. In basketball, Downey played Junior Jazz and participated as a freshman on the Tigers' second-place finishing squad. Two years later, she helped lead Orem to a state championship as the starting point guard on the 2005-06 state championship team. "Winning state in basketball last year was at the top of my list of sports accomplishments," Downey said. "Second "Sec-ond would be playing with my sister Devrie and taking second in state." Downey started playing golf when she was (i years old and used the sport to spend time with her dad, Steve, who Vrw J COBB CONDIENorth County Orem shortstop Delyse Downey tries to scoop up a throw during a game against See DOWNEY, Page 9 Mountain View on March 30. Class: Senior Sport: Softball Position: First base Favorite food: Chinese Favorite Restaurant: Costa Vida Favorite Subject: Psychology Favorite Sports team: New York Yankees Favorite Athlete: Derek Jeter Favorite Movie: Step Up Favorite TV show: Baseball Tonight Favorite Book: Danny's Corner Person who has most helped career: My dad Hero: My mom Future goal: to become a nanny Favorite Coach Fieldsted saying: "Pitch strikes early in the count, early in your life." Most memorable sports moment: mo-ment: When I hit a walk off home run against Orem Smith finds form in time to top Timpanogos Neil K. Warner Something hasn't been quite right for Pleasant (irove pitcher pitch-er Kgan Smith. I lis velocity was down and Ihe action he would normally gel on his pilches was inconsistent. incon-sistent. In two region starts, Smith was 0 1 wilh a no-deci-sion Hut Tuesday afternoon, playing play-ing perhaps his biggest game of the season. Smith returned to form. I le made a minor change in his mechanics and it paid off. I le pitched a complete game and gave up just five hits. He si ruck out 1 1 as he pitched Pleasant ( irove to a 4-1 Region -1 win over Timpanogos. "When I tipped my leg. I was bringing my hands up too high so it would make arm lag behind my legs," Smith said. "I got my velocity veloc-ity back up a lot. I've been having some mechanic problems. prob-lems. Me and coach (Ryan) Hall sat down and worked on it. It felt good, hardly any effort. I had my splitty working work-ing and my curveball. It felt good." Smith got even tougher when Timpanogos threatened. Timpanogos had a man on third with one out in the third inning, but Smith battled back to get a strikeout and groundout. Then in the sixth inning, after the T'Wolves had scored a run and had runners at second and third with one out, Smith did it again, getting a strikeout and a groundout to end the inning. Trailing 4-0 in the sixth, Joe, you need to visit Harris Hearing, You'll hear better in v less than an hour! i Tcan't understand I whathe's sayingy I in y i if XTT v ft hl wonder if she's Its so sad I , t thinki what ym his hearing yQT ' L-vL , O Call Today! I I 4 Years in a row! . ,'.i. i Won't Peel, Crack or Warp Outperforms all Drop-in Lirws Great for Boats, Trailers, RVs Jeep', etc Helps Keep your Gear from Sliding LIFETIME PKOltCTS AGAINST RUST AND CORROSION Relish Abrasion, cvwi unoV Heavy Use Not a Point-Like coating... Sprays On up to 1 4" Thick All Colors Available 11 Rhino Linings' Timpanogos tried to get to Smith. Taylor Lyons hit a ball in the hole between first and second that Colby Whiteley knocked down, but couldn't get to first in time to get the speedy Lyons. Bret Lopez followed with the hardest hit ball of the game when he doubled to deep left -center to score the run. Mitch Foster then hit a ball up the middle that looked like it would bounce into center field. But Jake Rickenbach made a diving stop and then popped up and caught Lopez rounding third. A rundown followed, but Pleasant Grove botched it, leaving Lopez safe at third and Foster at second with one out. Smith then took over. He struck out Christian Stewart, who had singled earlier in the game, and then got Jordy Del-isle Del-isle to ground out the end the inning. "In crucial situations in the game he (Smith) was better than us today," said Timpanogos coach Kim Nelson. Nel-son. "You battle at the plate. You know the strike zone and you know pitches you should swing at and let go. We weren't very tough. We didn't battle like we had been." Pleasant Grove gave Smith some breathing room with a two-run sixth inning when the Vikings chased Timpanogos starter Nash Fowler, who had given up just two unearned runs through the first five innings. in-nings. But in the bottom of the fifth, Rickenbach led off the inning with a double to right-center. right-center. Riley White bunted Rickenbach Ricken-bach to third and Devin Walker Walk-er singled to right to score the run and put Pleasant Grove up 3-0. After Tyson Weber flew out, Braden Frampton walked and Whiteley singled in a run to make the score 4-0, which proved to be more than enough for Smith. "If we didn't get that one, we're in bad shape," Hall said. "Egan found his groove finally and I can't even tell you how big it is. That gets us fairly back into it. We've still got some work to do, but hopefully hope-fully this gets us rolling a little bit." The loss dropped Timpanogos drops to 3-2 in region play, while Pleasant Grove improved to 2-3. And while they were at it, the Vikings got their ace back. When asked if he was back, Smith said, "Oh, I'm back." Timpanogos 000 001 0 1 5 4 Pleasant Grove 101 02 x 4 6 3 fowlei, Nielsen (5) and Foster. Smith and Walker. WP-Smith, WP-Smith, LP-Fowler 2B-Rickenbach (PI, Lopez (T) We sell and take donations of: Building materials, tools, cabinets, countertops, plumbing, appliances, HVAC, doors & windows, paint, carpet, & more! Greot Prices for o Great Cause. All proceeds go to helping Utah Co. families, "h Habitat for Humanity 26 N. Freedom Blvd., Provo PfiCtr YH CaU 3REST0R for questions IVClil)! C (373-7867) 10-6 M-F, 9-3 Sat FAMILY FRIENDLY RADIO FOR UTAH VALLEY I n 4 I mi inn a n i AM RADIO Me Key to life is Jesus Christ 1450 rpicw Web Site: www.keyy.com E-Mail: mailkeyy.com Complete program schedule and listener comment opportunity on our web tile or phone us for a copy of our schedule! - KEYY will not add your name to any mailing lists. Steven A. Barshun. General Manager 307 South 1 600 West, Provo, UT 8460 1 -3932 374-52 1 0 iEn Espanol! PROGRAMAS Y MUSICA PARA LA FAMILIA Los Sabados De Las 12:00 A Las 5:00 p.m. Roden helps Bruins edge past Spanish Fork Russ Lyman DAILY HERALD There are big plays, and then there's what Mountain View's Sam Roden did against Spanish Fork in the Bruins' 4-3 4-3 win on Thursday. With two outs and runners run-ners on first and second in the bottom of the seventh inning, Rhett Nielson hit a shot down the third base line. Roden laid out to stop the ball and touched third base to get the final out of the game and prevent the tying and possible winning runs from scoring. Ironically, the play came just over a week after the Bruins lost to American Fork on a diving play. "It's just a deep breath afterwards af-terwards because we've been in two games like that where it's crumbled," said Mountain View coach Chris Cooper. Although the final play put an exclamation point on an exciting victory, the Bruins were in position to win due to a strong performance on the mound by Cameron Schmidt. The starting pitcher used his nasty off-speed pitches and a deceptive fastball to keep the Spanish Fork offense at bay for most of the game. Schmidt got into some trouble in the later innings, but Cooper chose to remain with the tall right hander. "He pitched a whale of a ballgame," Cooper said. "I think the best decision I made today was to just leave him out there. I saw the bulldog in his eyes and I let him go; granted we made a great play for him there." Offensively, the Bruins did all of their damage in the second sec-ond inning. Roden singled to lead off the inning. Chad Gonzales Gon-zales then knocked in Roden and reached on an error. Two batters later, Travis Jackman came up with runners on second sec-ond and third and went up the rewind middle with a Brock Duke offering of-fering to plate two more runs. Trent Call, who went 2-for-4, helped finish off the scoring with an RBI double into left center field. Call also had a solid day defensively de-fensively while playing shortstop short-stop for Mountain View. Call's biggest play came when he made a perfect throw to get a crucial out at home in the bottom bot-tom half of the second. After the four hits he allowed al-lowed in the second frame, Don pitcher Duke only allowed al-lowed two more hits for the rest of the game. The Spanish Fork (11-4, 2-2) offense got things going late behind three singles in both the fifth and the seventh innings. Damon Ward had a pair of hits, while Tyler Hanks and Gentry Mitchell each went 3-for-3. In addition to saving the game, Roden's play may have also been a season saver. Coming Com-ing into the game with an 0-3 region record, Mountain View (11-5, 1-3) faced a virtual must-win must-win situation to enter into a tie with Pleasant Grove and Lone Peak for the region's fourth and final playoff spot. "This win brings us so much confidence," said shortstop short-stop Trent Call. "We couldn't afford to go down to 04. Now we're in with everyone else." Not only was it a big win in the standings, but the win was also important to boost the team's psyche. "These kids needed that win to be able to go on and compete the rest of the way," Cooper said. "I think that believing be-lieving is the biggest thing for these guys. We can compete See BRUINS, Page 9 siemensIN Edison Stanford Hearing Center 1 |