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Show Page 10 OREM TIMES Jhundsy, March 13, 2008 T'Wolf soccer falls to Springville Russ Lyman No matter how well prepared a sooner team is going in, 4 first game of the seayn is always al-ways a mystery for coaches, players and fans alike. 1?rw in degree temperat ures and howling winds, and it becomes even more unpredicat able. Despite the miserable early spring weather and a few signs of rust from both teams, Spring-ville Spring-ville defeated Timpanogos in an entertaining seayjn opener for both teams on Wednesday afternoon at Timpanogos. Using the strong wind at their back as a surprisingly effective, albeit unpredictable, ally, the Red Devils jumped out to a 4-1 lead at the half Once the teams switched directions in the second half, it was the TWolves' turn to score almost at will as they toiled back from a three-goal deficit to turn Croft strikes out the side in the fifth to help Timpanogos baseball team improve to 3-0 Russ Lyman Mo matter how good a team's offense might be, there are days when the bats just aren't working as well as they normally do. That's when the pitching and defense come in. On Tuesday afternoon at Timpanogos. the involves offense of-fense struggled for the most part, but timely hitting and dutch pitching more than made up for it in their 4-0 win over Nort bridge lhe TWohes got most of rem? Baifep oriaapEj? It's a yest tme to buy a home or refinance your current mortgage. Let us het you tate advantage of these LOW rates. Cafl us at 222-9006 gro r It'.. : MTITUII OF Kill :Vi,-t the would-be blowout into a competitive contest. Timpanogos had several Chances to tie the game late following fol-lowing Wyatt Levin's goal in the 74th minute that made it a f4 game; however, the Springville defense held tight to preserve the win. Although the first haJf was played fairly evenly, Springville took advantage of each of it s scoring chances to build the big lead The Fed JJevib got on the board first when Phil Dan-gerfield Dan-gerfield ripped a 'JO-yard laser from the middle of the field into the top of the net. About three minutes later Springville struck again when Jake Bertelsen converted con-verted a penalty kick. T irnpanogos showed some life when it combined on a series of passes that ultimately ended in I revor I lenderson's cross to Wyatt 1rvin in the middle of the box. l in was fouled on the play and Henderson drilled its offense from a 2-out raDy in the bott om of the third inning. .Jordan Melhoff led off the inning in-ning with a single. A KeHen McWhorter bunt moved him to sea jnd T a lor Lyons walked and Jordan Cooper struck out to bring up Bret Lopez w t h t wo 'Aits and two on. Lopez hit a hard grounder up the middle to drive in Melhoff. Grant Jimenez Ji-menez followed up with a well-hit well-hit double into right center to score Lyons and Lopez and give Timpanogos (V)) a V) lead. "We didn't real!)- get a kit of hits, but that's ok, they pitched R Western Community Bank Life's er Lfes tank 1 CAPELLI Spnng -Jar . r: the penalty kick to make i a 2-1 game. The rest of the first half was aU Springville. Bryyjn Pope made a stellar individual ef fort by drilling through most of the l"Wif defense bef ore scoring on a dose-range shot, Joe Shinners Shin-ners capped of f the strong first half effort by striking the ball out of the air and into the right side of the goal after receiving a beautiful cross. Despite the lackluster frst half from the home team, the TWolves came out to play m the second Josh Hansen scored early in the second half to make it a 4-2 game, ljevin followed that up with a pair of fate goak ljevin was in the right place at the right time on his first goal as a Timpanogos free kick glanced of f the Springville goalkeeper and ljevin was there for the rebound re-bound and capit alized to make it a 4-3 contest. The Red Devils answered us pretty well and made us earn everything we got," said Timpanogos coach Kim Nelson, Nel-son, That happens some days and when that happens you hope you've go! someone on the mound throw ing zeros." f Jentry Croft proved to be just what the coach ordered. Croft and reliever Devin Olson coro-bined coro-bined on the shutout. .rthridge threatened to sere at several pints in the game, especially in the top of the fifth Michael Goodrkh, Alex F roe& Ji and Uxninque Taylor reached to load the bases w ith nobody outs. Croft got out of hfe biggest jam Boys Csmtinued from Page 9 When asked if hw team firing and dying by the 3, De-Graf De-Graf fenreid responded, "Oh we were, w e had to, we were all -3 (or shorter)." Leading the way on inters int-ers a Sous h team MVP Michael Saiazar who scored 21 points on 7 3s. Saiazar showed just how dedicated hh team was to the 3 'm the second half when he jokingJy argued with a ref to just let them inbound the ball ewead of going to shoot a 1-and-l foBowmg a fouL 4 f 0 t Specials when Dangerfiekl fed a perfect through baS to Shinners in front of the goal Shinners controlled I and drilled it hr jme for his second goal of the game, giving SpringvjJJe a 5-3 lead. I jevin's second goal came after af-ter a Tirnpanogos player kicked the ball very high and the wind carried it toward the goal The ball nearly dropped straight into the upper-right comer of the goal, but the Springville keeper got enough of the baD to knock it off the pt. Levin capitalized once again and knocked the loose ball into the net to make a one-sex jre game. lvin narrowly missed a third goal moments later. Springville held on to pick up the narrow win, "We had a slow first half, but in the second half we picked it up and cont inued to pby our game," said new Timpanogos coach Aaron Aar-on Barth. "II was a good learning experience and weU continue to grow from that" of the game by striking out the side to preserve the lead. Croft finished with six strikeouts and only two his allowed. "1 think he showed a lot," Nelson said. "J le just took a deep breath and turned it up a notch" Ihe TWoh'es tacked on a final insurance run when Jimenez Ji-menez walked and stole a base in the sixth to set up Mitch Foster's RBI single. "I thought Grant from last summer on was our best hitter," Nelson said. "That's maybe saying a lot, but he just has the capabilities. Big hit this game, big hit in the last game." "We'd rather just shoot a 3 than get a 1-and-l," Saiazar said with a laugh "That's one print, we want 3s. We were just joking, jok-ing, it was fun." Aside from the size disadvantage, disadvan-tage, Saiazar pointed out that there may have been a different explanas ion for his team's loss. "This North team practiced last night," Saiazar quipped. "I was surprised they didn't do a fulkourt press or vjmethtng." Warner denied the allegation of h practice helping hfe team win. "We practice every year and we usually lose," he said. With all the joking aside, as friiLiu "I II H ALL EASTER ON $, r Aer Merchandise Arriving Dally! 120 OPi I Id T -' ANY ONE C nil w Itait - raiSM f ftn&it J A32jtSi jfcr fir few i -"-' ....mi. .in, in- l , ... 2ttSlM Local baseball squads set to play in preseason tournaments this week Russ Lyman MCTH COUNT Each year at this time, several sev-eral thing always happen. The weather warms up, the college basketball season heats up, and major league baseball gets under way in spring training. However, there's one more thing that is as big a sign that spring is here as the other things. Every year at this time, dozens of the state's baseball teams head south to play in tournaments from St. George to Southern California in search of good weather, good competition and good times. This weekend Timpanogos win embark for the Lions Tournament Tour-nament in San Diego, while Mountain View and Or em will head down to St. George to play in the Dixie Sunshine Tournament, The tournaments are generally gener-ally one of the season highlights high-lights for the players involved and play a vital role in the development of the teams. Timpanogos coach Kim Nelson listed four key things that the preseason tournaments tourna-ments accomplish; "First, if you've got some pretty good players it gets a little bit of exposure. You go to this tournament, there's a lot of people there to watch and you never know what can happen from there; No. 2, generally you're going to play in some warmer weather; No. 3, you're kind of playing in a tournament situation where you've got to get through a number of guys that are going to have to help you pitching-wisr, and fourth, as a team, to travel and be together I think usual the classic provided the valley's top seniors a chance to pby with each other one last time in a no-pressure environment, environ-ment, "It was fun to go out here and hav e one more game," Funk said. "We're all actually pretty good friends, we always have been. It's just kind of cod to get out here and share the ball." Funk was the recipient of much of the sharing. American Fork's Greg Meacham connected con-nected with Funk not once, but twice, on off-the-backboard aJtey-oops in the second half. Kauunki also shared with his II A .ij (L dD ltd1 mjiifi'i i it ITEM! Hi SUM there's some good things there," Although the responses may vary slightly, the reasons rea-sons listed by Nelson are the primary purpose for going to preseason tournaments. This year at the San Diego tournament, the TWolves were placed in the Premier Division which is the second-highest second-highest of the prestigious tournament's seven divisions, divi-sions, Timpanogos will open up against El Diamante on Monday, followed by Mira Mesa on Tuesday and Vista next Wednesday, Should Timpanogos win its pool, it would play for the division championship at that University Uni-versity of San Diego, Win or lose, the tournament was a good experience for the TWolves last year and they expect another exciting trip. "Last year when we went to San Diego, that was by far the best trip we've ever been on," Nelson said, "We played good teams on good fields. There were things to do, it was just a great time," The two other local teams heading out of town will be Or em and Mountain View who will both be playing in the Dixie Sunshine Tournament, Tourna-ment, where the Bruins placed second to Spanish Fork last season. The Tigers will open against Dixie before taking on Box Elder and Spanish Fork, Mountain View will face new region rival in its division among other teams. The tournament is divided into two pooU with the winner win-ner of each pool playing on Saturday evening for the championship. new teammate Hamilton on an alley oop in the first quarter. Warner commented afterward that his team accomplished a goal by out-dunking the south squad. "I think it was the best group, the funnest group I've been able to work with," Warner said "I really had a good time." Aside from Funk's 34, the North team got 16 points from Tucker, LI apiece from Half-ord, Half-ord, Hamilton and Sharp, and 11 points from KaOunkL The South squad was led by Salazar's 21, but also got 1.1 points from Marcus H unt and SethLovefl. QSEDGD SEE) 03335 GRX3EB (SEED 9 fEE? 1 1 Ir- is i I f I J, 5S ; ;L . t, (i - jM f i" 4B ; f 1 If Jl i ? t |