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Show PORT WEDNESDAY 62 "Daily Utah Chronicle Lobos eliminate Utes from MWC tourney conference win over BYU highlights rocky season First-roun- d Asad Kudiya Sports Ed. tor At the end of a wild regular season, the U baseball team had something it did not have throughout the season: a glimmer of hope, brought when d the Utes won their matchup in the Mountain West Conference Championships. The Utes had not defeated the BYU Cougars in !! straight contests, but the Ute hitters seemed to own the plate against the BYU hurlers. The Utes tied an MWC record with Championship seven doubles en route to a 10-- 4 win over the Cougars. Although the Utes got a great performance out of their hitters, the main issue the team needed to address in order to be successful was its pitching. The pitching talent came through with a solid outing against the Cougars. Jason Price was outstanding in eight innings, allowing only four runs on 10 hits, which gave the Utes a good chance to claim a victory. Win in hand, the team advanced to the second round against San Diego State. That's where the Utes' success abruptly halted. The Ute hitters, who had been so potent against BYU the day before, went up against the MWC's Pitcher of the Year, Scott Shoemaker. lie completely shut the Utes down. The Ute hitters were befuddled as Shoemaker flashed through the innings. first-roun- Shoemaker allowed only three hits in a complete-gam- e shutout. Unfortunately, Shoemaker's play was not duplicated by the Ute pitchers. Starter Doug Mackay had a solid outing, allowing four runs in six innings. The Utes had a fighting chance with a four-rudeficit, but Ben Buck came in for relief in the seventh inning and the Aztecs put up three more runs. In the end, the Utes went down and had to play in the loser's bracket against the n 8-- second-seede- 7 .f J 0 New Mexico d Lobos. Utah didn't go down in flames as they put up a good fight. The Utes jumped out to a quick 0 lead, but the Lobos answered with three runs of their own in the second inning. Buck started the game for the Utes, but left in the second inning in favor of Clay Westmoreland, who pitched seven innings and allowed seven H7ff"3 4-- np if runs. Utah led for much of the game and had an 5 lead heading into the bottom of the eighth. 8-- The score turned when the k Lobos hit home runs, cutting the lead down to one heading into the ninth inning. New Mexico tied the game with a double and in the end, Jay Russell hit an RBI single with the bases loaded to eliminate the Utes from the tournaback-to-bac- ment. akudiyachronicle.utah.edu 81 San Dieqo 84 Game 5 BYU Gamel tt5 Utah 81 San Dieqo 104 5 Utah I Game 8 83 83 Game 2 86 Air Force I UNLV Game 4 82 Game 3 86 86 is 85 Utah Mexico Game 6 BYU 83 UNlV New Mexico Loser's Bracket 82 New 84 UNLV UNLV Game 7 82 New Mexico 0: New Mexico Air Force Jason Price slings the ball from the mound last March at Franklin Covey Field. Price allowed four runs in eight innings as the Utes defeated the Cougars 10-- 4 in the first round of the Mountain West Conference Championships. Air Force Lakers will win again, but how much do they care'i When the Los Angeles Lakers won Game 6 of the Western Conference Final Monday night, a collective groan could be heard around the country. "Yeah, yeah," the people said. "We all know they're going to win." A Lakers championship was a foregone conclusion for most fans and experts alike before the season even started. Now, with only some pathetic Eastern Conference foe waiting, the Lakers are already gathering their ring sizes for the inevitable ceremony. Everyone knew the season would end up this way, except for a small community of pessimists and nay savers who are currently licking the eggs off of their faces. Let me think, who was it I made that sio bet with? I can still remember the asinine arguments he was making, though his name escapes me at present moment. "Great players don't always make a great team," he said as he cited the Rockets team with Charles Rarklcy as his evidence. "Too many big egos," he threw in, as if that could somehow prevent a team from winning. It always seemed to me that a big ego needs protection through validation. In this case that validation comes in the form of an NBA championship. So I was right, along with person who has a brain, hut I contend that the Lakers are still a r any-othe- disappointment. At the beginning achieving the results of the year, I predictthey were capable ed the Lakers would of during the reguwin 66 games and the lar season. To them, NBA title. Sure, I was the regular season is simply a ticket to right on one count, but I was stupid to the playoffs and they think they would win would just as easthat many regular-seaso- n ily have accepted an even lower seed. games. After all, it just The Lakers' first Tye Smith Asst. Sports Editor isn't L.A.'s style. The two games of the San Lakers have always Antonio series spoke been a team to get things done their volumes about the team. They own way on their own time. They hardly competed in the first two probably could have won the chamgames, allowing themselves to fall pionship last year too, but they got behind two games to none. But the Lakers weren't worried. lazy from winning three in a row. Do you think that would have They knew they were going back ever happened to one of Michael to the Staples Center for the third and fourth games, and they knew Jordan's teams? No way! Every year the Bulls were capathey would win both. In essence, ble of winning the title, they did. In they probably could have swept the their best year, MJ kept the likes of Spurs, but because of strange noDennis Rodman and Scottie Pippcn tions of L.A. laziness and coolness, under control for the entire seathe team waited for Game Three to son, winning an NBA record of 72 make its mark. games. Why play so hard on the road I once thought that the Lakers when you can wait for an easier were capable of matching such a game at home? It's not that the logic is wrong, it's significant feat, but that was before I realized how severely embedded actually quite sound. the L.A. mentality is in the minds of The problem comes in cheering for a bunch of guys who literally every player on the team. The Lakers don't care about only play well when they feel like records. Hell, it. great regular-seaso- n The same held true in Games 2 they barely got it together in time to secure the second seed in the and 5 of the Minnesota series. After playoffs. I honestly feel that not one stealing Game in Minnesota, the player on the team felt bad for not hardly stepped on the court t 1 TES Glance) Track The Lakers are fashionably late and they make their own schedule. They refuse to be rushed and they are ridiculous drama queens. for Game They knew the would have to fight like dogs to secure any chance of winning the series, so the Lakers let the have the game. I'm not 2. " es sure Shaq even played. The same thing happened in Game 5. The Lakers knew that a Game 5 loss would bring the series back to L.A., where they would prefer to win anyway. So again, they let the win. The fact that, in classic L.A. fashion, the Lakers took their time finishing off clearly inferior opponents should be insulting to the rest of the league. The Lakers are fashionably late and they make their own schedule. They refuse to be rushed and they are ridiculous drama queens. We're talking about a team that added two of the biggest divas in the sport world when it signed Karl Malone and Gary Payton. We should have known they would fit right in. tsmithi chronicle, utah. edu The U track team wrapped up its outdoor season last weekend with a strong showing at the NCAA regional qualify- ing meet. Senior Nellie Hammons notched a new school record in the 800 meters, an event she has dominated for two consecutive years, with her time of 2 minutes, 6.97 seconds. Hammons finished in fourth place, and as a top-fiv- e finisher, she earned an automatic qualification to the upcoming NCAA Nationals. Hammons was the only Ute to advance to the finals, but several others closed out solid seasons with good performances. Senior Katie Decker tied for nth in the high jump, while junior Jen Jackman landed an eighth-plac- e finish in the 400-methurdles with her second-fastetime ever. On the men's side, senior Nephi Tyler finished his season with a ninth-plac- e finish in the 1,500-metrun. er st er Swimming The U swimming program finished up its offseason moves when high school prep star Michelle Blair signed a national letter of intent with the Utes last week. Blair, of Orlando, Fla., is the final addition to head coach Mike Litzinger's swim team. Determined to turn 2004-0- 5 the U into a contender for swimming, Litzingcr has made steady improvements to the team since his arrival. Blair was a high school as well as a Florida state runner-u- p in the d fly during her final two years of high school. Blair sat out the 2003-200season to focus on training. 100-yar- |