Show i:V: S W : s tV p— : ‘V j va il ' - '‘'J-fc'V-- t - : £ v '' ''!( fv'j-S'"-- i :r 'Jv 1 ' ' - - ' ' : "ir ! Section ’r tL ' L - ' — v ' - ?' 4 ' ® £psO- Monday March 31 2003 ' : ¥ 7 vt'1 : ': Insido - ' ?: tfc - ' can taste success ANAHEIM Calif (AP) — With Game 7 winner John Lackey ou the mound ThundeiStix in the stands and die Rally Monkey on the d the Anaheim Angels started this season the same way they began last vear — with a thud Alex Rodriguez Juan Gonzalez and Michael Young homered making manager Buck Showalter a winner in his Tfexas debut as the Rangers beat the Worid Series champion Angels 3 Sunday night in the major league opener Lackey was nit hard as the Angels 6-- B2 i Sports briefs l- y'- He didn’t win it easily though having to fight off a strong challenge from Earnhardt the crowd favorite Newman who led four times for 77 laps appeared to gain control when he took the lead on lap 224 of the 334-la- p event That came during a caution period — one of 10 in die race — in die middle of a series of stops Sorenstam edged out RANCHO MIRAGE Calif (AP) Patricia Meumer-Lebou- c kept talking all week about how much fun it was to play with Annika Sorenstam It didn’t compare though to the joy of beating her to win a major championship Meunier-Lebou- c shook off an tee shot with some steady play in the final holes Sunday to win the Kraft Nabisco by a shot denying Sorenstam’s bid to become the first LPGA player to win the same major tide three years in a row Meunier-Lebou- c birdied the 13 th hole to take die lead then parred her way in before a meaningless bogey on die final hole gave her a win over 73 and a Sorenstam — - utt one-sh- ot Sunday's scores AL 6-- 0 6-- 14 X’ 4-- S AN ANTONIO (AP) — As the final seconds ticked off TJ Ford dribbled to halfcourt flashed the “Hook ’em Homs” sign to a sea of burnt orange in die crowd and “Watching everyone drop off as one seeds that last couple days it was just a great moment to know we’re going to New Orleans” Ford said coach about hugging The star coach Rick Barnes “I love guard and the Coach It was rest of the Texas Longvery important horns can celefor his career brate all the and our career Nrw ofLvdKi as players” way to the Final Four the The other school’s first trip there in three No 1 seeds lost in their regional finals — 56 years 19 Fordscored points Kentucky and Arizona on ' and had 10 assists in an Saturday and Oklahoma 83-7- 6 Michi-on i Sunday victory oyer State in the South The last time the Longfinal Sunday horns played in the Final Four was 1947 when the as the leaving Longhorns NCAA tournament field team the only in die tournament was only eight teams Barnes said Texas has They did it just 80 been looking toward this miles from their Austin tournament ever since campus and in front of a crowd that filled the losing in the round of 16 last season Alamodome with chants “I mentioned it from of ‘Texas Fight” and “Final Four” Texas will See HORNS on B4 play Syracuse next Satur- - AP photo Texas guard T J Ford and the Longhorns got to cut down the nets Sunday night double-doubl- e ALBANY NY (AP) — Carmeio Anthony cut the down the net then stuck strands underneath his brand new white cap that showed the next stop for the Syracuse Orangemen: New Orleans The freshman sensation led the way scoring 20 points and adding 10 rebounds to help Oklahoma knock off 63-4- 7 in the East Regional final top-seed- ed On television MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL Chicago Cubs at NY Syracuse's Carmeio Anthony celebrates ing a basket in the second half Sunday AP photo after mak- Sunday “This is my first time getting to the Final Four” he said Mots ESPN2— Montreal at Atlanta at 2pjn i Ibumamonf Anthony’s AHL WGN — Chicago White Sox Kansas City ld Syracuse sinks Sooners Utah 4 Houston 2 pjn Ugueth Urbina signed as a free agent over the winter pitched the ninth for the save He had 40 last top-seed- ed New Jersey 6 NY Islanders 0 Edmonton 4 Chicago 4 tie Anaheim 3 Vancouver 1 1 innings run-scori- ng day night in the semifi- - NHL r- - 4-- season for Boston last year Texas relievers combined for one-h- it ball over four innings The Angels’ runs came on an RBI single by Brad Fullmer in the first inning another single by Garret Anderson in the thinl and Darin Erstad’s RBI groundout in the fifth Rodriguez hampered by a herniated disk in his neck this spring made it 3-- 2 with a solo homer in the fifth He began trotting almost as soon as the ball left his bat and the ball landed deep in the left-fieseats is lone top seed to make Final Four NBA ESPN right-hand- er UT Toronto 95 New York 86 Dallas 119 Minnesota 95 Milwaukee 109 Miami 87 Indana 92 Phoenix 81 Detroit 99 Sacramento 88 San Antonio 92 New Orleans 90 Denver 88 Washington 72 Seattle 119 LA Lakero 98 LA Clippers 102 Memphis 100 am innings In his last outing the became the first rookie to win die seventh game of a Worid Series in 93 yeus when he gave up one run in five innings of die Angels’ 1 victory over San Francisco on Oct 27 Ismael Valdes made his first start in an opener and got die win against his former teammates allowing three runs on seven hits in five KMbd Texas 6 Anaheim 3 11 42-ye-ar NCAA PORT WORTH Texas (AP) — ' Ityan Newman passed Dale Earnhardt Jr with 11 laps remaining and held on to win the SamsungRadio Shack 500 at Thus Motor Speed- way on Sunday Newman gambled by changing just two tires on his last pit stop and the payoff was his second career victory and first since Sept 15 2002 in New Hanqishiie “Tires and track position were key for sure” Newman said “We didn’t think four tires were going to make that much of a difference and we needed to get to the front some way” dropped their fourth straight opener Last year they started off wifii a loss to Cleveland and fell to a franchise-worst before coming back After rousing pregame ceremonies that included £e rasing of the first World Senes champi-fla- g in their history Young quirted the crowd with a three-ru- n shot over the center-fiel- d wall off Lackey to give Tfexas a 2 lead in die fourth inning The Rangers rocked Lackey for five runs on eight hits in five opener ' Newman races to win at Texas Speedway g - in score-boar- green-fla- 4- vi:’ Keilen Hansen and the Tribe Pagel The Herald Journal ESPN — Pittsburgh at Cincinnati ESPN2 — Milwaukee at Si Louis 5 pjn ESPN2 — NY Yankees at Toronto ArOMEN’S COLLEGE BASKETBALL fcSOpun ESPN —NCAA tournament Mideast Regional final Villanova vs Tennessee at Knoxvie Term 7:30 (km ESPN — NCAA tournament Midwest Regional final Duke vs Texas Troh at Afcuquerque NM leads way for Orange “and hopefully not my last” “I’ll second that one” coach Jim Boeheim yelled Whether Anthony heads for the NBA or not he will have at least one more game in his college career The fans had already expressed their feelings on the matter as they chanted “One more year” when it was forannounced that the ward was the regional's MVP With Anthony stepping up from the start and Syracuse ‘ dominating with its 3 zone the Orangemen advanced to their first Final Four in seven years “Our defense was the difference’’ Boeheim said “That was probably the best we've played defensively all year We did a gpod job of getting to their shooters and making them shoot tough shots” The third-seedOrangemen (28-5- ) will face Texas the top 2-- ed See SINKS on B4 Love charges to win Ags swept at Fullerton Eight-und-er By USU Athletic Media Relations 64 more than enough at TPC PONTE VEDRA BEACH Fla (AP) — Davis Love m provided the charge everyone expected from Hger Woods and delivered a performance every bit as dominant Sunday in The Players Championship Love pulled away with five straight birdies and closed with 64 to match the an best final round by the winner r in the history of the 30-yea- tournament known as the fifth major ft was the second time Love has won The Players Championship and it could be a huge boost to his confidence with die Masters only two weeks' away Love finished at t 271 and won by six strokes over Jay Haas and 17-un- See LOVE on B4 fourth inning when Cal State Fullerton (3-- 0 22-1scored five runs The Utah State softball team Hatch led the Aggies at the plate third its of the game dropped with an RBI weekend series against eighth-ranke- d going Carii Baumgartner took the loss Cal State Fullerton 1 Sunday at Fullerton Calif giving up all five Titan runs while reliever Leslie Higley allowed just Utah State (0-- 3 in the Big West Aggie softball four hits and no runs in three overall) took a 0 lead in the of work Candice Second as the Hatch of innings inning top ' Utah State opens its home season Tuessingled to centerfield and drove in Stephanie Vasarhely for the Aggies' only day at 2 pm in a doubleheader against run The guests held the lead until the Brigham Young - 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