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SPORTS | ENTERPRISE-RECORD+MERCURY-REGISTER FRIDAY, APRIL 14, 2017

LOCAL ROUNDUP
Softball
ting .364 and ranking fifth
in the conference with 35

FROM PAGE 1

Chico State, ranked No.

13 in the country in the
latest National Fastpitch
Coaches Association top
25 poll, is ranked third in
the CCAA with a .303 team
batting average. The Wild-
cats are averaging 4.9 runs
and 7.9 hits a game.
The Wildcats pitching
staff owns the CCAA’s top
team earned run average
at 1.76, which is ninth best
in the nation. Chico State
hurlers are holding oppo-
nents to a conference-low
.236 batting average.
Individually, Haley Gil-
ham leads the CCAA in
runs batted in.
UC San Diego (21-19, 12-
16 CCAA) sits in seventh
place in the CCAA and is
Braves rout Williams on the road
still in the hunt for one of Butte softball 4 with four RBIs while Ariel mando Leal added a pair College Softball
the four CCAA Champion- Leal knocked in three runs of hits and Ezequiel Polino
ship Tournament berths. swept by Sac City for the Hamilton High base- had two RBIs as Hamilton SACRAMENTO 10-12, BUTTE
UC San Diego won its ball team’s 16-0 rout of Wil- racked up 12 hits on the day. 0-0 >> The Roadrunners
first nine games of the sea- Staff Reports liams Thursday afternoon Hamilton (11-5-1, 4-1 Mid dropped a pair of games
son, then dropped 15 of the on the road. Valley League) hosts Orland on the road to Sacramento
next 21 contests. The Tri- Ethan Magana went 2 for Cort Johnson and Ar- at 4 p.m. on Wednesday. City.
tons have righted the ship
in recent weeks, winning
four of six at the Tourna- Local Scoreboard
ment of Champions in Tur- Huerta (3) and Povlsen. First Game SACRAMENTO CITY 12, BUTTE 0 (5)
lock and splitting a four- BASEBALL Top hitters — Hamilton: Polino 2 RBI; Second Game
Butte 000 00 — 0 2 3
game series last weekend Prep
Arm. Leal 2x4; Johnson 2x4; Ari. Leal 3
RBI; Magana 2x4, 4 RBI. Sac City 325 00 — 10 10 0
Butte 000 00 — 0 4 4
against Humboldt State. HAMILTON 16, WILLIAMS 0 (5) Thayer, Engel (3) and Deadmond; Dark Sac City 261 3x — 12 9 1
UC San Diego is batting SOFTBALL and McClinton.
McDonald, Kociemba (3) and Deadmond,
Top hitters — Sacramento City: Rocha
.275 as a team, averaging Hamilton 4110 10 — 16 12 0
3x3; McClinton 2x3.
Mayo (3); Dark and McClinton.
Williams 000 00 — 0 3 3 College Top hitters — Sacramento City: Martinez
4.1 runs and 7.1 hits a game. Johnson, Engel (3) and Magana; Tercero, 2x3; Murphy 2x3.
The Tritons’ pitching staff SACRAMENTO CITY 10, BUTTE 0 (5)

ERA (0.81) and opponent ranks sixth in the CCAA

batting average (.202) with a 2.85 team ERA.

while ranking second in
the conference in wins
(17) and fourth in strike-
outs (92). Gilham is fourth
among all Division II pitch-
ers nationwide in ERA.
Cailin Garmon is bat-
ting .390 and leads the
CCAA with 38 stolen bases
on the season.
Kristin Worley is fifth
in the CCAA batting race
with a .402 average, and
is tied for fifth in stolen
bases with 22. Ari Marsh
enters the weekend hit-
The Wildcats and Tri-
tons met six times last sea-
son. Chico State won three
of four Feb. 26-27, 2016 in
La Jolla, but UC San Diego
came back to beat the ’Cats
twice three months later
during the CCAA Champi-
onship Tournament. Since
1983, the Tritons hold a 43-
25 advantage in the all-
time series between the
two teams.
Live stats and video
streaming will be available
at www.chicowildcats.com.
Emanuel
ple he’s never seen before.
Staying at home means the
people that want to follow
FROM PAGE 1 his running path won’t have
a hard time doing so.
to have accomplished a lot Inside Chico High’s the-
by the time things wrap up. ater on Thursday, Eman-
An All-American status and uel signed his letter of in-
a national title are among tent before his staunchest
those aspirations. supporters — his friends
That’s not to say Eman- and family. That was the
uel doesn’t understand the best part of the entire ex-
challenge of jumping to the perience for Emanuel, he
college level of competition, said. When he put pen to
especially with a program paper and initiated the
that is expected to be great next step of his life, he did
year in and year out. Eman- so in front of the people
uel said he knows it won’t who had supported him

Baseball
FROM PAGE 1
their magic number to
clinch the North Division
title is nine.
They have an opportu-
nity to continue to whittle
those numbers this week-
end when Cal State Los
Angeles comes to town for
a three-game series.
Golden Eagles also boast
some of the best pitching sta-
tistics in the CCAA. However,
they have struggled where
the Wildcats have shined —
on the defensive side.
Cal State L.A. has com-
mitted 64 errors, the most
in the CCAA.
The series begins with a
doubleheader Friday at 1 p.m.
and concludes with a single
game Saturday at 11 a.m.
All three game broad-
be easy, but he’s confident
that the new team will help
him with that.
“The team is really
bonded, they push each
other to be the best runners
they can be,” Emanuel said.
“And Towne is really indi-
vidualized; he knows what
each person needs to do to
get better.
“I’m going in with a clear
EMILY BERTOLINO — ENTERPRISE-RECORD from day one.
“They’ve been so posi-
Jack Emanuel pulls ahead of the group to win the
tive, and they’ve pushed
800-meter race in a dual track meet Wednesday against
me to be the best person I
Pleasant Valley at Chico High.
can be,” Emanuel said. “I
can’t thank them enough
mind, and I’m willing to do town’s strong running com- for that, and I wouldn’t be
whatever it takes. Whatever munity, where he’s gath- where I am today without
they tell me to do, I’ll do it.” ered somewhat of a fol- them.”
His commitment to stay- lowing. He’s been on runs
ing in Chico means Eman- where he’s gotten waves Nick Woodard can be
uel will remain a part of the and “good jobs” from peo- reached at 896-7720.

That will not be easy, how-
ever. Led by the CCAA’s lead-
ing power hitter, Sean Wat-
kins, the Golden Eagles are
20-14 overall and 13-11 in
conference play. Watkins
leads the CCAA in home
runs (12), slugging percent-
age (.817), and RBI (36). The
On the air
AUTO RACING
F1Bahrain Grand Prix, Prac-
tice: 8a.m., NBCSN.
COLLEGE BASEBALL
Oklahoma State vs. Kansas: 5
p.m., FS1.
UCLA at Stanford: 7 p.m.,
PAC12BA.
MLB BASEBALL
Pittsburgh Pirates at Chi-
cago Cubs: 11 a.m., MLB.
St. Louis Cardinals vs. New
York Yankees or Baltimore
Orioles vs. Toronto Blue Jays: Oilers: 7 p.m., NBCSN.
4p.m., MLB.
Colorado Rockies at San
casts will be streamed on-
line. Saturday’s contest
will also be broadcast lo-
cally on KPAY 1290 AM.
Streaming audio is avail-
able at www.chicowildcats.
com. Links to live stats and
a video stream of the game
are also available there.
Division I Championship,
Women’s Semifinal: 10a.m.,
ESPN2.
Division I Tournament, Men’s
Semifinal: 5 p.m., ESPNU.
NHL HOCKEY
Stanley Cup Playoffs, New
York Rangers at Montreal
Canadiens: 4:30p.m., NBCSN.
Stanley Cup Playoffs, St.
Louis Blues at Minnesota
Wild: 5 p.m., USA.
Stanley Cup Playoffs, San
Jose Sharks at Edmonton
RUGBY
Sidelines
FROM PAGE 1
said. “They have helped me
learn lessons that apply to life
in general that I otherwise
would have never learned,
and they have assisted me in
finding my true self.”
“I have seen first-hand
the inner drive and de-
termination Aileen has,”
said Jason Ovitz, teacher
and girls basketball coach
at Orland High. “She has
overcome obstacles dur-
ing her high school career
with class, with a positive
outlook and hard work to
get to where she is today.
Her behavior and actions
on and off the playing sur-
face in volleyball, basket-
BASEBALL
ball and track are definitely bought afterward. is offering its annual Vi-
examples of Pursuing Vic- Being inducted into this king Volleyball Team Camp
tory with Honor.” year’s Chico Sports Hall of 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. June 12-15
TICKETS AVAILABLE FOR Fame are Pat Gillick, Ross at Marsh Middle School for
SPORTS HALL OF FAME AND Land and David Santos. grades 6-12.
SENIOR ATHLETES BANQUET Also during the evening, Cost is $150 and includes
>> Tickets are on sale and the top senior athletes of 2017 practice gear. Flier and
can be purchased between the year from Chico State registration information
8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday and area high schools along can be found at http://bit.
through Friday at the En- with the top sophomores ly/2pzEgfD.
terprise-Record office, 400 from Butte College will The camp is designed to
East Park Ave. in Chico. be honored, as selected by teach the systematic style of
The banquet, sponsored each school’s athletic direc- play that all three levels of
by the Enterprise-Record, tors and coaching staffs. teams offered at PV use in
will be held Tuesday, May The evening will con- CIF competition.
9, at the Chico Elks Lodge clude with the announce- Campers will be per-
at 1705 Manzanita Ave. No- ment of the Chico Commu- forming and competing in
host cocktails begin at 6 nity Sportsperson of the match-like activities de-
p.m. with dinner at 7 p.m. Year Award. The three nom- signed to use our philoso-
No tickets will be sold at inees for the annual award phy and style of play. Camp-
the door. Ticket sales will be will be named in the com- ers will also be taught vol-
cut off at noon the day be- ing weeks. leyball techniques used
fore on Monday, May 8. PLEASANTVALLEYHIGHVOL- within the Vikings system
Tickets are $30 if bought LEYBALL CAMP GEARING UP >> to execute offensive and de-
by Friday, May 5 and $40 if Pleasant Valley High School fensive plays.

Royals’ Vargas too much for Oakland

Francisco Giants: 7 p.m., (22). RFU English Premiership,
Houston Astros at Oakland Exeter vs. Harlequins: 11:30
Athletics: 7 p.m., NBCS-CA. a.m., NBCSN.

HIGH SCHOOL SOCCER

BASKETBALL
Jordan Brand Classic, East
vs. West: 5 p.m., ESPN2.
BOXING
Premier Champions Card: 6
p.m., TBA ESPN.
Shobox, The New Generation
Dmitry Bivol, Glen Dezurn,
Malik Hawkins: 10p.m., SHOW.
GOLF
EPGA Tour, Trophee Hassan II
Round 2: 7:30a.m., GOLF.
Champions Tour, Mitsubishi
Electric Classic Round 1: 9:30
a.m., GOLF.
PGA Tour, RBC Heritage
Round 2: noon, GOLF.
LPGA Tour, LOTTE Champion-
ship Round 3: 4 p.m., GOLF.
LET Tour, Lalla Meryem Cup
Round 3: 3:30 a.m., GOLF.
COLLEGE GYMNASTICS
MLS, New York City at Phila-
delphia: 4p.m., ESPN.
EPL, Bournemouth at Totten-
ham: 4:25 a.m., NBCSN.
COLLEGE SOFTBALL
Savannah State vs. Florida
A&M: 12:30 p.m., ESPNU.
Texas A&M at Arkansas: 3
p.m., ESPNU.
Arizona State vs. Stanford: 5
p.m., PAC12BA.
TENNIS
ATP, U.S. Clay Court Champi-
onship Quarterfinal: 10a.m.,
TENNIS.
ATP, Grand Prix Hassan II
Doubles Final and Semifinal:
4a.m., TENNIS.
RADIO
College baseball, Cal State
L.A. at Chico State: 12:45
p.m., KPAY 1290 AM.
Pitcher carried a
shutout into the
eighth inning
By John Hickey
Bay Area News Group
KANSAS CITY >> The Oak-
land A’s didn’t get the series
sweep they wanted Thurs-
day night, losing to Kansas
City 3-1, but they came out
of the game and the road
trip feeling as if positive
strides have been made.
“We did a lot of good
things on this road trip,”
catcher Stephen Vogt said.
“Any time you can win a
road series, that’s huge.
We’re kind of figuring out
our identity as a team.”
Ten games isn’t enough
to do that, Vogt concedes,
but he said the signs are
mostly positive, which is
good news for a team that
has finished in the cellar of
the American League West
the last two seasons.
“It’s still very early, but I
think we’re on our way to
finding that identity,” the
two-time All-Star said. “Ob-
viously our starting pitch-
ing has been good and we
know how good our bullpen
is and can be. Our lineup
is good. And I thought we
played really good defense
as a whole.”
Those last two sentences
aren’t immediately obvious.
Oakland has scored two or
fewer runs in four of the
first 10 games. And the A’s
have made 11 errors, most
in the AL.
Vogt, and manager Bob
Melvin, too, are willing go
on a limb over the quality
of the defense because five
of the 11 errors come from
starting pitchers. The pitch-
ing staff as a whole made
just nine last year, so pre-
sumably they will slow the
pace.
It might not be as easy to
smooth-talk the offense af-
ter Jason Vargas carried a
shutout into the eighth in-
ning Thursday. But the A’s
were seventh in the league
in runs scoring coming into
the game, “so I like where
our offense is going,” Vogt
said.
The A’s were mightily en-
couraged by starter Jesse
Hahn, who allowed hits to
four of the first five men
he faced, some of them of
the seeing-eye variety, then
came back to allow just one
run in his final five innings.
Were it not for the left-
handed Vargas hitting the
corners and keeping the A’s
guessing, this game might
have been winnable.
“Jesse did a really good
job,” second baseman Jed
Lowrie said. The second
baseman followed Rajai
Davis’ ninth inning homer
with a double, meaning the
A’s had three shots with the
tying run at the plate before
closer Kelvin Herrera held
them off.
“It was a real good job
by Jesse coming back after
that first inning,” Lowrie
said. It’s the kind of effort
we’re going to need.”
It was the kind of effort
that Hahn needed to show
the A’s. He didn’t make the
opening day roster because
of a rough spring, but he
threw six innings of relief in
which he allowed two runs
on the first night of the road
trip in Texas. By closing the
trip out with a six-inning,
three-run effort, he’s given
the A’s hope that he’s back
to being the pitcher he was
in 2015.
“He pitched great, par-
ticularly because he didn’t
have his best stuff,” Vogt
said. “When you can come
back the way he did with-
out your best stuff, that’s a
great sign.”
Hahn said it was a ma-
jor confidence boost that he
was able to get it together
after a first inning in which
he could have used a little
luck.

Local Calendar
Friday PREP TRACK AND FIELD
Durham, Chico at Woody Wilson Invite (Davis):
COLLEGE BASEBALL TBA.
Cal State Los Angeles at Chico State (2): 1p.m.
Feather River at Butte: 2:30p.m. Saturday
COLLEGE SOFTBALL COLLEGE BASEBALL
UC San Diego at Chico State (2): 1 p.m. Cal State Los Angeles at Chico State: 11a.m.
COLLEGE TRACK AND FIELD Butte at Feather River: 2p.m.
Chico State at Mt. SAC Relays: TBA. COLLEGE SOFTBALL
Chico State at Bryan Clay Invitational: TBA. UC San Diego at Chico State (2): 11a.m.
Butte, Chico State at Woody Wilson Classic: Feather River at Butte: 1p.m.
TBA.
COLLEGE TRACK AND FIELD
Chico State at Beach Invitational: TBA.
Chico State at Woody Wilson Classic: TBA.
PREP BASEBALL Chico State at Beach Invitational: TBA.
Durham, Oroville, Willows at Sutter tourna-
ment: TBA. PREP TRACK AND FIELD
Gridley at Orland: 4p.m. Chico at John Frank Invite (Central Valley):
TBA.
PREP SOFTBALL
Gridley at Orland: 4p.m.