McLain Named; Fans Trash Omar; CIF; TV; Hoops

ELYSHA McLAIN has been nominated for consideration in the Lompoc Locker Room Female Athlete of the Year contest.
McLain, pictured, took her tennis skills which were honed at Cabrillo High, to Allan Hancock College. There last spring she won first team all-Western State Conference honors in singles and second team in doubles.

YOU can nominate right now! Just e-mail your nominee to pressboxprod@verizon.net in any of four categories: Male Athlete of 2007, Female Athlete of 2007, Coach of the Year and Team of the Year. Take a look at the nominations list to date in the right-hand column below our sponsors.

Storie on TV

Lompoc Aquatic Center Supervisor JEFF STORIE appears on this week’s Lompoc Locker Room TV show beginning at 5:30 p.m. Monday. Interesting stuff, especially if you swim early or late.

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Kennedy to ref CIF

Lompoc football official BOBBY KENNEDY has been selected to ref one of the CIF finals next weekend. Unknown which one.

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Basketball
Joel

Saturday in Stillwater, Oklahoma JOEL SMITH showed once again that he is the Washington Huskies' man-beyond-the-arc. Joel came off the bench as the sixth man and played 31 minutes. He hit 2-of-3 from three point land, 1-for-1 inside it, and 2-for-2 from the line for 10 points. He also contributed three offensive rebounds, two assists and a steal in 31 minutes. For the season he is 11-for-16 from downtown for a blazing 69%. Unfortunately Oklahoma State won the contest easily 96-71. UW is now 4-3 with its next game on Saturday when they host Pittsburgh.

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Geoff

Saturday night in Bismarck, North Dakota GEOFF WEST dished the ball around to help the Marauders of the University of Mary rake in their first conference victory of the season.

Bismarck, ND – A balanced attack featuring five players in double figures carried the University of Mary to their first Northern Sun win of the year, a 92-82 victory over Upper Iowa.
Eric Erdmann, a sophomore forward, spearheaded the Marauders attack by scoring 18 points junior center Zach Dosch came off the bench to score 14 points. Freshman guard Jordan Wilhelm also added 14 points and had three assists. Fellow guards Geoff West and Jordan Engelhardt each added 12 points. West had five assists.

Unfortunately Friday night in the conference opener Winona State was just too tough.

Bismarck, ND – The University of Mary lead was brief, but appeared to be enough to really annoy the seventh-ranked Warriors of Winona State as the Marauders fell 93-71 in the Northern Sun men’s basketball opener for both teams.
Playing in front of a standing room only crowd at the McDowell Activity Center, Eric Erdmann hit the opening bucket of the game and, after a three pointer by WSU, Geoff West responded with a three-point basket to give U-Mary a 5-3 lead. Three straight treys, running their streak to four in a row for the Warriors, quickly pushed WSU to a 12-7 lead. That lead would soon expand to a 22-point differential in the first half as Winona State outscored U-Mary 37-13 in one stretch.

The final was 93-71. After five games West is 9-for-17 (53%) from beyond the arc to lead U-M both in attempts and successes. He leads the team in minutes and ranks #2 in scoring with 9.6 per game. The Marauders are now 2-3 with the University of North Dakota coming to visit Tuesday night.

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Baseball
Mets’ Bloggers Trashing Omar

The New York bloggers are having a field day blasting Omar Minaya for trading “future superstar” Lastings Milledge for RYAN CHURCH and Brian Schneider. However there are a few NY fans who get the picture. Here’s one.

Good trade. I wanted to believe that Lastings was as good as advertised 3 to 4 years ago as well. Simply put, his heart isn't and never will be in the game. He called my friends car dealership and demanded a new car bc he's Lastings Milledge. They laughed. He was a can-cer in the Mets locker room. Good luck to him. If he hits 40 HR, I'll not be upset he is gone. Now, for Brian Schneider, FINALLY , we have a catcher that can friggin THROW OUT runners. It's what the Mets needed. He's a HUGE character guy. He is also known to be great with a staff. Tough as nails. Church...what are you guys missing? He's a late bloomer that has played a mere 3 years for a poor team. Seventy RBI in 2/3 of a season? That translates to 110 RBI on the Mets. Check how many runners in scoring position he had in DC LOL. He was in line for 60 friggin doubles. How many times will he be knocking home D Wright this year? Oftentimes. Solid character and fielder. Addition by subtraction even if the two DON't work out, which they will. You guys feel that Alou will play more than 80 friggin games? Not. Church needed greatly. If Lastings had ANY value in terms of landing one of the two A's pitchers...Omar would have tied him to a foul pole and not let him go anywhere…. In the words of NY's Marv Albert: YES!!!!!!!!!!!GO METS! -Lawrence

The Nationals scored 528 runs last season, the Mets 818. You can’t drive in runs when the bags are empty. If Ryan Church can drive in 70 runs for that Washington team he should drive in 90-100 for the Mets. Keep in mind he didn’t play during August. – Mr. En Fuego