Church Returns; Aztecs Stay Hot; Dotzler on TV

mlb spring training

He's Baaaaaack

RYAN CHURCH returned to the New York Mets from his week of concussion recovery on Saturday. The concussion resulted from the play shown in the photo here when he collided with first baseman Marlon Anderson.

Church made his comeback one to remember with a ringing 2-for-2 day. He is now batting .308, the highest spring training average of any of the Mets’ expected regular season starters.

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College Women's Water Polo

Aztecs Keep on Blazing

In Irvine Friday the No. 6-ranked San Diego State women’s water polo team edged UC Irvine 6-5. Senior goalkeeper HEATHER FENSKE anchored a stellar defensive effort with 12 saves in front of the cage. It was her sixth game with double digit saves.

Then Sunday in San Diego the Aztecs downed UCSB 10-8 as San Diego took an early 5-0 lead. Junior Anna Gonzales notched her team-leading 40th goal on the Aztecs' opening possession then SDSU struck again on its next trip down the pool. Jenna Schuster got elevation on a pass from senior co-captain BECCA UR and tipped the ball into the net during a 6-5 opportunity. Fenske notched four saves. Her total is now 147, her average 8.2 per game. The Aztecs are now 16-2 on the season and 3-1 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation.

UCSB had lost on Saturday as well, this by 6-5 to San Jose State, but freshman KATHRYN NELSON netted her third college goal. Her score came in the fourth quarter and chopped the Spartan lead to a single goal. The Gauchos are now 4-12 overall and 0-6 in conference.

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College basketball

Huskies Slip in 2OT

Washington State nipped Washington in double overtime Saturday 76-73. Barring an unlikely invitation to postseason play the defeat ends the Huskies’ season at 16-15 and 7-11 in the PAC-10. Junior JOEL SMITH saw only three minutes of action. Of 31 games Joel played in all of them and started 11. Most of his starts came early in the season. He averaged 14.8 minutes overall. He averaged 3.8 ppg and racked up 42.9% from beyond the arc.

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Sports TV

Dotzler to Appear on Lompoc Locker Room

Allan Hancock College's hard-hitting third-baseman COREY DOTZLER will appear on Lompoc Locker Room, the TV Show Monday at 5:30 p.m. on Comcast Channel 25.

Coe Wins Title, Church Hurt, College Hoops, Polo

COE WINS INDOOR TITLE


SEATTLE – MICHAEL COE won the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation indoor track title in the 3000 meters Sunday, posting a lifetime-best mark of 7:59.75 and provisionally qualified for the indoor national championships.

The race pitted 34 runners from Cal, Oregon, Stanford, Washington, Arizona State, UCLA, and Washington State. Second was Yoseph Gehbray of Californa at 8:02.68.

The Cal men's distance medley relay, consisting of senior Andres Perezchica, juniors Mark Matusak and Jake Hanson and Coe, also provisionally qualified for nationals with a time of 9:38.39. The relay placed fourth in the race.

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Major League Baseball Spring Training
CHURCH INJURED


RYAN CHURCH took Sunday off after a collision Saturday with first baseman Marlon Anderson during the Mets' 1-0 victory over the Dodgers at Vero Beach, Florida. MLB.com reported it like this--


The collision in shallow right field near the foul line in the fourth inning was quite nasty and left Church with a Class 2 concussion.

Anderson and Church, the right fielder, have thick bodies, and their impact was considerable. But given the potential for more serious injury, Mets manager Willie Randolph concluded, "We were pretty fortunate even though it looked a little ugly."

Anderson and Church were examined via CAT scans at a local hospital. Church was dazed and needed assistance from Randolph and trainer Mike Herbst as he walked off the field. Anderson walked off without assistance.

Church remained in the trainer's room, eyes closed, but emerged 10 minutes later. He preferred not to discuss the collision, a club spokesman said, because he still was groggy.

"He said he doesn't remember anything about anything," media relations vice president Jay Horwitz said.

Church suffered a cut inside his mouth and a sore jaw. He stayed home Sunday and didn’t even make the drive to the ballpark.

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College basketball
HUSKIES UPSET CAL

In Berkeley Saturday Washington staged an 87-84 victory over Cal to pass up the Golden Bears in the Pac-10 race. UW is now 7-10, California 6-10. JOEL SMITH scored two points in four minutes of playing time. The Huskies wrap up regular season play at Washington State on Saturday.

U-MARY ALL DONE


In Winona, Minnesota the University of Mary men’s basketball team saw its first appearance in Northern Sun post-season play end quickly as top-seeded and third-ranked Winona State tore apart the Marauders 77-50 Saturday night. Point guard GEOFF WEST scored eight points.
The Marauders end the 2008 season with a record of 8-20 overall while the Warriors improve to 30-1 this season.

West, a junior, scored 10 points per game to rank No. 2 on the squad. He led the team in steals. His brother JASON WEST, a freshman, played sparingly but ranked No. 2 in free throw percentage at .813 (13 of 16).

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College Women’s Water Polo
Aztecs Split


STANFORD, Calif. - Six different San Diego State Aztecs were able to find the back of the net against No. 2 Stanford, but it wasn't enough as the seventh-ranked San Diego State women's water polo team dropped its Mountain Pacific Sports Federation opener, 12-9, Saturday afternoon. The Scarlet and Black fell to 13-2 overall and 0-1 in the MPSF, while the Cardinal improved to 10-2 overall, 2-0 MPSF.

Becca Ur scored once while Heather Fenske had seven saves in goal for San Diego.

On Sunday at San Jose State however the Aztecs’ three-goal outburst in the fourth quarter lifted them to a 9-8 comeback victory over eighth-ranked San Jose State (8-8 overall, 1-3 MPSF). The Scarlet and Black improved to 14-2 overall and 1-1 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. Fenske recorded double-digit saves for the fifth time this season, as she turned away 10 shots.

Masson Qualifies for State; Aztecs Rebound

Masson Blow Qualifies for State Meet

MASSON BLOW qualified for the state wrestling meet Saturday. He is pictured above in action in a photo by Armando Robles.

At the CIF-Southern Section Masters Tournament in Rialto the Lompoc High star finished fourth among 30 wrestlers wrestling at 152 pounds.

Seeded #2 Blow drew a first round bye, then pinned Timmy Garnica of North Torrance at 2:31. In the quarterfinal round he won 5-0 over Stephen Mills of Laguna Hills, but in the semifinal he was pinned by eventual winner Jacob Rodriguez of Canyon Springs at 4:47.

Relegated to the third-place bracket he stopped Trevor Gray of San Clemente 10-4, but then lost to Mills by a 7-4 score and had to settle for fourth. Mills had a big advantage in the fatigue category. He had been able to rest instead of wrestle when his qualifying match was won by injury default.

Though Blow had been seeded second by CIF, Rodriguez was no surprise. California Wrestler ranked him #2 and Blow #3. Vinny Maraj of Yucca Valley had been seeded and ranked #1 but he fell to sixth due to injury.

The state meet will take place in Bakersfield next weekend.

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College Women's Water Polo

The San Diego State unbeaten streak was snapped Saturday but the Aztecs battled back for three straight victories to give themselves a 13-1 record by nightfall Sunday.

Upstart UC Davis nipped #6-ranked SDSU on Saturday 8-7 but the team weathered a final flurry to down Michigan 11-9, edged UC Irvine 9-8, and then came from behind with four unanswered goals to top Arizona State 7-5 all at the UC-Irvine Tournament.

Goalie HEATHER FENSKE posted save totals of 8, 12, 5, and 9 with three of her 12 against Michigan coming in the final four minutes. Captain BECCA UR scored against Davis and netted another against Michigan to give the Aztecs their 11-8 advantage to provide a cushion before the Wolverines’ final push.

Becca now has 12 goals for the season, while Heather has 114 blocks.

The #6-ranked Aztecs open conference play at Stanford on Saturday and at San Jose State on Sunday.

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College hoops

SEATTLE— A ragged University of Washington team fell 77-63 to Arizona State Saturday night. The Sun Devils lifted themselves to 7-7 in the Pac-10 while UW fell to 6-9.

JOEL SMITH went 0-for-4 from the field in 15 minutes of play. He snagged three rebounds, dished an assist and blocked a shot. The Huskies visit Palo Alto to play Stanford on Thursday, and Berkeley to face Cal on Saturday.

Bismarck, ND – Fourth-ranked Northern State blacked out the University of Mary Marauders on the boards Saturday and took home a 72-50 victory. The Wolves outrebounded U-M 58-20.

GEOFF WEST led the Marauders with 14 points. He also had two assists and two steals.
The Marauders conclude the regular season at 8-19 and finish eighth in the NSIC at 5-13. The Marauders open the NSIC men’s basketball tournament at regular-season champ Winona State on Saturday,

Weekender--Fenske Stars in SD's Roaring Start

Heather Fenske, Lompoc's "Rudy"

In the feel-good story of the winter San Diego State is 5-0 and won the weekend UC San Diego women’s water polo tournament. Better yet, a Lompocan was the star of the event…a most unexpected Lompocan at that

Senior goalie HEATHER FENSKE was a dominant force as she recorded a career-high 14 saves in the San Diego State Aztecs' season-opening 11-8 victory against Hartwick last week.

Then, just to show that performance was no fluke, Fenske turned in nine more in a 13-6 whipping of Maryland and eight later in the day in an 11-6 triumph over Cal State Northridge in the first two games of the UCSD Triton Invitational.

In the semifinal Sunday the Aztecs won 8-6 over UCSB, Fenske registering 10 saves, and in the title game the ‘Tecs won yet again, 10-9 over Loyola-Marymount. Fenske totaled five blocks. In 13 seasons SD State had never before won the UC San Diego early season tournament.

Fenske had scarcely played in it before. She played in just nine matches out of 30 each of the last two years and has won just one letter over three seasons, but she is a six-time scholar athlete at SDSU.

Aztec co-captain BECCA UR netted three goals in the five contests and against UCSB led the defense with four steals.

Earlier in the tournament KATHRYN NELSON of UCSB scored her first collegiate goal in a 16-15 victory over Hartwick.

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College Hoops

Joel
Thursday JOEL SMITH got 17 minutes and scored two points as the Washington Huskies lost their fourth straight Pac-10 basketball game, this to USC. On Saturday when the Huskies snapped the loss skein upsetting #5-ranked UCLA Joel got only four minutes.

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Geoff
Friday in St. Paul, Minnesota GEOFF WEST scored six but the University of Mary fell to the outside shooting of Concordia 86-59. On Saturday West scored eight but the Marauders lost 58-56 to Minnesota-Moorhead in the final three seconds. The Marauders slip to 6-18 with the loss and 3-12 in the Northern Sun.

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College baseball

JAKE KOUGL
JAKE KOUGL is on the South Dakota State baseball roster for his senior year after serving as the Jackrabbits’ closer in 2007. Kougs totaled nine saves to lead the team. He posted an ERA of 3.38

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JC baseball

Hancock
At Hancock COREY DOTZLER must like openers. He rapped two hits for two RBIs in a 6-4 victory over Taft in the Bulldogs’ season opener. Then in the home opener on February 5 he did the exact same thing—two rips, two RBIs. But he wasn’t done. On February 8 against West Hills he rapped two more, including a three-run homer. On Saturday against Rio Hondo he was good for two more including a double. En Fuego!

On February first at Reedley KIRK FRIDRICH notched his first win of the season in a 2 1/3 –inning outing against College of the Sequoias.

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SB City College
At SBCC JOHNATHON TERRONES is batting .222 after 2-for-9 in six of the Vaqueros’ first seven games. One of those raps was a triple. Catcher BRIAN GREGORY has gotten into two games and in one at-bat has an on-base percentage of 1.000. He drew a walk. Pitcher JAMES ROOT has taken the mound for one inning. He struck out one, walked one, and gave up one earned run.

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Boxing
ROY'S BOXING GYM MOVING AGAIN

Effectively immediately, Roy's Boxing Gym will be moving to 960 East Chestnut or next door to the Lompoc Food Pantry. Contact Coach Baca at 588-2901 for more information.