The Tennessean from Nashville, Tennessee • Page 29

www.tennessean.oom THE TENNESSEAN Friday, April 7, 2000 5C SPORTS: BASEBALL XT Sounds win season opener of G1 'X ML Roolde solid for Royals PCL standings American Conference Central Division I Pel. GB Alboq. (Dodgers) 0 0 .000 Col.Spr. (Rockies) 0 0 .000 Iowa (Cubs) 0 0 .000 Omaha (Royals) 0 0 .000 Eastern Division Memphis (Cards) 0 0 .000 Nash. (Pirates) 0 0 .000 New Or.

(Astros) 0 0 .000 Okla. (Rangers) 0 0 .000 Pacific Conference Southern Division Pet. GS Fresno (Giants) 0 0 .000 Las Vegas (Padres) 0 0 .000 Sacra. (Athletics) 0 0 .000 Tucson (D'bocks) 0 0 .000 Northern Division Calgary (Marlins) 0 0 .000 EdmontonlAngeis) 0 0 .000 Satt Lake (Twins) 0 0 .000 Toronto (Mariners! 0 0 .000 Yesterday's results Albuquerque at Oklahoma Colorado Springs at New Orleans Las Vegas at Calgary Memphis at Iowa Nashville at Omaha Fresno at Sacramento handed reliever Brad Clontz to a minor league contract yesterday and assigned him to Nashville. Clontz briefly pitched for the Sounds last season, posting a 0-2 record with a 3.50 ERA and seven saves in 12 appearances.

He was 1-3 with a a 2.74 ERA and two saves in 56 appearances for the Pirates last year. Today's game At Omaha, 7:05 p.m. Pitchers For Omaha: LHP Jamie Walker (0-1, 4.67 ERA in Triple-A last year, a former Austin Peay star). For Nashville: LHP Travis Baptist (1-3, 5.35 ERA with Triple-A Salt Lake City last year, 4-2, 5.31 ERA with Triple-A Pawtucket last year). mm Miiik Tennessean staff reports OMAHA, Neb.

Ivan Cruz ripped three doubles and had two RBI as the Nashville Sounds opened the 2000 season with a 10-5 victory over the Omaha Golden Spikes last night The Sounds had six doubles for the game, but no home runs. "It's unusual to score that many runs in this ballpark without the benefit of a homer," Nashville Manager Trent Jewett said. Nashville jumped out to a 7-1 lead after two innings, scoring six runs in the second. The sixth featured doubles by Jason Wood, Jarrod Patterson and Cruz. The Sounds got only four hits in the inning.

Danny Leon (1-0) got the victory. He worked five innings, gave up five hits and two runs while walking three and striking out one. "Danny made some big play when he needed to," Jewett said. Josias Manzanillo pitched three innings of no-hit relief to post the save. Sounds 10, Omaha 5 NASHVILLE OMAHA ob bi ob bi Redmond 5112 Tomlnsncf 3010 Nuneiss SOU Medronoss 4010 Brinkley dh 4 200 D.Brown II 4000 Cm: lb 5032 Pellowlb 2310 MntgmeryH 5011 Oris 3b 2101 Brawn rf 4220 Fabregasc 4010 Wood 2b 4211 Norman rf 4010 takerc 3200 Escondndh 3114 Patterw3b 4112 Pneto2b 4000 Totals 3910109 Totals 305 6 5 bait Lake at Tacoma Tucson at Edmonton Today's games Albuquerque at Oklahoma Colorado Springs at New Orleans Las Vegas at Cdgary Memphis at lowo Noshville at Omaha Fresno at Socromento Soft Lake at Tocoma Tucson at Edmonton Tomorrow's games Albuquerque at OMahoma Colorado Springs at New Orleans Las Vegas at Calgary Memphis at Iowa Nashville at Omaha Fresno at Socromento Sacramento at Oklahoma Sah Lake at Tacoma Tucson at Edmonton Ncrshville 160 000 30010 Omaha 010 103 000 5 Tomltnson, Madrono, One 2.

Fobregos, Norman. DP Nashville 2. LOB Nashville 10, Omoha 4. 2B Cruz 3, E.Srown, Wood, Patterson, Norman. 36 Pellovv.

HR Escan-don (1). SB Redman (1). SF Nunez, Patterson, Escandon. "Manny was outstanding and the command of his breaking stuff was there," Jewett said. "He brings a lot of energy to us on that field, and it's good when he brings that much enthusiasm to your team." The Golden Spikes closed to within 7-5 with three runs in the sixth, but the Sounds rallied for three in the seventh.

Nashville had 10 hits in the game and commited no errors. The Spikes had six hits and six errors. Clontz to report The Pittsburgh Pirates re-signed right- AP ip DD so Tag team: Kansas City Royals center fielder Carlos Bel 3 1 2 1 0 3 tran, left, and right fielder Jermaine Dye come together chasing a pop up by Shannon Stewart of the Toronto Blue Jays. Beltran was able to make the catch. 3 0 0 Nashville teonW, 1-0 Garcia Manzanillo Omaha Loxton L.0-1 Rakers Bluma Spoljaric IVS 4 2 2 2 2 Sunday's Games Albuquerque at Oklahoma Colorado Springs at New Orleans las Vegas at Calgary Memphis at Iowa Nashville at Omaha Fresno at Sacramento Sah Lake at Tocoma Tucson at Edmonton 2 1 0 0 Bocrmer HBP by Loxton (Brinkley).

I A 1.1,101. Associated Press TORONTO Rookie Chad Durbin picked a near-perfect day to show off to his family. Durbin's family drove all the way from Warsaw, to see him make his major league debut as a starter. He allowed just one hit in six innings and Kansas City scored all nine of its runs in the sixth inning as the Royals beat the Toronto Blue Jays 9-3 yesterday. "I got three game balls and I gave two of them to my family," said Durbin, whose mother Debra, step-father Max and 16 year-old sister Stephanie made the trek.

"They came up yesterday, drove all night, got in at. three, slept till 11, got up and watched the game, and now they're headed back out," Durbin said. Durbin (1-0) retired the side in the first, second, fourth and fifth innings. The 22 year-old right-hander, making just his second major league appearance, walked one and struck out two. "It was just throwing to the glove, playing catch," Durbin said.

"If you think about the hitter, you get scared. It was a blast. "Hopefully in five days I can duplicate it." Orioles 6, Indians 2 BALTIMORE Charles Johnson hit his third homer in two days, a three-run shot in the sixth inning that snapped a tie and lifted the Baltimore Orioles past the Cleveland Indians. Mike Bordick also homered for the Orioles, who took two of three from the defending AL Central champions. Baltimore went 1-9 last year against the Indians.

Reds get a win as Griffey hits (Ml With the score 2-2, Johnson connected off Charles Nagy (0-1) after Cal Ripken and Will Clark hit one-out singles. Bordick followed with his first home run of the season to chase Nagy, who allowed nine hits in 5 1-3 innings. Johnson's 401-foot drive gave him eight RBI and three homers in the series. White Sox 6, Rangers 2 ARLINGTON, Texas -Ray Durham homered on the first pitch of the game and Frank Thomas and Carlos Lee also connected as the as the Chicago White Sox beat Texas. James Baldwin (1-0) retired the first 13 batters and allowed two runs and six hits in eight innings.

Durham hit Esteban Loaiza's first pitch into the right-field seats to set a White Sox record with his 10th leadoff homer. Tim Raines had nine leadoff homers for Chicago. Lee hit a three-run shot in the fourth to give Chicago a 4- 0 lead, and Thomas made it 5- 0 in the fifth with his first homer of the year. Thomas was 3-for-4. Baldwin, who struck out three and walked two, didn't allow a baserunner until the fifth inning when Ruben Mateo reached on an infield hit.

Mateo went to second on David Segui's single, both runners advanced on a groundout, and Mateo scored on Frank Catalanotto's infield single. Tom Evans singled in Segui to make it 5-2. Devi Rays 7, Twins 6 MINNEAPOLIS Miguel Cairo had a career-best five RBI, including the game-winning single off Hector Carrasco in the ninth that lilted the Tampa Bay Devil Rays past the Minnesota Twins. Cairo's ninth-inning single drove in pinch-runner Tony Graffanino from third. Graf-fanino had run for Herbert Perry, who reached on a two-base error by third baseman Dennis Hocking after Greg Vaughn's leadoff homer against Travis Miller tied the game at 6.

Assmiated Press CINCINNATI Ken Griffey Jr. is no longer hitless in Cincinnati Junior got his first hit for his hometown team, a run-scoring single in the first inning last night, and the Cincinnati Reds got their first win of the season, 5-1 over the Milwaukee Brewers. Michael Tucker and Aaron Boone homered and Ron Vil-lone (1-0) made two saving defensive plays, but the loudest and longest cheer was for a soft line drive. Griffey got a standing ovation from the crowd of 20,909 when he slapped a 3-2 pitch from Jaime Navarro (0-1) toward left-center the same area where Pete Rose's record-setting hit No. 4,192 landed 15 years ago.

two-pitcher extra-inning no-hitter in major league history in 1997, kept Houston hitless for 7 13 innings before yielding two hits in the eighth inning of the Pittsburgh Pirates' romp. Expos 11, Dodgers 3 MONTREAL Orlando Cabrera and Chris Widger hit three-run homers and Vladimir Guerrero had a two-run shot Thursday night to lead the Montreal Expos to an 11-3 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers. Carl Pavano (1-0) gave up one run and five hits in eight strong innings. Padres 8, Mete 5 NEW YORK Matt Clement picked up where he left off last season for San Diego. The New York Mets are still waiting for Mike Hampton and their big bats to get started.

Clement kept New York's offense in a slumber, allowing one run in 6 23 effective innings. PHOENIX Lenny Harris' broken-bat grounder with the bases loaded drove in the winning run in the 11th inning and the Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Philadelphia Phillies to complete a season-opening three-game sweep. MIAMI -Cliff Floyd hit a two-run homer with two out in the ninth inning and the Florida Marlins rallied from a four-run deficit to beat the San Francisco Giants before a record-low turnout of just 7,741. I The single scored Pokey Reese from with the Reds' first run and ended Griffey's 0-for-10 introduction into the National League. Up to that point, he had not hit a ball out of the infield as a Red.

Pirates 10, Astros 1 PITTSBURGH Francisco Cordova lost his no-hitter with one out in the eighth, his shutout one batter later. That didn't diminish how he dominated the Houston Astros agaia Cordova, who teamed with Ricardo Rincon for the only v. a pitch from Mets starter Al Leiter in the Padres' season opener Monday, could return to the lineup as soon as today in Montreal. Florida parte Florida Marlins owner John Henry is no longer optimistic about building a new ballpark to spur fan interest. The Marlins drew the smallest crowd in the eight-year history of the franchise Wednesday night, then broke the record yesterday afternoon.

Attendance for the past three games against the San Francisco Giants was 9,524, 8,365 and 7741. "Our prospects for a ballpark are dim at this point, so it's a little disheartening," Henry said. "We're breaking records every On opening day Monday, Gov. Jeb Bush scuttled Henry's plan to finance construction of a $400 million downtown stadium primarily with cruise taxes. The Marlins have no alternative plan, but say they need a ballpark with a retractable dome because of the frequent summer rain in South' Florida.

Houston's root: Several wheel assemblies are damaged on the retractable roof at Enron Field, the Houston Astros' new ballpark, and designers plan to check more than 100 others. The assemblies were stored outside for more than a year during the ballpark's construction. The current problems are partly due to rainwater damage. Iriury update: New York Mets left-hander Al Leiter will miss his scheduled start tomorrow because of a strained groin. Pat Ma-homes, who pitched 1 1-3 scoreless innings of relief Wednesday, could get the start in Leiter's place.

The Baltimore Orioles put ailing closer Mike Timlin on the 15-day disabled. Timlin has been bothered for nearly three weeks by a torn muscle in his left side. MikeTrombley, who had 24 saves with Minnesota last year, will take over the closer's role. Toronto sfcrnpc Paid attendance in Toronto yesterday was announced as 14,336, the second-lowest in SkyDome history. Boggs honor Wade Boggs' uniform No.

12 will be retired today at Tampa Bay's home opener against the Cleveland Indians. Boggs will be the 60th American Leag ie player to have his number retired NEWS SERVICES Wohlers works Mark Wohlers threw batting practice to Deion Sanders for 10 minutes before Cincinnati's game against Milwaukee. He threw fastballs at less than top speed, but liked where the ball went and how his elbow felt. It was the first time he had thrown off the Cinergy Field mound since last year, when he was trying to regain his control after a bout of wildness. His comeback attempt ended and his career was threatened when he tore a ligament in his pitching elbow during a minor league game, requiring reconstructive surgery on July 6.

"It's just fun to get back on a mound again)' Wohlers said. "There for a while, I thought I wouldn't be able to get on any mound, let alone a major league mound." Thomson crashes: Colorado Rockies right-handed pitcher John Thomson has been arrested after driving his Corvette into a house in Tucson. Thomson, 26, was alone and nobody was hurt, the Rockies said in a statement. The team said the accident may be alcohol related. Thomson underwent shoulder surgery to repair a torn labrum in October and was placed on the Rockies' 60-day disabled list on March 23.

Marfns sub A boy who was struck in the head with a baseball before a Florida Marlins game in 1997 has been awarded more than $1 million by a jury. Andrew Klein was awarded $1.05 million from the team and stadium by the state court jury. He has permanent brain damage since being struck by a ball during batting practice as he took part in a pregame program at Pro Player Stadium. Andrew, then 8, had been selected to take part in the Marlins' "Bullpen Buddies" program, where he and about 100 other children were brought down near the field to ask questions of tearn officials and receive player autographs. But the St.

Louis Cardinals were taking batting practice while the program was taking place and a line drive hit by Ray Lankford came into the stands and struck Andrew in the left temple. Gwyrn sfts agar Tony vynn missed his second straight game for the San Diego Padres with a bruised right elbow Gwynn, hit by 2-vear Warn financina 2 Motorola as low as 9.95 winch for $69 (an 500 4x4 Automatic only)" extended service contract 2-way radios Now is the best time to buy a new Arctic Caf AW. That's because you can get a machine that leads the industry in advantages like combined rack capacity, suspension travel and engine torque. Plus, you can choose from up to four unbelievable deals. More fifftJIC CAT proof that no other ATV on the market gives you more for your money, a whou diffimnt animal: Albany, KY Petersburg, TN Boyce Equipment 931-359 5985 Shelbyville, TN Boyce Equipment Co.

931-684 4643 Wortrace, TN Boyce Equipment 931 3896913 Livingston, TN Norris Super Cycle 931-498-2301 Manchester, TN Duck River Equipment Company 931-7280314 Parsons, TN Farm Home Inc. 901 847 2007 Dickson, TN Midland Tractor Company 615-441-1558 Franklin, TN Franklin Kubota LLC 615-790-7860 Lebanon, TN Lebanon Kubota LLC 615 444 9736 Denney Auto Marine 606-387-5349 Scottsville, KY Hobdy, Dye, and Read, Inc. 270-622-5105 Clarksville, TN Marine 931-648 3431 Soe your dealer far -Offer val.d on all new and unused 2000 Arctic Cat AVs Cer good at dealers Extended service contract treaa HgnTiy jtandard ArctK C(jt 6 monA foctory WQrronly and an ,8 monA eended contract 7 nm total tong crMrt approval Term! may Her because APRs range from 9 to 16 5v riepe.xf.ng or Wincn nror included Offer valid 2 100-6100 or wti.le W' bst Ewiudir-g ta freight and dealer letup ATV, car be hazardous to opera For you- soMv always wear a helper eye protection. I i Li I. Ki naar anrwit fc nt rtrtirso or.fl 31lGn01 OTiKJS OOn vwr.

LFJ iWJ L-ULim; i u' a-d protectee c'ofhmq Never nde on paveo wrocw or puotic -ooa iwve- ten a. speeds and be particularly careful on dfeft The Arctic Cat ATV may not be ndden by anyone under 18 year, ArctK :.) 4,., ,,11 r.dcrs tnle aVoming course and that they read and understand owner nxtnuol before operation fa- sntety or see you- dealer or col. -he ATV a. 8H7 2887 Along with concerned evrrwV a yoo to -'read UqMy on Reserve ycxr na -I Of, 5Arrt.r fnl Ws Inc r'Trodewfn 0 Art tit of Inc. 1W fort MN SoTOt.

Dodjc from Arctic Cat Inc Co AT'v't wnnd i. I jj.Sf! i'iv'J Warn .5 a registered trademark ot Warn 5 NCWM -t0 MtotHweo hsmw. ir 1 I V. i. i i 1.1 i-.

inn 1.