The News-Star from Monroe, Louisiana • Page 27

Ainu i li TThe News-Star FRIDAY, May 17, 2002 A UlttlM.VYUMlMglUII Pa Bastrop Sttmm 1-800-726-9930 ww.siminonssporanggoods.com sports IM SLC standings ULM may ose players lor series iihiii i i fti nui Team NWSt. Lamar ULM Conf. Overall 16-8 39-13 15-9 30-20 15-9 27-26 Holland said Lobello is day-to-day. "We'll see if it's still there," Holland said. "If Lobello can't go Saturday, we'll throw Bobby (Carro)." ULM (27-26, 15-9) is tied with Lamar (30-20, 15-9) for second place in the SLC, one game behind Dy rHUL LCILUh pletlowthenewsstar.comj;.

The final weekend of Southland Conference regular-season ('action finds two key players ailihg on. Louisiana-Monroe's baseball team. Senior third baseman Ted, White (hyperextended elbow) is questionable for the three-game series, which begins at 7 p.m. today at Lamar. White hurt the elbow last Sunday against McNeese State and did not play in a -pair of games at New Orleans this week.

1 -i "He's probably not probable. He's Northwestern State (39-13, 16-8). All three teams have a shot at the regular title, depending on how the weekend's games go. "We're not going into the weekend at full force," Holland said. SLC Tournament, which begins next Wednesday at Lamar's Vincent-Beck Stadium.

The Indians get a sneak preview at the park, which plays differently than most around the SLC. "It's a very unique park," Holland said. "It's a pitcher's park where the wind blows in. You've got to play for one run early." The Indians scored six runs in the eighth inning to beat UNO 10-4 on Wednesday. Holland said the win gave the Indians confidence heading into their showdown with the Cardinals.

"Yesterday's win was big," Holland said Thursday. "We beat a very good pitcher (Mark Stander) who two-hit Florida International last weekend. That's the most hits he's given up (10) and the most hits UNO has given up (16). We swung the bats well. "Now the time of year when there's a difference in effort and performance.

The effort should be there all the time. Now we have to perform." Senior Aaron Dobbins will start for ULM tonight against Lamar, which has won 18 of its last 22 games and eight of its last nine in conference play. White McNeeseSt. 15-10 29-24 UTSA 13-11 25-26 12-11 26-27' SW Texas 12-12 32-21 Nicholls St. 8-15 25-26 SE La.

7-17 21-30 Sam Houston 7-18 19-33 Thursday McNeese St 14, Sam Houston 3 Today UTSA at UTA (DH), 1 p.m. SW Tex. at iMW St. McNeese at SHSU, 3 pm. Nicholls St.

at SE 6 p.m. ULM at Lamar, 7 p.m. Saturday McNeese at SHSU, 1 p.m. p.nv UTSA at Texas-Arlington, 1 p.m. ULM at Lamar, 2 p.m.

Nicholls St. at SE 6 p.m. Sports line Saints' GM: Haslett contract a priority The Saints' new general manager said Thursday he has yet to talk to Jim Haslett about a new contract, but that the discussion is his top priority. Mickey Loomis was named general manager for football on Monday, four days after the firing of his friend and former boss Randy Mueller. Loomis has a one-year contract and Haslett has only one year remaining on his contract.

"It's the best thing for the Saints to have Jim be our head coach," Loomis said. "We'll sit down in the coming weeks and try to come to terms on a deal to keep him here." Loomis said Benson is interested in multiyear deals for both he and Haslett. Loomis said he does not bring the player personnel acumen to the job that Mueller did, but he is well versed in football operations. "I've had 20 years in foot-, ball," he said. "I've been through a lot of drafts, a lot of free agent signings.

Randy's skill was directed a lot more toward personnel and I'll be relying on some other people for that." Indy 500 leader hits wall in practice Indianapolis 500 polesitter Bruno Junqueira escaped injury when he crashed in practice Thursday. He was pulling into pit lane when he suddenly lost control of very questionable, ULM coach Brad Holland said. "We're going to. miss the valuable leadership (if But that why its a team. It's an opportunity for somebody to step up." If White is out at third, Holland said he can use Jack Skaggs, who started Wednesday at New Orleans, or Drew Vidrine, who started against the Privateers on Tuesday.

"Jack's been in the wars and he's kind of a jack of all trades," Holland said. "No pun intended. But he's played there before." ULM has already qualified for the White is out). But maybe I can.be Miyagi (of the 'Karate Kid') and work some kung fu magic." In addition, Saturday's probable' starting pitcher, Justin Lobello, report-; ed soreness in his shoulder after throwing a bullpen session on Wednesday. DAN CURRIERTne News-Star Louisiana-Monroe's Justin Lobello reported soreness in his shoulder Wednesday.

Lobello is scheduled to start Saturday. Satn mm lies teppif ifitl nnminage I Ouachita, W. Monroe take advantage of game-like experience LJ i 1 MM K.j-t- his car. The car spun, sending him across the track, and he tapped the outside wall. There was some damage to the rear of the car.

Junqueira Junqueira There was some good, there was some bad and there was some real ugly. Overall, I think it was a good end to a good spring practice. Don Shows, West Monroe coach was cleared to drive a few minutes after the accident. He is one of six Brazilians among 24 tentative qualifiers for the 33-car field. TV tip FX, 6 p.m.: Auto racing, NASCAR Winston Cup qualifying for Winston ScoreBioard AMERICAN LEAGUE Twins 14..

Royals 5 Mariners 15 Blue Jays 2 A's 5 Red Sox 0 Yankees 13 Rays 0 White Sox 4 0 Angels at ppd. Orioles at Indians ppd. J'et. jmm it Eagles, Panthers match up Ouachita Christian School goes to Sterlington tonight for spring scrimmage. By HILLARY SMITH hsmiththenewsstar.com The Ouachita Christian football team has had only five days of full pad, full squad workouts leading into its spring scrimmage that ends the season.

With the baseball team playing in the Class 2A state semifinals last week which translates into several key positions on the football team the Eagles started their spring workouts minus two quarterbacks, a center and defensive and offensive linemen. "We had baseball in the semifinals, which was a good problem to have," OCS coach Steven Fitzhugh said. "We've had only five days together as a team, but I feel like they've gotten a lot of good out of it," The Eagles make the 10-minute trek today to Sterlington for a 6 p.m. spring finale that will pit new quarterback John Thomas against the Panthers' new QB addition, Jacob Ashley. Sterlington, playing host to its first spring football jam at the Panthers' new field, will break in a new quarterback for the first time in four years with Ashley, son of head coach Dell Ashley, behind center.

"Jacob has honed his skills this spring," the elder Ashley said. "(Backup) Matt Rainwater isn't going to play. He has come down with mono." The Panthers have been led for four consecutive years by Justin Rawls, the District 2-1A first-team quarterback who took his team to the 2001 state semifinals with 916 yards in the air and 609 on the ground. Sterlington is also finding replacements for most of the See SPRING 4C 1 VIP vi. i By HILLARY SMITH hsmiththenewsstar.com The Ouachita football team ended its 2001 season with an overtime loss to West Monroe, and new Louisiana High School Athletic Association rules on how teams are selected for postseason: play kept the Lions from a rematch.

So the Ouachita team began a new off-season mantra. They called it "overtime." "We went into overtime and our whole off-season motto was overtime, to work better and achieve more goals as this year comes," Ouachita quarterback Greg Manley said. "I think we've still got a good ways to go, but we should be all right." When Ouachita met West Monroe on Thursday for the first time since the 20-14 OT loss in November, the two teams ended the game once more in a tie, not that they were keeping score. In the spring scrimmage at Ouachita High School, each team scored a touchdown, while the Lions added another at the end that was called back for a personal foul after the play. "There was some good, there was some bad and there was some real ugly," West Monroe coach Don Shows said.

"Overall, I think it was a good end to a good spring practice," Both teams started from the 30-yard line and were given 12 plays per series. If there was no fourth-down conversion before the end of the series, the ball was moved back to the 30-yard line. The West Monroe offense seemed to almost forget the losses of key seniors, scoring on its first drive of the game as tailback Tron Morgan found the end zone on a 1-yard run. Morgan finished the game with 28 yards on eight 1 ft 1 AP carries while fullback Chad Cook was missing with an injured shoulder. The Rebels defense then reminded the Lions why it was one of the best statewide last season, holding Ouachita to scoreless in its first two series.

"When you see two defenses like Ouachita and West Monroe, both of them stunting so much, and doing so much jumping around and everything, they're way ahead of the offense," Shows said. The Lions finally converted on a 67-yard run by Jonathan Wilhite, who has recently made the move from receiver to running back. As the scrimmage wore on, the Ouachita defense fed off the game-like experience. The Lions intercepted three West Monroe passes and recovered four Rebel fumbles after the first West Monroe series. "1 thought the defense got better as the scrimmage went on," Ouachita coach John Causey said "The thing that we always preach is to hang on no matter when bad things happen.

Bad things were happening to us MICHAEL DUNLAPThe News-Star West Monroe running back Tron Morgan (8) is hit in the backfield by Ouachita's Glen Hunter during the spring scrimmage game Thursday. we've ever had a better work ethic, attitude, attendance, all the things that make it fun to go to practice every day," Shows said. Manley, who rotated the quarterback position with Matt Boutwell and Glenn Hunter, completed l-of-5 for eight yards plus the 70-yard touchdown that was called back. He said he expects the Lions to grow from Thursday's scrimmage. "Overall, 1 think we did real good," Manley said.

"1 think we've still got areas to work on, but overall I think we did pretty good." "I thought it was hard fought," Causey said. "West Monroe's got such a good program and they play the game so well, we wanted to go against a quality team. 1 thought we made some progress in the scrimmage. I feel pretty good about it, but it's still a long way to go." early on and I think the most pleasing thing was just to hang in there and eventually get something going offensively and defensively and rebounding from some adversity." Shows said he was happy with the performance of his team after what he earlier called "one of the better springs we've had." "We may have had some better players in the spring before, but I don't think Milwaukee pitcher and former ULM standout Ben Sheets holds his head after he was pulled in the ninth inning against the Cincinnati Reds on Thursday. Sheets got a no-decision in the 2-1 loss.

Story, 2C NATIONAL LEAGUE Reds 2 Brewers 1 Rockies 10 Marlins 3 Braves 5 Rockies 4 Astros 3 Pirates 1 D-backs 4 Phillies 2 Mets 3 Padres 1 Dodgers 4 Expos 3 NHL Conf. finals (Best-of-7) Toronto 2 Carolina 1 (Timmln lends i-ll) Gatlin no longer with Indians AM station starts sports talk radio signed with Washington State. "Once we as an offensive staff came in, we knew the kids that were here and on the bubble," ULM offensive coordinator Tommy Condell said. "We were long prepared for this scenario, It didn't come as a DaPrato JtK and Nesen, ...1. WHO Will move to ULM this summer, are demically ineligible last August.

"He's been here two years and he hasn't taken one snap," Keasler said, "We were hoping things would work out and he would make his grades and do what we asked him to do. But he didn't do it and he's no longer with us." Coming out of Alexandria Senior High School, Gatlin was rated as one of the nation's top 15 dropback quarterbacks by Max Lmfinger of National Blucchips Recruiting Service. He shared all-state honors with Florida signee Brock Berlin after throwing for 2.685 yards and 24 touchdowns. "It's unfortunate that any young man loses out on a tremendous opportunity." Condell said. "But for the team as a whole, it's not a surprise.

The cupboard is not bare. You don't depend on the By PAUL J. LETL0W pletlowthenewsstar.com Adam Gatlin's football career at Louisiana-Monroe is apparently over before it ever really began. ULM coach Bobby Keasler said Thursday that the sophomore quarterback from Alexandria did not qualify academically and is no longer with the team. "Gatlin didn't make it," Keasler said.

"He didn't make his grades. I don't know what else as a staff we could have done to help him. He won't be back," During spring football practice, Gatlin shared first-team quarterback duties with junior college transfer Daniel DaPrato, a product of Chabot (Calif.) College, ULM recently signed City College of San Francisco quarterback Kjcll (pronounced Nesen. who originally To reach us To comment on a story, report sports results, or speak to an editor call: Sports Desk 362-0236 Preps 362-0237 www.nelaprepione.com Fax 362-0279 sportsthenews5tar.com Our team editor for the sports section is Barry Johnson. This section was edited and designed by Buster Wolfe, Kristian Hasse and Theron Johnson.

HIM The daily sports lineup will include Jon Fine Sports Gumbo Program from 8-9 a.m.; Tony Bruno from 9-JI a.m., The Jim Rome Show from 11 a.m,-2 p.m., Kiley and Booms from 4-6 p.m. and JT the Brick from 6-10 p.m. In addition, Redden morn-, ing show will air from 6-8 a.m. weekday mornings and Jim Ingster with Louisiana Live will air weekdays from 2-4 p.m. "We're excited to provide this area with major market talent that knows not only sports, but how to entertain a radio audience," Redden said.

"That was our major consideration when making the decision to make this move." By PAUL J. LETL0W pletlowthenewsstar.com Sports fans in northeastern Louisiana have a new alternative for talk radio. Beginning today, KMBS 1310-AM will switch to a predominantly sports talk format that includes alfiliation with the Fox Sports Network. Fox Sports will supply 16 hours of daily programming on KMBS Monday-Friday, and 24 hours of programming on weekends. "I think it's going to be great for the sports-oriented audience," KMBS ownergeneral manager Chuck Redden said, "There's room for a sports station here." the frontrunners to compete for the starting job next fall.

"We're fine," Condell said. "We have young men here that understand the offensive philosophy. That's taking care of business on and off the field." Academic issues kept Gatlin from living up to his promise at ULM. lie was expected to compete for the starting position in 2001, but he was declared aca DAN CURRIERThe News-Star ULM sophomore quarter-, back Adam Gatlin will not play for the Indians because of academic.