The Billings Gazette from Billings, Montana • 17

The Billings Gazette MONDAY, AUG. 8,1988 sMus Soon ecflfhcheir rip "I Came OUt earlv vesterdav with Rarrv anrl wnrlroH By JOE KUSEK Of The Gazette Staff on my hitting. He told me I was pulling off the ball and it was killing my swing. Some pitches, 1 looked really bad. So every time I went up, Barry reminded me to keep my hands back, the shoulder closed and just drive the ball where it's pitched.

I'm just hoping it continues." Verdugo started his assault in the first inning, driving a Scott Economy pitch over the right field wall for a three-run blast But Ecomony, who took the loss, got through the next three innings without much trouble, only Verdugo clipping him for a harmless double in the fourth. His teammates had staked him to an 8-3 lead after scoring four runs in both the second and third innings off of Salt Lake pitcher William Ambos. In the second, Mike Songini singled then moved to second on a sacrifice by Scott Sellner. Doug Bond walked and Duane MulviHe had a base hit to load the bases. Steve Reyes, getting a start in leftfield, slapped a double down the leftfield line into the Trapper's bullpen for two RBIs.

Tony Terzarial drove home a run with a line drive to centerfield and Tim Clark finished it with an RBI single. Lake City at Billings, Cobb Field, 7: 30. LEGION AA Tournament Lethbridge. at Briarwood. U.S.

Am Qualifier, Yellowstone Country Club. RODEO: Daniels County Fair Rodeo, Scobey. Mando Verdugo was in a slump and getting frustrated. So the Salt Lake catcher took some extra batting practice Saturday morning with manager Barry Moss. Then Verdugo took those frustrations out on the Billings Mustangs.

Verdugo, who had a single and double Saturday night, was a personal wrecking crew at the plate on Sunday. He was a perfect 5-for-5 with eight RBIs in leading the Trappers to an 11-9 victory. The two teams close out the four-game series Monday at 7:30 p.m. at Cobb Field. Verdugo hammered Mustang pitching for a three-run home run, two doubles, including one that cleared the bases and a pair of singles.

His hits came off of three different Billings pitchers. "The last five, six games, I was really struggling," said Verdugo, who is a solid 6-1, 215 pounds. "I was really struggling at the plate. I wasn't hitting the ball hard. I was getting a little frustrated.

The Mustangs padded their lead in the third, starting when Mike Mulvaney reached on an error. Sellner and Bond both had singles, Bond's scoring Mulvaney. Mulville was hit by a pitch and Reyes followed with a single for his third RBI of the night A second Trapper error and a sacrifice fly by Clark accounted for the final two runs. But Economy, then reliever Tomas Rodriguez could not hold the lead. Salt Lake scored three runs in the fifth, Verdugo's two-RBI single the big hit and then added five decisive runs in the sixth, Verdugo clearing the bases with a blast into the right centerfield gap.

"He found the holes, that's for sure," said Billings' manager Dave Keller. "We got behind on a lot of counts. And it's easy to hit when you're ahead of the pitcher all the time. Maybe that's from not being aggressive. But you cant pitch around anybody." Billings threated in the eighth, scoring a run on a Ben Colvard single.

But the Mustangs had the bases loaded with just one out and left the runners stranded. That's because Salt Lake reliever Michael Gibbons picked up a strike out and coaxed a weak one-hopper back to the mound to end any Billings threat. Seniors fifle goes down to a playoff Scarlets nip Miles City; Royals top Senators V- -i -Si-' -m Cuba slips past U.S. MILLINGTON, Tenn. AP) Lazaro Vargas's fifth-inning double broke a tie and Jorge Valdes and Rene Arocha combined on a four-hitter Sunday as Cuba beat the United States Olympic team 4-2 in Game 2 of a seven-game series.

Rene Arocha allowed two hit in four innings. Mickey Morandini hit his eighth in the second inning and Tino Martinez, who homered twice Saturday, hit his 10th home run in the fourth. Valdes, the winner, allowed two hits in the final five innings. Ben McDonald, 3-2, gave up 10 hits in six innings and all four Cuban runs. Joe Slusarski allowed one hit in the final three innings.

Cuba, winner of 19 world championships, meets the United States again Tuesday in Indianapolis, and the series continues with games in Tidewater, Va. Richmond, and Charlotte, N.C. The United States is 20-4 as it prepares for the Seoul games. Morandini's home run gave the United States the lead but Cuba, the home team, tied the score in the bottom of the inning on Pedro Rodriguez's RBI triple. State title to local team BOZEMAN Billings' 3.5 Volvo Tennis team won the State Volvo Tennis Tournament playoffs in its division this past weekend.

According to Jim Hanna, the team's captain, the win earns the team the right to travel to Vail, Colo, for the Volvo Regional Tournament Aug. 25-27 with the winners there qualifying for the national finals in southern California. Teams from Bozeman, Great Falls, Missoula and other towns around Montana sent teams to the competitioa The Billings team, consisting of Jim Fukado, George Charles, Sheley Farr, Al Small, Hal Bloomer, Bruce Pinkerton, Ron Nichols, Burt Hoffman and Frank Engraff, defeated Great Falls in its first match and Bozeman in its second match to MEDINAH, m. (AP) Would have, could have, should have. Might still.

New Zealander Bob Charles bogeyed three of the last four holes Sunday to finish a day-long duel over Medi-nah's unyielding No. 3 course tied with defending champion Gary Player and set up an 18-hole playoff for the U.S. Senior Open golf championship. The third-round co-leaders each shot 1-over 73 to finish even-par 288. Although the two men have been friends since 1956, Charles, understandably, didn't sound confident about his chances of shaking Player.

"I blew the tournament today and he's got a chance to win it tomorrow," said Charles, 52, the best left-handed player in the history of the game and the Senior Tour's leading money-winner. "I've just got to go out and shoot the best round I can. At least," he added, "I don't have to worry about anyone else." "It was an exciting Open," Player said. "My stomach feels like my throat has been cut." Charles was 3 under par after the last of his three birdies, at No. and held a three-stroke lead walking to the 15th tee.

But he bogeyed that hole and the next two before he could stop the slide with a par at No. 18. Meanwhile, the steady Player, who carded one birdie Sunday to go along with two bogeys, responded with the last four of his seven straight pars on the backside. Both men had birdie putts at the 18th, Player from some 20 feet above above the hole, Charles pin-high from about 12 feet. But neither cashed in, pitting the two foreign-born golfers Charles is a native of New Zealand, Player of South Africa against one another in a 11:15 a.m., MDT, playoff Monday for the $65,000 first-place purse awarded the winner of the over-50 U.S.

national championship. Player was not only grateful for the reprieve, he was downright ecstatic that the two will go 18 more holes. And do it Monday. Mf0 A Jj i 7cl 7-. hMlflli 'imin-ri Ill-'' LETHBRIDGE, Alberta- The Billings Scarlets smothered an upset bid by Miles City at the State AA Legion Tournament Sunday with a run in the top of the eighth inning that proved to be enough for a 5-4 win over the Mavericks.

The Billings Royals, playing on the loser's side of the bracket, kept themselves in the running by beating Helena 9-2 with a seven-run burst in the fifth inning. In other games, Lethbridge remained unbeaten with an 11-5 victory over the Glacier Twins and Kalispell eliminated Great Falls 11-10. The Scarlets play Lethbridge at 7: 30 p.m. Monday with the winner advancing to the finals. The two teams have won six of the last nine state championships.

In loser-out games, the Royals take on Eastern Division foe Miles City and Kalispell takes on Glacier at 4 p.m. The Scarlets, a top contender for the title, couldn't shake the Mavericks and led only 4-3 after seven innings. A run in the eighth gave them a 5-3 lead. But Miles City came back in the bottom of the eighth inning with a run of their own. Robbie Bishop scored on a double by Travis Cale and a Kirk Bishop single pushed Cale to third with only one out.

With the go-ahead run on first Randy Pirami, Brandy Bengoechea and David Lampi executed a double play which got the Scarlets out of the inning and proved to be the game-saving play. Three Scarlet batters were retired in the bottom of the ninth and the Mavericks needed a run to tie. But Scarlets' pitcher Traver Hunter allowed only one hit and no runs to escape with the win. The Royals trailed 2-1 after four and a half innings, but a rash of Helena errors allowed them to rack up the scored in the bottom of the fifth. After the carnage was over, Billings held an 8-2 lead with seven runs, four hits and six Senator errors in the inning.

Associated Press Milwaukee forward Terry Cummings tries to pass around Danny Manning of U.S. Olympic team. win the spot as the top team in the 3.5 division. McLaren domination BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) Brazilian ace Ayrton Senna and teammate Alain Prost of France swept the top two places in Sunday's Hungarian Grand Prix, stretching the McLaren Honda's winning streak to 10 for the season. The two now share the lead in the world drivers' championship standings at 66 points each.

Senna, starting in the pole position, won his sixth race of the season by covering the 76 laps in 1 hour, 57 minutes, 47.081 seconds, putting him 0.529 seconds ahead of Prost. Thierry Boutsen of Beligum was third in a Benetton-Ford, 31.410 seconds behind, while Austrian driver Gerhard Berger in a Ferrari finished fourth, 1 minute, 28.670 seconds behind the winner. Britain's Nigel Mansell in a Williams-Judd, who started from the front row, dropped out 18 laps from the finish. Team officials said Mansell was exhausted and could not finish the race. The British driver is suffering from chicken pox.

Rain in Wrigley forecast CHICAGO (AP) Rain threatened to postpone the first night game at Wrigley Field, as weather forecasters predicted a 60 percent chance of thundershowers Monday evening. The game between the Chicago Cubs and Philadelphia Phillies is scheduled to start at 6:05 p.m. MDT. But rain was forecast to hover in the Chicago area through Tuesday afternoon. Ironically, the first night game scheduled in major league history was postponed.

Rain and cold delayed the night opener in Cincinnati in 1935 and the historic game was played May 24, 1935 at Crosley Field. The Cubs also are scheduled to host the New York Mets Tuesday night Majerle's stature quietly grows as Olympians beat NBA team "I told the team before the game that our style would wear us down as well as the opposition," he said. "I'm hoping for nothing but layups. If we get enough we'll be all right." The tour against teams comprised of selected NBA players will continue with two games next weekend at Charlotte, N.C. Thompson still has 17 players in camp fighting for the 12 berths for the trip to Seoul to defend the gold medal.

Three of the players on the NBA team were members of the 1984 Olympic team Patrick Ewing, Chris Mullin and Alvin Robertson. "No cut will be easy now. I've grown attached to them," Thompson! said. "After Charlotte, well take some very hard looks. conference player of the year from Central Michigan and first-round draft choice of the Phoenix Suns.

That sounds like something from a player who would rank as one of Olympic coach John Thompson's favorites. "He said as many words to you today as he said to me," Thompson said. "I love that boy, the way he works so hard, goes after loose balls and he does it every single day." Also scoring in double figures for the Olympic team were Charles Smith of Pittsburgh and Robinson, the former Navy star, with 12 each, and Bimbo Coles of Virginia Tech, who finished with 11. Thompson stressed that he wasn't worried about the team scoring, rather that they be successful in the transition game. PROVIDENCE, R.I.

(AP) Dan Majerle quietly took his place among the well-known players still in the running for a berth on the men's U.S. Olympic basketball team. The 6-foot-5 Majerle matched the 13 points of Danny Manning on Sunday as the Olympic team opened an eight-game tour against teams of NBA players with a 90-82 victory. With names like NBA overall No. 1 picks Manning, who led Kansas to the national championship this year, and David Robinson, the 1987 college player of the year, Majerle wouldn't be expected to be at the top of the scoring list "I wasn't looking to shoot specifically.

I just wanted to play hard and play defense and go from there," said the Mid-American Scarlets 5, Miles City 4 MgiScorhn 300 100 0105 5 2 rftleiGty 120 000 0104 5 4 Wrm, Hunter (3) and Agntrw, Muri and long. Hunt-r. Muri. Royals 9, Helena 2 Hatera 000 020 0002 6 UgtOorob 100 071 OOx 12 1 Morgan and Poppas; Kummarfaldt ond Hunt. KW Kunmsrtsidt.

I Mm yifll. Kalispell 11, Electrics 19 KoUtpsU 021 230 12011 19 2 GFEbctria 003 300 02210 13 5 Yonga, Omoosr (8), Hornorfi (9) and Harbor; Stoats, Ingorsoll (5, Cortright 9) and Nwmack. Yonga. Lethbridge 11, Glacier 5 Glob Toins 000 004 0015 6 1 UrhbndoB 030 202 40x 11 10 3 Walker. Grasnfald (7), Sutherland (8) and Foust; Larson, Wright (6) and Groves.

Larson. I Walker. Broncos cut receiver GREELEY, Colo. (AP) The Dnever Broncos on Saturday waived second-year wide reciever Gary Rolle. The 5-11, 180-pound player came to the Broncos from the University of Florida last year.

ighf basebcsll finally comes to Wrigley Fiel First night games National League Cincinnati May 24, 1935 at Crosley Field Brooklyn June 1 5, 1 938 ot Eboets Field PModelphia June 1, 1939 otShibe Pork New York Giants May 24, 1 940 at Polo Grounds Pittsburgh June 4, 1940 at Forbes Field St. Louis June 4, 1940 ot Sportsman's Park Boston May 1 1, 1946 at Braves Field, Giants Chkogo Aug. 8, 1988 al Wrigley Field The sermon is repeated in frame houses on narrow streets, in the courtyards and lobbies of rennovated apartment buildings, in the toney little stores and restaurants that followed a wave of gentrification up Chicago's sparkling lakefront, and in the small, sleepy shops where the constant rumble of elevated trains has come to be regarded as so much background noise. All the way, in fact, into the boardrooms of Tribune the media conglomerate whose holdings include the city's largest-circulation daily newspaper and WGN-TV, the superstation that carries Cubs games around the nation. "Wrigley Field has been here for three-quarters of a century and I think everybody who moved here recognized that it was here.

And everybody who wanted us to stay here recognized this was the only equitable solu- (More on Wrigley, Page 2B) said Ernie Banks, the Cub great who hit 290 of his 512 career home runs at Wrigley. "When I first came into the majors, nobody ever believed the Dodgers or the Giants would go to California, or that Jackie Robinson would play in the big leagues. But they did. "And in my advanced years, I've learned that change is a big part of life," added Banks, "and that baseball has learned to deal with it much better than almost any other part of our society. "Wrigley Field is still there, after all and it's still one of the most beautiful spots on this earth," concluded Banks.

"The only difference is now we have lights." There is a sense of history about to be made inside, hysteria over what is likely to happen outside. And the neighborhood caught in the middle, ambivalent about this latest twist of fate, prays resignedly: "Let there be light Don't let it be too bright" spearheaded opposition to the night games. "We won in the City Council in the (state) Legislature and on every referendum that was held. We stretched dollars, we used smoke and mirrors, we always found a way to pull another rabbit out of the hat. "But they only had to win once," he said, "and the lights go on." They go on five decades after the Cincinnati Reds played the first major league game under the lights of now-defunct Crosley Field, and 40 years after the Detroit Tigers became the last team to join baseball's fraternity of the illumined.

And like some concrete dowager with a bundle to spend after a divorce, the City Council vote in February lifting the ban on lights has whetted Wrigley Field's appetite for the nightlife seven times this first season, 18 night games a season after that through the year 2002. "It doesn't feel like the end of an era," CHICAGO (AP) Phillip K. Wrigley promised this day would never come, but Monday night it does. Seventy-two years after the Chicago Cubs set up shop in a turn-of-the-century, working-class neighborhood and began a love-hate affair that has taken a turn for the worse, night baseball comes to Wrigley Field. Two decades after the late heir to the chewing-gum fortune promised day baseball forever, the lights come on.

This long day's journey into night picked up speed in 1981 when the Tribune Co. began calling the shots down some of baseball's most venerated halls and guaranteed the good people of Wrigleyville they would see the lights. "For seven years, we won every battle (over lights) against one of the most powerful corporations around," said Mike Quigley, vice president of Citizens United for Baseball in the Sunshine, the community group that American League Philadelphia May 16, 1939 at Shibe Park Cleveland June 27, 1939 at Municipal Stadium Chkogo Aug. 14, 1939 at Corruskey Pork St. Louis May 24, 1 940 ot Sportsman's Pork Washington May 28, 1941 ot Griffith Stadium New York May 28, 1 946 ot Yankee Stadium Boston June 13, 1947 at Fenway Park Detroit June 1 5, 1 948 at Briggs Stadium.