The Daily Item from Sunbury, Pennsylvania • 17

I The Da.iy Item Monday. July 31, 2006 Page C3 SoftballBaseballMoforsports Milton overcomes slow start to advance MILTON, from Page CI SELINSGROVE SPEEDWAY Snyder roars to the front for second win -mii urn mf -i' nnr rr -a v. I A Cbi i Complex. Rhode Island (0-2) committed four errors in the frame, and Milton scored six runs with two outs. "I really wasn't worried about it, because I know how we can play," said Milton manager Mike Balliet, whose team stranded only two runners in the last three innings.

"I was more disappointed than anything with the way we started this game." Rhode Island took a 2-0 lead in the second when Rachel Baxter scored on a wild pitch and Amanda Kel-ley drove in Jessica Cardoso with, a single to right. Sarah Beauregard scored in the third after a costly error to extend the lead to 3-0. "Normally, defense is our strong point." Balliet said. "That's why I was disappointed with the way we started off." Smith singled to start the bottom of the third and Larissa Luu followed with a walk. Amy Neitz singled in Smith and Luu scored on a Jenna Williams single.

Melissa Balliet's sacrifice bunt came back to Beauregard, who attempted to get the out at third. The throw was high and late. Jordan Frederick reached on an error by Rhode Island's third baseman. The play should have been the third out. Instead, Milton scored six more runs.

''That one play would have made all the difference in the world," Rhode Island manager John Beauregard said. Alysha Hoover, Kelley Pfleegor, Smith, Luu and Neitz each scored CHAMP CARS Brandon HessonFor The Daily Item Milton pitcher Nicole Smith delivers a pitch during the second. inning of Sunday's Eastern Regional Senior League Softball Tournament game in Easton, Md. Milton opened the tournament with a 13-3 win over Rhode Island. last run in the third before getting Melissa Balliet to fly out.

Pennsylvania scored two more runs in the fifth to finish the mercy-rule win. Smith and Luu each reached on errors and Neitz doubled to right, plating the final runs. Williams paced Milton's attack with two hits, two runs and three RBIs. before the game was delayed when first-base umpire Lance Sweigart became ill due to the intense heat and was replaced, by an alternate umpire. During the delay, both teams substituted pitchers.

"We had to make moves before we wanted to," said Mike Balliet, "but the heat took a lot out of the girls." Jessica Chabot allowed Milton's Smith (two runs). Luu (three runs, two RBI)s and Neitz (two runs, two RBIs) each also added two hits. Hoover and Pfleegor had one hit apiece, while Melissa Balliet and Frederick each added one run. Pennsylvania faces Maine in pool play today at 5:30 p.m. Rhode Island plays Maryland on Butler Field at the same time.

By Shawn Brouse For The Dailx hem SELINSGROVE After starting eighth. Nate Snyder of Halifax claimed his second sprint car win of the season Saturday night at Selinsgrpve Speedway after taking the lead late. Second-generation driver Alan Sprig-gle of Landisburg paced the field through the first 21 circuits of the 25-lapper before Snyder "took control. Points leader Blane Heimbach brought out the red flag with three laps down when he broke the front axle in the second corner and turned over. He was not injured.

With seven laps to go, rookie Jordan Front of Mifflitown flipped on the front-stretch after making contact with the outside wall. Frontz was running fourth at the time and escaped injury. The battle for third through fifth was a close and intense one during the middle stages, with Snyder, Frontz and Mike Walter in the fray. Under the red for Frontz, Walter pitted but returned to finish ninth. On the lap-18 restart, Snyder zoomed around the top side, advancing around Larry Kelleher and Doug Dodson before catching up to Spriggle for the win.

"We knew we had to get it done from eighth," said Snyder of his starting spot. "Blane got in a crash and we had to capitalize on that. We were racing close there and it was inches a couple times." Spriggle settled for second, followed by Dodson, Kevin Nagy and Jason Shultz. Sixth through 10th went to Jim Nace, Joey Borich. Jeff Furlong, Walter and Larry Kelleher.

Heats for the 31-car field went to Walter, Spriggle and Heimbach, with Nace taking the consolation. Dave Shulski of Shamokin wired the field for his first career win in the 25-lap late model feature. A multi-car incident occurred in turn four at the start of the late model feature. When the race restarted, second-place starter Shulski powered into the lead and at the finish, he was victorious over Jim Yoder, Jeff Rine, Colby Frye and Chris Wilkinson. Late model heats went to Jeff Smith, Eric Hons and Wilkinson, with Rine scoring the consolation.

Fourth-place starter Matt Johnson of New Berlin led every lap of the pro stock feature, with close competition behind him. Johnson was victorious for the second time this season by the slimmest of margins over Larry Hare, A.J. Hoffman, A.J. Stroup and Jason Smith. Smith, Brad Trump and Lon Savage Jr.

won pro stock heats. NST crowd returns to Selinsgrove BROUSE, from Page C1 Canadian drivers exchange blows after incident By Darryl Matsuda San Jose Mercury News I rr nr I v. -fx vf la tc r) V) SAN JOSE Alex Tagliani has taken some hard hits during this Champ Car season. But after he was KO'd from Sunday's San Jose Grand Prix, he was ready to dish out a few. Paul Tracy ended Tagliani's day prematurely on Lap 52 of the 97-lap race when he unwisely propelled his car into Tagliani's while trying to make a quick escape from the runoff area at Turn 6.

With both out of the race, the Canadian drivers met behind the pit wall and did what many hockey players would have done: They exchanging heated words and punches before being separated. "He came out full blast," Tagliani said of the crash. "And on top of that, instead of staying on the inside of the track, he came across and T-boned me." Tagliani said there was no doubt that Tracy saw him. "If I see him, he sees me," Tagliani said. Once the yellow flag came out, Tagliani made sure Tracy saw him.

Tagliani walked through pit lane and when he found Tracy, he grabbed him by his driver's suit and gave him a piece of his mind. "I said to him, 'I have no car Tagliani said. After they briefly separated, more jawing ensued. That's when Tracy threw the first punch. Tracy: "I came back to the pits and he kept confronting me, he kept grabbing me and I told him to stop grabbing me, and he kept grabbing me and I kept telling him to stop, then he walked away and came back and grabbed me again and that was it, I had to push him off me." After the race, Champ Car said it would review the "physical altercation" and determine if any penalty would result.

The crash potentially cost both drivers good finishes: At the time, Tracy was third and Tagliani fourth. Sunday's crash was the latest in what has been a rough season for Tagliani and his Team Australia mechanics. Tagliani crashed hard at events in Houston, Milwaukee and Toronto. The Milwaukee incident happened during Saturday morning practice and prevented him from racing because the team did not have a backup car. The Associated Press Drivers Alex Tagliani, center left, and Paul Tracy fight after a collision knocked them both out of the Champ San Jose Grand Prix in San Jose, on Sunday.

more than its share of repair work this weekend. "What's really disappointing is last night I was looking at the guys building cars and gluing parts together," Tagliani said. "I have a guy on crutches who doesn't want to have surgery because he wants to keep working on the car. Guys keep building cars and repairing them. We're patching things overnight just to get by.

"Our team is not Forsythe. We don't have four complete cars. We don't have seven tubs. We don't have 12 gearboxes." Forsythe, of course, is the team Tracy drives for. "He was trying to get out of the runoff as fast as possible just not to lose position," Tagliani said.

"But it was too late. He made a mistake." At Toronto, Tagliani did have a backup car, which he needed after hitting a wall during the morning warm-up on race day. A front-lower wishbone gave way. San Jose was no different. On Saturday, Tagliani got caught in the tire barrier at Turn 6 during the pre-qualifying practice and suffered enough front-end damage that he had to sit out qualifying.

He started 13th based on his time in Friday's qualifying. Tagliani's teammate Will Power hasn't been immune from trouble either. He destroyed a car last week in Edmonton. Tfis week, after losing his brakes and crashing into the tire barrier in the runoff at the Almaden Hairpin, his front end had to be rebuilt. All in all, the Team Australia crew has done Plains' big bats too much for SunburyNorry LEGION, from Page C1 dashes and a Main, but then a 25-lap A Main will be run instead of the usual 30 laps.

This first A Main ill pay 75 percent of the normal purse. Following the first A. the entire-feld returns to the track for a 15-lap "A-Plus Main." All cars on the lead lap of the first A will be inverted, and all cars not on the lead lap will start behind the inverted field. The purse will be for the balance of the 25 percent not paid in the first A Main event. WINNERS: Alter losing his day job early last week.

Doug Esh won his first sprint races as a driver by profession on Friday at Williams Grove and Saturday at Lincoln. Esh is fewer than 50 points behind Fred Rahmer for the Lincoln track title, and is easily the best program currently on track in the region. Mark Smith won his fourth sprint feature of the year at Port Royal on Saturday. George Suprick won his second of the season at Clinton County. Nate Snyder took the lead late for his second 358-sprint main win of the year at Selinsgrove on Saturday, while Dave Shulski won his career first in late models, and Matt Johnson of New Berlin won the sixth of his career in the pro stocks.

SPI.ITSVIL1.E: The Selinsgrove Ford 358-sprint brother team of Phil and Mike Walter have parted ways. Mike will continue on under the banner. Both men were early-season winners at Selinsgrove Speedway. Shawn Brouse writes a weekly motorsports column for The Daily Item. single.

In the third, Knowles had an RBI groundout and Buckler added an RBI single. Erik Tuomisto had a sacrifice fly to cut the lead to 12- 1 in the third, and the game stayed that way until the bottom of the seventh when SunburyNorry scored two runs to avoid a l()-run-rule defeat. SunburyNorry was down to its final out until J. A. Brosious and Brandon Culp each walked.

After a wild pitch, Tuomisto singled home both runs to cut the lead to 12-3. On the week, Tuomisto was 13- of-21 with 15 RBIs. Plains never stopped hitting, scoring four runs in the top of the eighth to lake a 16-3 lead and again put SunburyNwy on the brink of a l()-run loss. In the bottom of the eighth, two walks and a Chad Brady single loaded the bases ith no outs against Bob Dunsmuir, who had replaced Coskey to start the inning. Jesse Hoover singled home a run to cut the lead to 16-4.

After an out, Brosious hit an opposite-field grand slam to left field to pull SunburyNorry back within 16-8. Plains went to reliever Steve Hovick. who got the final two outs of the eighth and retired Sunbury Norry in order in the ninth to end the game. Region Tournament until Saturday. They were on pace to do that again in the first game against Plains on Saturday, with seven runs through five innings, until left-hander Ron Coskey entered the game.

After pitching four innings of scoreless relief in Plains' 10-7 win the 15-year-old allowed just one run over six innings until tiring in the seventh inning on Sunday. In 11 innings, Coskey allowed just eight hits and three earned runs. In picking up the win Sunday, Coskey struck out one and walked three. "Their pitching is probably their weakest aspect, but they have guys that get the job done like the 15-year-old lefty," Leitzel said. "Three runs in 1 1 innings against a pitcher is not going to win games in this tournament." On Sunday, Plains scored 12 runs in the first three innings to jump on top 12-0.

It scored three runs in the first on an error, a steal of home and an RBI single by Tom Buckler, then added seven more runs in the second on seven hits and two errors. Mike McAndrew had a two-run single, Chris Sedon added a two-run triple, Steve Farley had a two-run double, and Rvan Knowles had an RBI opening-round game to Old Forge on Tuesday. Plains improves to 21-8 on the season and will open state tournament play Tuesday in Boyertown. After beginning the season with 23 consecutive wins, SunburyNorthumberland finishes its campaign at 23-2. "I'm extremely proud of this team.

A lot of these kids came off a disappointing end to their high school season. To roll off 23 straight wins is an accomplishment in itself," Leitzel said. "I think it was indicative of the kind of players we have that we refused to go early in this game. We scored two in the bottom of the seventh to extend the game and then scored five in the eighth after they had scored four to stay in the game. "This is the last chance I'm going to have to coach them.

They have a legacy of success since the time they were nine years old. It can't be spoiled by today's result." The SunburyNorry bats weren't too shabby either, scoring in double figures in every game at the.