The Muscatine Journal from Muscatine, Iowa • 9

Sports Monday Aug. 27, 2001 Muscatine Journal Scoreboard Page 2B College Football Page 3B Late bloomers --Bk3 Rain wipes out action at two tracks Saturday MUSCATINE, Iowa Weekly stock car racing action at the two area race tracks were victims of the weather Saturday night West Liberty Raceway's regular weekly schedule was called off earlier in the afternoon, but Hawkeye Raceway was set to go until rain hit right before the evening's start. A light rain began to fall about 7 p.m. and stayed around long enough to postpone the scheduled Season Championship Races. Both tracks will try again Saturday.

Track champions will be crowned at Hawkeye Raceway in three divisions -open wheel modified, street stocks and dwarf cars. Late caution flag helps Unser gamble pay off MADISON, III. (AP) Al Unser Jr. listened to car owner Rick Galles and came away with a victory in the Indy Racing League's inaugural Gateway Indy 250. The longtime open-wheel star earned his second IRL victory and the 33rd of his career with a fuel strategy that allowed him to stay on the track while series leader Sam Hornish Jr.

was forced to pit with 10 laps remaining on the 1 Gateway International Raceway oval. Unser ran the last 67 laps without pitting and beat runner-up Mark Dismore to the finish line by 1 .1 8 seconds about 10 car-lengths. THE ASSOCIATED I Another laterally gives title to Japan SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. (AP) Japan celebrated its Little League World Series championship with a bow to history. For the second time in as many games, Tokyo Kitasuna rallied for two runs in its last at-bat, this time beating Apopka, 2-1 Sunday night in the title game.

Nobuhisa Baba hit a line rBBi drive off the Chicago second baseman Eric Young, right, forces St Louis' Edgar Renteria at second base on a double play ball hit by Mike Matheny in the seventh inning at Wrigley Field Sunday in Chicago. Sammy among the elite CHICAGO (AP)-Sammy Sosa hit his 50th and 51st homers and powered his way into another exclusive club Sunday. Sosa joined Mark McGwire and Babe Ruth as the only players in major league history with four 50-homer seasons. "I'm not going to lie to you. shortstop's glove in the bottom of the sixth and final inning, driving in 1 THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Tokyo, Japan's Yuusuke Nomura, left, dives into home scoring the winning run as Apopka, catcher Will Blankenship waits for the throw, right, during the sixth inning of the Championship game of the Little League World Series in South Williamsport, Sunday.

Japan won 2-1. Almonte gives up first run in Bronx consolation romp WNBA honors Leslie as Its most valuable LOS ANGELES (AP) Lisa Leslie of the Los Angeles Sparks was chosen as the WNBA's most valuable player on Sunday, making her the first to capture All-Star and regular-season MVP honors I am very in the same season. The 6-foot-5 center averaged 19.5 points second-best in the league and led the Sparks to a league-best 28-4 record during the regular season. 6 two runs and giving Japan its fifth Little League World Series title. On Saturday night, Tokyo won the international championship in the bottom of the sixth on a two-run homer by Atsushi Mochizuki that gave it a 2-1 victory over Curacao, Netherlands Antilles.

It was the first time all year Japan had won a game in the sixth inning. After both wins the players ran to center field and started bowing to a statue of former Little League vice president Howard J. Lamade, the stadium's namesake. The players had asked interpreter Bill Lundy about the statue, but he didn't know who it was. "I simply told them that happy to be in that category with Mr.

Mark McGwire and Babe," Sosa said after 1 SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. (AP) Danny Almonte had three hits and threw a two-hitter as the Rolando Paulino team from the Bronx, N.Y., beat Wellemstad, Curacao, Netherlands Antilles, 9-1 in the consolation final of the Little League World Series on Sunday. Almonte, who pitched the first Little League World Series perfect game in 44 years earlier in the, tournament, allowed justtme run and three hits in three starts. Almonte's 14 strikeouts against Curacao (3-3) gave him 46 in the tournament. He also hit .471 for the tournament, including a 3-of4 Sunday.

Bronx (5-1) scored six runs in the fifth inning, five off home runs by Santo Sierra and Carlos Garcia and Rolando Torres' score on a wild pitch. Sierra's homer to left field scored Reynaldo Guava and Johnelvis Ortiz. Garcia's right-field homer his second of the tournament -scored Almonte. Torres scored on a passed ball in the second inning to give Rolando Paulino a 3-0 lead. Torres reached base on an RBI double that scored Santo Sierra.

Almonte hit an RBI single in the first inning that scored Tommy Guzman. Argentis Daal scored the only run on Almonte in the tournament, hitting a single to center field, advancing on a fielder's choice and scoring on a wild pitch. Dinyor Antonia had Curacao's only hit, a grounder to center field in the third inning. Bronx was beaten 8-2 in the U.S. championship by Apopka, on Saturday.

Curacao lost 2-1 to Tokyo Kitasuna in the international championship. Leslie received Leslie $25,000 from the league and a new car during a presentation prior to Game 2 of the Western Conference finals. She received 563 points and 51 first-place votes from a national panel of 60 sports writers and broadcasters, easily outdistancing Houston's Tina Thompson, who had 355 points. More oh Rally, Page 3B Daly-Donofrio battles back pain for 1st win KUTZTOWN, Pa. (AP) Heather Daly-Donofrio scored her first career victory, shooting a 3-under-par 69 to win the LPGA's Betsy King Classic.

Woods delivers knockout punch on 7th extra hole Daly-Donofrio, 31, in her fourth season on tour, had five birdies for a 15-under273at Berkleigh Country Club. Her previous best finish was 11th at the leading the Chicago Cubs past the St. Louis Cardinals 6-1. "I still got to continue. I'm not satisfied right now, the season is not over yet and we have a mission to finish in first." Sosa's ninth multi-homer game of the season helped rookie Juan Cruz get his first major league win as the Cubs stayed three games behind first-place Houston in the NL Central.

Sosa sent a 3-2 pitch from Dustin Herman son into the right-center-field bleachers in the first inning for No. 50, a two-run shot that set off a loud ovation at Wrigley Field. Sosa added a solo shot off Hermanson (12-10) in the fifth, a high drive that landed in the shrubbery in center field. Sosa has reached at least 50 homers in four straight seasons, just as McGwire did from 1996-1999. Ruth reached 50 in 1920-21 and 1927-28.

McGwire, sidelined by a hamstring injury, saluted the man whom he beat for the home run titles in 1998 and 1999. "Sammy's having a phenomenal year. He's doing everything and more," McGwire said after the game. Sosa, who also has a pair of three-homer games this month, has eight homers in his last 10 games and 16 in August to move within four of major league leader Barry Bonds. Sosa grounded out to short in the third.

With a shot at another three-homer game in More on Elite, Page 3B H3v sHlHwii ii1 bSB LIB AKRON, Ohio (AP) Tiger Woods tapped in his 2-foot birdie putt on the seventh playoff hole Sunday and raised both fists over his shoulders like a heavyweight champion, a fitting pose after such an epic battle. After exchanging pars for six extra holes, hardly any of them routine, Woods hit a wedge that landed next to the hole and spun back to 2 feet for a birdie putt to win the NEC Invitational after the longest PGA Tour Rochester Open in June. Daly-Donofrio He and Jim Fuyrk traded heroic shots and great escapes in a sensational duel at the NEC Invitational, which started early to avoid the rain and looked like it might never end. playoff in 10 years. "It was just shot for shot," Woods said.

"Not too often do you get a chance to have your emotions and your intensity and your level of competitiveness at that high of a level. That's the After she nearly withdrew before her opening round Thursday due to severe lower back pain, Daly-Donofrio held off Mhiari McKay, who missed short putts on the final two holes that would have forced a playoff. Daly-Donofrio, a Yale graduate and former head coach there, parred the final two holes. Hall is fourth straight 1st-time senior winner MISSISSAUGA, Ontario (AP) Walter Hall parred the first hole of a playoff with Ed Dougherty to win the "It was a war," Woods said. "Neither Woods ultimate.

Win or lose, to be out there in that environment is pretty cool." Furyk holed a bunker shot to save par on the first extra hole and extend the playoff. Woods escaped from the More oh Extra, Page 3B one of us gave an inch. It was fun to compete like that, where you were tested to absolute utmost." Woods emerged the survivor, ending his witness summer in style. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Jim Furyk wades out of the pines along the 18th fairway on the seventh playoff hole of the NEC Invitational Sunday at Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio. Canada Senior Open and become the Senior PGA Tour's fourth first-time winner in as many weeks.

Hall, the 54-year-old former North Carolina appliance sales manager, finished Best may miss U.S. Open finals 1 Hall NEW YORK (AP) By rights, the Grand Slam season in women's tennis should end 12 days from now with a prime-time U.S. Open final between this year's two best Williams in the same half of the 128-woman field. That means they'll play, if at all, in the semifinals Sept. 7, rather than in the first nighttime final in mm players, Venus Williams and Jennifer Capriati.

"It's not possi- ble," Capriati notes matter-of-factly. She betrays nei Grand Slam history Saturday, Sept. 8. Regardless, the year's last major event should help settle whether Capriati or Williams know they can win the tournament because they've done it before, a testament to the depth of championship talent at the top of the rankings. "The women are bigger than ever, and it's great for the sport," four-time U.S.

Open champion John McEnroe says. While the women's field will likely be dominated by a handful of stars, perhaps 20 men have a realistic shot at the title. That includes defending champion Marat Safin, two-time champs Andre Agassi and Pat Rafter, and even four-time champ Pete Sampras, who faces a daunting path to the final as he More on Best, Page 3B second six times in five seasons on the tour. Dougherty missed a 20-foot par putt on the extra hole, the par-4 18th, after bogeying the hole in regulation to drop into a tie for the lead. Cook roars back from 6 shots In Rono-Tahoe RENO, Nev.

(AP) John Cook shot an 8-under-par 64 and took advantage of a late triple-bogey by leader Jerry Kelly to win the $3 million Reno-Tahoe Open for his first PGA Tour victory in three years. Cook started the day six strokes off the lead but had a birdie-eagle-birdie-birdie stretch as part of a 30 on the front nine at the Montreux Golf Country Club near Lake Tahoe. is the best player of 2001. Should both falter, three former champions are ready-for-prime-time players. Top-seeded Martina Hingis (1997), Lindsay Davenport (1998) and Serena Williams (1999) ther disappointment or relief, but tennis fans are sure to be bummed.

They caught an unlucky break when poker-style chips pulled from the championship trophy last week to determine the draw paired Capriati and Defending Champion Marat Safin of Russia gets used to the court as he practices for the U.S. Open tennis tournament Sunday in New York..