The Monitor from McAllen, Texas • A18

2C Monday, March 27, 2006 Texas SPORTSPAGE2 MONDAY Sports Calendar Game Week HOCKEY TodayTuesdayWednesday Vs.Anaheim Mighty Ducks, 7:30 p.m. TV: None Television Radio COLLEGE TodayTuesdayWednesday Softball: Vs.Baylor, 6:30 p.m. Baseball: At Lamar, 6:30 p.m. Softball: Vs.Texas State, 6:30 p.m. NBA TodayTuesdayWednesday At Los Angeles Clippers, 9:30 p.m.

TV: None Vs.Seattle SuperSonics, 7:30 p.m. TV: None At Detroit Pistons, 6:30 p.m. TV: None At Cleveland Cavaliers, 6 p.m. TV: None TELEVISION GOLF: TGC Tavistock Cup, first 11 a.m. MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL: FSNSW at FSNSW vs.

p.m. NHL: OLN Detroit at St. Louis, 7 p.m. TENNIS: ESPN2 ATP Masters Key Biscayne, ESPN2 ATP Masters Key Biscayne, p.m. VARIETY: FSNSW Southwest Sports Tonight Game Time, 7:30 p.m.

FSNSW Busch Light Southwest Sports p.m. COLLEGE BASKETBALL: ESPN NCAA Division I Albuquerque, N.M. or San p.m. ESPN NCAA Division I or San p.m. RADIO VARIETY: KSOX 1240 AM The p.m.

The Line Glantz-Culver Line NCAA Basketball Tournament Saturday Final Four At Indianapolis Mason LSU1(121)UCLA NIT Semifinals Tuesday At New York Dominion South NBA FAVORITELINEUNDERDOG at Phoenix3at New Jersey at Utah6New Orleans at Golden NHL FAVORITELINEUNDERDOGLINE at N.Y.Rangers-140Buffalo+120 at Carolina-175Tampa at Detroit-300at St.Louis+240 at Vancouver-155Los This Day In Sports History March 27 1939 Oregon beats Ohio State 46-33 for the title in the first national basketball tournament. 1942 Joe Louis knocks out Abe Simon in the sixth round at Madison Square Garden to retain his world heavyweight title. 1945 Oklahoma beats New York University 49-45 for the NCAA basketball championship. 1951 Bill Spivey scores 22 points to lead Kentucky to a 68-58 win over Kansas State for the NCAA basketball title. 1971 UCLA beats Villanova 68-62 for its fifth NCAA basketball title.

1978 Jack Givens scores 41 points to lead Kentucky to a 94-88 victory over Duke for the NCAA basketball title. 1983 Larry Holmes wins a unanimous 12-round decision over Lucien Rodriguez to retain his world heavyweight title in his hometown of 1991 Kenny Ammann scores 22 five 3-pointers, to help Stanford capture its first NIT title with a 78-72 victory over Oklahoma. 1994 Donna Andrews sinks a 6-foot birdie putt on the final hole to win the Dinah Shore by one stroke, her second straight victory and first LPGA major. 1998 Michael Jordan scores 34 points to lead the Chicago Bulls to an 89-74 victory over the Atlanta Hawks before 62,046 at the Georgia Dome the largest crowd in NBA history. 2003 Evgeni Plushenko wins his second World Figure Skating Championships title, edging American Tim Goebel.

2005 In the NCAA basketball regional State makes the most of its second overtime against away to win 94-88. This is the first time in tournament history that three regional finals go to overtime. North Carolina beats Wisconsin 88-82 in regulation. 2005 Annika Sorenstam shoots a final-round 68 to finish at 15 under to win the Nabisco Championship by eight shots over Rosie Jones. fifth win in a row over two a record set by Nancy Lopez in 1978.

also the 59th win of the Swedish LPGA Tour career and her eighth major championship win. HE A SSOCIATED RESS VIERA, Fla. Alfonso play in the outfield continues to be a work in progress. His offense, however, is right on schedule. Soriano misplayed a ball in the first inning that led to an Astros run, but he was 2-for-4 with a home run, a walk and three runs scored to help the Washington Nationals beat Houston 13-6 on Sunday.

In the top of the first, lefty Lance Berkman hit a ball the opposite way to left-center that Soriano misread. He charged the ball and it carried over his head allowing Willy Taveras to score from first base. try to catch the ball, but it was a line drive going up because of the said Soriano, on a day where the wind blew straight out to center at 12 mph. see the contact, but after that when the ball passed the infield I lost it a little bit, and I think why I have a little Soriano redeemed himself, hitting the first pitch he saw in the bottom of the first over the leftfield fence. we get down on him and show confidence in him, going to said starter John Patterson, who pitched 5 1-3 innings, allowing two runs and striking out seven to earn the victory.

going to take a little while, and going to get some runs back with his bat. You can expect him to make some mistakes, but hang in there with Nationals manager Frank Robinson continues to be understanding of troubles as the slugger played in just his fourth game in his new position. just goes to show you focused as far as his offense is Robinson said. plays in the outfield, I tried to warn anybody who would listen, going to be a work in progress. He got a little lesson today, and if he learns from these things, what we want.

We want him to make the same kind of mistakes two or three The Nationals had their best offensive showing of the spring, pounding out 14 hits behind a pair of two-run homers from both Jose Guillen and Ryan Zimmerman. Guillen hit his first two homers of the spring, while two gave him the team-lead in homers (five) and RBIs (12). was good to see him have a good offensive day and a good defensive Robinson said of his rookie third baseman a day after Zimmerman committed two errors. has to really make him feel good and get him up on his toes a little Brandon Backe took the loss for the Astros, allowing eight runs on 10 hits in six innings. He allowed four home runs.

Berkman led the Astros going 2-for-4 with a double and three RBIs. In other spring training games: RANGERS 3: At Surprise, rookie second baseman Ian Kinsler will be the starter for Texas, filling the spot vacated when Soriano was traded this winter. a well-kept manager Buck Showalter said Sunday. figured it was just time for him to graduate. We wanted him to know we trust Kinsler will make his major league debut at home against Boston on April 3.

He hit .238 with four home runs and eight RBIs in 17 spring training games before Sunday, when Mark DeRosa started at second base against Milwaukee. think I would hear anything until the last Kinsler said. going to be nice to have four days in camp to get used to the Also on Sunday, Mark Teixeira had his first multi-hit game of the spring to help the Rangers beat Milwaukee. Teixeira went 2-for-4 with a double his first extra base hit. He also had a choice off his bat in the seventh that tied the game at 3.

Michael Young added his first home run of the spring for the Rangers. For the second straight game, Rangers starter Kameron Loe let the first three runners reach base, but he settled down to pitch six innings. Rangers reliever Eras- maso Ramirez worked one inning to earn the win while Scott Feldman picked up his first save. PADRES 5: At Peoria, Pete Laforest hit a two-run homer for the Padres. Lance Niekro went 2-for-3 with a two-run homer and four RBIs for the Giants.

In other news, Barry Bonds most likely is done with the Cactus League, choosing instead to rest his tender left elbow and surgically repaired right knee before the season starts. Bonds was examined by two doctors Sunday for evaluation of his inflamed elbow, and the San Francisco Giants were hopeful the slugger would resume on-field baseball activities today. METS 0: At Port St. Lucie, New Pedro Martinez pitched three scoreless innings in his first spring training start. MARLINS 1: At Jupiter, St.

Louis starter Mark Mulder pitched five innings and gave up six runs with six strikeouts and two walks. BLUE JAYS 8: At Dunedin, Jason Bay and Craig Wilson each hit two home runs for the Pirates. DODGERS 2: At Vero Beach, Los Rafael Furcal had two hits and knocked in all three runs for the Dodgers. RED SOX 2: At Clearwater, Josh Beckett struck out six over six innings to earn the win for Boston. DEVIL RAYS 5: At Fort Myers, Brad Radke gave up five hits and two earned runs in five innings.

INDIANS 4: At Winter Haven, Grady Sizemore went 3-for-5 with a double, triple and three RBIs for the Indians. YANKEES 8: At Tampa, New York starter Chien-Ming Wang left in the third inning with a bruised right knee after being hit by a batted ball. X-rays were negative. ANGELES 4: At Tempe, Tim Salmon home- red and drove in three runs for the Angels. DIAMONDBACKS 0: At Mesa, Orlando Hudson went 3-for-3 with a solo homer and two RBIs for the Diamondbacks.

WHITE SOX 7: At Tucson, Jim Thome hit his first two homers of the spring and had three RBIs. MONDAY FOCUS: Baseball National News Soriano misplays ball, hits home run Minor leagues deny claim By ONALD LUM The Associated Press Two days after minor league umpires said they intend to strike, lawyer denied that unfair labor practices have been committed. The Association of Minor League Umpires issued a statement Friday saying its members plan to strike at the start of the season next month and said unfair labor practice charges had been filed with the National Labor Relations Board. AMLU has been threatening to strike in support of their contract demands for George Yund, the lawyer for the Professional Baseball Umpire Corporation, said Sunday in an e- mail. trying to mislead someone by now changing their story to claim that they want to strike to protest these alleged unfair labor practices.

Ask them if agree not to strike if PBUC corrects the alleged ULP? In addi- tion, PBUC denies that it committed any unfair labor Union head Andy Roberts and lawyer Robert Weaver did not return e-mails Sunday seeking comment. The union, which has about 220 members, claims it was told by management in February that talks had reached impasse and that the PBUC would implement its last offer when the season started. The union made a proposal on March 10 that was rejected by management three days later. statement Friday said management threatened to fire employees who went on strike and asked several of the unionized umps to work as replacements during any strike. Umps say their salaries average $15,000 at Triple-A, $12,000 at Double-A, $10,000 in full-season A-ball and $5,500 in rookie leagues.

The union said it would not supply replacement umps to the major leagues during a strike. Pablo Martinez Associated Press Alfonso Soriano, right, is greeted outside the dugout by manager Frank Robinson, left, following his leadoff home run against Brandon Backe during the first inning of the 13-6 spring training victory Sunday in Viera, Fla. Soriano misplayed a ball in the first inning that led to an Astros run, but was 2-for-4 with a home run, a walk and three runs scored. Texas Rangers second baseman Ian Kinsler, below, tags out Brad Hawpe on a steal attempt during a spring training game Saturday in Tucson, Ariz. Kinsler was named the opening day starter at second base, replacing Soriano.

AMLU has been threatening to strike in support of their contract demands for weeks. trying to mislead someone by now changing their story to claim that they want to strike to protest these alleged unfair labor George Yund, lawyer for the Professional Baseball Umpire Corporation Ed Associated Press Spring Training Roundup.