The San Bernardino County Sun from San Bernardino, California • Page 36

C2TheSun FRIDAY, July 20, 1990 KALEIDOSCOPE Spirit completes sweep of Riverside By DAVID DOMKE Sun Sports Writer Pair of triple plays a very odd couple Nearly two decades ago, moviemakers filming a ballpark scene for "The Odd Couple" used a bunch of New York Mets and Pittsburgh Pirates to film a third-to-second-to-first triple play, i Even under practice conditions, it took them a dozen takes to get it straight. They should have waited and watched the 1990 Minnesota Twins, who Tuesday night in Boston became the first team in major league history to turn two triple plays in the same game. Third-to-second-to-first, naturally. In fact, the Twins had two more triple plays runs they lost to the Red Sox 1-0. The Twins followed that on Wednesday night by turning six double plays against Boston.

The Red Sox grounded into double plays in the each of the first five innings and became the sixth AL team to ground into six double plays, and the first since Milwaukee in 1984. By the way, the Twins also had two more our pitching staff." Staton has been promoted to Double-A Wichita (Kan.) and Sherman is sidelined by a strained right hip flexor muscle. "We're not going to win much swinging the bat like that," Riverside manager Bruce Bochy said. "We're not a home-run hitting club. We obviously need to put some guys in motion." Frank Bolick, a legitimate candidate for the California League triple crown, went 3-for-4, including a three-run homer, and drove in five runs.

Last year's triple crown winner, Ruben Gonzalez, had four hits and two RBI. And the list goes on. Bobby Jones, who sang the national anthem before the game, was 4-for-5 and hit his eighth home run. "If you're going to sing the national anthem, you better go 4-for-5," Spirit manager Keith Bodie said. Tony Manahan, whose solo homer produced the Spirit's first run, had three hits and scored four runs.

"I think right now we've got a lot of confidence at the plate," Manahan said. "Everybody wants to hit. And you need that because we play in a tough pitching league. That's what I heard at least." It was the fourth consecutive victory for San Bernardino, which reached .500 in the second half for the first time since June 23. The Spirit is 15-15 after the All-Star break and 54-47 overall.

The Red Wave, which began the week in first place in the Southern Division, also is 15-15 and tied with San Bernardino for third place, two games behind Visalia and Bakersfield. "We really needed this," Bodie said. "To go out and sweep the people in front of you. The thing is, every game we play counts now." It was 1-0, Riverside, for ph, 10 minutes or so. The rest was all San Bernardino.

With one out in the bottom of the first inning, Manahan homered to tie the game. After Bolick popped out, Jones singled, moved to second on a wild pitch and scored on Gonzalez's RBI single. In the second, San Bernardino took control. Evans retired the Red Wave in order and his teammates then, scored four runs to open a 6-1 lead. Bo-lick's three-run homer was the big hit.

With one out in the fourth, the Spirit put together five consecutive hits to push its lead to 9-1. Williams' two-out triple up the right-center gap made it 1 rout was on. Spirit note Brian Turing lifted his batting average above .300 with a 3-for-S night In Wednesday's 5-1 victory over Riverside. He was hitting .238 at the All-Star break, but since Is swinging at a .432 clip (48-tor-1 11). Turang said he hasn't made any major changes in the second halt.

"I Just beared down," Turang said. Happy with your first half, Brian? "Not even." A little better concentration In the second half maybe? "Definitely." Turang and Tim Stargell alternate between second base and the outfield, and with center fielder Tow Maynard sidelined by muscle cramps in his leg, Turang has moved into the leadoff spot. "He's been doing the job lor us all year," Manager Keith Bodie said. "All year." San Bernardino begins a 10-day, nine-game road trip tonight at Visalia, which entered Thursday's games tied with Bakersfield for the Southern Division lead. Scott Taylor (7-6) will pitch tonight against the Oaks.

SAN BERNARDINO Kelly Lifgren, Riverside's starting pitcher Thursday night, was hot the answer to the Red Wave's problems. For the Spirit, he would have been if it had any questions. Eight players drove in runs and Dave Evans turned in the pitching staffs latest strong start as the Spirit finished a four-game sweep of the Red Wave with a 15-3 victory before 2,661 at Fiscalini Field. Sweep? Naah. More like burial.

San Bernardino might never again see a series dominated in this manner. The Spirit outscored Riverside 31-6, which largely was a result of San Bernardino's 50-21 advantage in hits. The Red Wave did lead in strikeouts by batters, not pitchers. Riverside hitters struck out 42 times, including seven apiece by Greg Smith and Steve Bethea. Evans (9-7) went seven innings and gave up four hits.

He struck out seven, walked three and allowed only an unearned run. "After last night's game, I started thinking," said Evans, referring to Roger Salkeld's complete-game 5-1 victory. "Three complete games in a row? Without (Dave) Staton and Darrell (Sherman) in (Riverside's) lineup, that helps a lot. That's two tough outs. But still you have to give a lot of credit to double plays than runs they lost to the Red Sox 5-4.

"As a coach, when you're in that situation, you say 'Oh, run. Oh, That's all you can do," said Rac Slider, the Red Sox third-base coach. Soviet baseball team takes on area all-stars The Sun today's game and will be followed by fellow SBVC pitcher Robert Smith. SBVC's Jeff Slider is scheduled to start Saturday's game. Among the high, school players in the game are Fontana pitcher Jorge Valladoid, San Gorgonio pitcher Jason Kounas, Rim of the World infielder Chase Peckham and San Bernardino outfielder Art Cuellar.

Tickets for the exhibitions are $3 and are on sale at Stat Printing in San Bernardino or at the gate. For each ticket sold, $1 will go to the San Bernardino Kids' Against Crime organization. The Soviet National team is coming off two losses on Wednesday and three defeats in two nights. The Soviets lost to the Amarillo Texans, 12-2, and the Oklahoma City Collegians, 5-4, on Wednesday and to the Texans, a group of college-age players, 13-3, on Tuesday. The Soviets are 4-8 for their U.S.

tour after spending three weeks at Cocoa, the former spring training headquarters of the Houston Astros. FREE KZO'i ESS3SME ho had the best seat in the house for both 5 triple plays. J- "On the second one, I just said, 'Oh, no. Moon shot Jody Reed, who hit into the second of the record two triple plays turned by the Twins: v'We were the first. It's like landing on the moon." Plenty of elbow room Skip Caray, play-by-play man of the Atlanta J-Braves, took note of a crowd of 6,000 for a home 'game and said: "It's a partial sellout." subject Calvin Griffith, 285-pound former owner of Jlhe Minnesota Twins, to equally hefty former 'Twins first baseman Craig Kusick, who now leaches high school physical education: "You I-and I should attend some of your classes." 4 Turning to wood with age I- Jack Nicklaus, who used a 5-wood for the Tirst time in his career during his victory in the Senior Tournament Players Championship: J-'Tve now become a true senior." ir iSPORTS IN BRIEF Steinbrenner intends io stay in baseball NEW YORK New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, awaiting possible discipli-tnary action by baseball commissioner Fay Vin AND MUCH MOM WATCH ALL YOUR FAVORITE SPORTS LIVF, VIA supiR SYSTEMS -t rvpOv 71 FREE OFFER OOOUFOH V5 A super shoe for work or Xfe Pi3 I ALL THE CHANNELS I woted time only IMMtUlfllt WblRlXAIlUB I FROMMEXico OPMN 7 DA YS 9mm to 7pm Wt CAN iMMirwiTiini FIT YOU ate vnri, 1460 E.

Highland San Bernardino 886-1417 Come out and join the fun at the. REDLANDS CHILI C00K-0FF FIREMEN'S MUSTER July 21 University of Redlunds Quadrangle CALL (714) 793-2546 CteSportsored by Thr Rrdlandu Chamber of Commerce, RVdland Proffnional Firr Fightm, Budwrfw r. Roland Mrdiral (Irnup and The Sun is mm cent for his involvement with an admitted gambler, emphasized Thursday his determination to retain the once-great franchise. "They mean as much as anything besides my family and my health that I have," the powerful 60-year-old shipbuilder said in an interview. "There's only one.

There's only one New vr i 'W I'J 1 1 The Soviets begin their assault on San Bernardino today with the first of three basebajl games against area all-stars. Starting with the scheduled first pitch at 6:05 p.m. today at Fiscalini Field, the best the Soviets have to offer in baseball will be ending a tour through the United States that will take them to the Goodwill Games in Seattle. The series continues with 6:05 p.m. games Saturday and Sunday.

The San Bernardino team mainly made up of top Cal State San Bernardino, San Bernardino Valley College and select high school stars will include former Spirit players Leon Baham, Mike Brocki and Randy Harvey. SBVC baseball coach Stan Sanchez will manage the San Bernardino team. Ruben Montano, a pitcher from SBVC, will start Huckabaa wins District 43 title By CHUCK HICKEY Sun Sports' Writer SAN BERNARDINO Huckabaa Little League of Highland took a step where no previous Huckabaa or Highland teams have gone before winning the District 43 tournament. Right-handed pitcher Scott Bayless fired a complete-game two-hitter and went 2-for-3 at the plate with a three-run home run to lift Huckabaa to an 8-2 victory over Wildwood LL Thursday night at Por-terfield Field in Seccombe Park. "It feels great," said Huckabaa manager Ray Humpheries.

"These kids worked hard all tournament and deserve it." Huckabaa went unbeaten in the 14-team tournament, going 5-0 and only coming close to losing once, when it beat Newmark 5-2 in the semifinals. Wildwood, meanwhile, had to fight through the losers bracket to get to the championship game. It lost in the first round to Newmark, 4-3, and had to win five consecutive games to get to the title game. In order to win the tournament, Wildwood would have had to beat Huckabaa Thursday and again today in the double-elimination tournament. "These kids have nothing to be ashamed of," said Wildwood manager Larry Kennedy.

"We had to play all week after we lost our first game. We won a seven-inning game and have played just about every day. That's tough to do here. We're just tired." Bayless, whose homer snapped a scoreless tie in the third, had pitched two previous games for Huckabaa and both were complete-game shutouts. And he had a shutout working until the fifth when he gave up a pair of unearned runs and saw his scoreless-innings streak snap at 16 innings.

For the game, he walked two and struck out four. "He's pitched 18 innings in two weeks and he's used to only six a week," Humpheries said. "I was glad to see him give up a couple of runs then come back and bear down in the next inning." Wildwood had its chances in the fifth. With two runs in, the score 4-2 Huckabaa and the bases loaded with one out, No.4 hitter and right fielder Gabriel Rodriguez lined a shot to first baseman Kelvin Day. Day raised his glove, caught the ball and tagged out pitcher Ryan McGraw (four innings, five hits, one walk, four strikeouts), who was leaning off first base, for the inning-ending double play.

"I thought it was past him and the game was tied," Humpheries said. "1 don't see how he caught it." Said Kennedy: "The double play really hurt us. If it goes past him, we tie the game." Huckabaa, which added four runs in the fifth, will advance to the four-team Section 7 tournament in Yucaipa beginning July 30. Huckabaa will play the District 24 champion, which will come from the Riverside-Corona-Elsinore area. Huckabaa wins Junior League in District 43 The Sun SAN BERNARDINO Brian Duran pitched a complete-game four-hitter for Huckabaa Junior League as it downed Newmark Junior League 14-2 to win the District 43 championship at Huckabaa Field on Thursday.

The victory, coming on the heels of Wednesday's 7-5 loss to Newmark, completed a Huckabaa sweep of the District 43 little, junior and senior league tournaments. Huckabaa advances to the Section 7 Tournament, which they will host starting Monday against the District 58 champion (Palm Springs or Yucaipa). mi N'T MISS RIVERSIDE SAN BERNARDINO STORES Super Summer Sale 0 OFF Steinbrenner something special tabout the Yankees, and I feel deeply about '1 Vincent could force Steinbrenner to sell his majority interest in the Yankees or, more likely, suspend the controversial owner for paying $40,000 to admitted gambler Howie Spira while Ihe was investigating the David M. Winfield The commissioner is ponderin" Steinbren-Iner's fate at his Cape Cod home. A decision is Expected next week.

Royals may put Jackson on DL KANSAS CITY, Mo. Bo Jackson may be on the disabled list after medical tests Thursday indicated some minor tissue damage his left shoulder, the team announced. Rostagno upsets McEnroe again WASHINGTON DerrickRostagno, tanked 113th in the world, duplicated his first-Iround Wimbledon upset of last month on Thursday with a 6-3, 1-6, 6-1 victory over John McEnroe, the world's former No. 1 player, in the third of the Sovran Bank Classic. Cleveland State fires Mackey CLEVELAN Cleveland State fired basketball coach Kevin Mackey on Thursday, and lie will soon begin treatment for drug and alcohol abuse at a Houston center run by NBA player John Lucas.

Mackey was arrested July 14 as he and a drove away from a reputed drug house. A urinalysis revealed Mackey was drunk and he had cocaine in his system, takers, Clippers schedules released The Lakers will begin their 1990-91 NBA season in a nationally televised game at San Antonio on Nov. 3. The Lakers, who had the NBA's best regular-season record (63-19) in 1989-90 but lost to Phoenix in the Western Conference semifinals, play their home opener on Nov. 6, hosting the Portland Trail Blazers.

The Clippers will open their season at home Against the Sacramento Kings on Nov. 2. The Clippers will host the Golden State War-rlprs on Nov. 4, then those two teams play again at Golden State on Nov. 6.

BRIEFLY NOTED: Pitcher Mike Norrls, released by the Oakland Athletics this week, cleared waivers and became a free agent. Any (earn could have claimed Norris for the $1 waiver fee, but none did. He is now eligible to sign with any club. From Sun News Services ALL NEW OR USED GOLF CLUB SETS, GOLF BAGS AND GOLF SHOES IN STOCK THIS DOES NOT APPLY TO COUPON SPECIALS! HOWEVER, YOU'LL BE GIVEN THE LOWER OF THE TWO PRICES. moom mm SUNDAY, JULY 22nd, 10 A.M.-5 P.M.

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