Airing It Out

La Selva Beach’s prodigious slugger Aaron Bates — who smacked a California League-record four home runs in a game last season — didn’t have a homer this season entering play Tuesday.

His homerless stretch ended with another record-setting outing. Bates hit a grand slam and drove in a franchise-record seven RBIs, as the Portland Sea Dogs, the Double-A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox, crushed the New Hampshire Fisher Cats 14-3.

The 24-year-old Bates, who played at Soquel High before transferring to Mitty, tied the Sea Dogs’ record for RBIs in a game with Chad Spann. Spann accomplished the feat Aug. 4, 2007.

Bates’ home run Tuesday came in his 26th game of the season — marking the longest duration for him to accomplish the feat since the third-year pro was drafted in the third round out of North Carolina State. According to minorleaguebaseball.com, Bates homered in his seventh pro game with short-season Lowell in 2006. Last year, he homered in his season debut with Advanced Single-A Lancaster.

Les Teuteberg, the California Pacific Conference player of the year, and the rest of Cal State University East Bay’s golf team earned at at-large berth to the NAIA championships Friday.

The 57th annual NAIA golf championships run May 13-16 at Indiana National Golf Club in Plymouth, Ind. On May 12, Teuteberg’s entered to compete in a local U.S. Open qualifer at CordeValle Golf Club in San Martin. No word yet on whether he be able to make the qualifer.

Teuteberg, formerly of Monte Vista Christian School and Cabrillo College, led all Cal Pac golfers with a 72.2 scoring average this season. He helped the Pioneers won the conference title for the first time in school history and place second in the NAIA Region II championships on April 22 at Terra Lago Golf Course in Indio. Teuterberg took third in the regional with a 218 total.

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/football/jets/2008/05/04/2008-05-04_jets_pick_dwight_lowery_film_buff.html

Nice article on New York Jets cornerback Dwight Lowery. His film study has been noted before, but this story really drives home the point.

On May 29, I will compete in the infamous Sausage Race at Miller Park in Wisconsin, home of the Milwaukee Brewers. Not sure which link I’ll be representing yet. The game that day against the Atlanta Braves won’t be broadcast regionally, so I’ll try to secure some video.

Needless to say, I’m more than overjoyed by the opportunity and intent on being first to cross the finish line. I haven’t done much in the way of training yet - maybe I need to visit recently crowned sprint champion Zeke Sanders of Santa Cruz High. But I spent a good portion of Sunday studying old sausage race film submitted to www.youtube.com.

This once-in-a-lifetime experience was made possible thanks to Brewers Vice President Jack Zduriencik, a man I met randomly while covering Aptos High’s baseball team at the National Classic in Los Angeles earlier this year.

Sentinel sports editor Ryan Phillips assigned me a story to follow a scout for a day. Zduriencik was in the right place, at the right time. At least that’s what I first thought. Turns out, I was in the right place at the right time.

At the end of the month, a friend and myself will fly to New York to help another friend complete a move to the West Coast. All we’re hauling is his second car. Cross county road trip! The three of us will hit up several parks along the way home, including the Shea Stadium in N.Y., Miller Park, Wrigley Field in Chicago and Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City.

Once hearing our itinerary, I send Zduriencik a special request to compete in the sausage race and he helped make it a reality. Well, a reality after I fill out the waiver form. Randall Simon is going to be anywhere around, so I feel pretty safe. Though I’m a little weary about how I’m going to keep that oversized foam costume from tipping me over. Anyway, wish me luck, because more than myself, I’m representing all of you. Hopefully none of the other entrants run like Zeke.

Indiana State shortstop Pascual Del Real, former of Soquel High and Cabrillo College, was 2-for-5 with two runs scored and three RBIs as the Shockers beat No. 7 Witchita State, 8-7 earlier in the week.

Del Real is batting .321, the third highest of any starter on the team. He has a share of the team lead with 12 doubles.

The Shockers have 11 games left before the start of the Missour Valley Conference Tournament. Indiana State (13-26 overall, 6-9) sits in seventh of nine teams in MVC play. Witchita State (33-11, 11-4) leads in the standings.

UNLV sophomore Eddie Olson, of Aptos, shot a 1-under 70 in the first round of the Mountain West Conference Tournament at Arizona National in Tucson, Ariz., Thursday.

Olson sits in a three-way tie for fourth place, three strokes behind leader Aaron Goldberg of San Diego State.  Olson was 3-under on par-5 scoring.

UNLV leads by two strokes over Texas Christian with a 3-under 281 total.

San Jose State All-American cornerback Dwight Lowery is making his third post-Pro Day interview this weekend. 

Lowery was in Cleveland meet with the Browns’ brass Friday night.

“There won’t be any field work,” said Kenny Champman of Sun West Sports. “This is what a typical visit looks like: check into the Hilton, tour the facility, meet the head scout and GM, get dinner and then meet some of the team.”

Lowery is also slated to meet with the San Francisco 49ers this Tuesday and Wednesday. He met with the New Orleans Saints on April 14 and, before that, with the San Diego Chargers.

Teams are looking at Lowery at cornerback and safety. The NFL Draft takes place April 26 and 27. The first two rounds will take place on Day 1 and the final five rounds on Day 2. Some analists say Lowery’s stock has dropped since he posted slow times in the 40-yard dash, but othesrpredict he’ll be chosen anywhere between the second to fourth round. 

Lowery pulled his hamstring prior to the NFL Combine in late February and posted a low of 4.54 seconds in one of two timed 40-yard dash sprints. Weeks later at Pro Day at San Jose State, Lowery ran a low of 4.52.

Other test results include a 38-inch vertical at Pro Day and a 10-2 broad jump at the combine.

After picking off 13 passes in 15 games at Cabrillo College, Lowery transferred to San Jose State. As a junior he picked off a school-record nine passes in a season. Last year, he had four picks. Opposing teams were well aware of the All-American’s ballhawk skills and attempted a pass to his side of the field approximately three times a game.

By Alastair Himmer

TOKYO (Reuters) - A Japanese high school pleaded for a regional game to be abandoned after surrendering 66 runs in less than two innings, local media reported on Thursday.

The coach of Kawamoto technical high school threw in the towel to spare his pitcher’s arm with his team losing 66-0 with just one batter out in the bottom of the second.

The hapless hurler had already sent down over 250 pitches, allowing 26 runs in the first inning and 40 in the second before Kawamoto asked for mercy.

“At that pace the pitcher would have thrown around 500 pitches in four innings,” Kawamoto’s coach was quoted as saying. “There was a danger he could get injured.”

Opponents Shunshukan were officially credited with a 9-0 victory, giving the scoreline a tinge of respectability for the luckless Kawamoto school.

Santa Cruz High’s 2007 Central Coast Section Small School Division championship team will play 10 road games next season.

The Cardinals are expecting to break ground on the “Rotary Memorial Track and Field” in late June or early July. Nearly 80 percent of the $2.2 million needed for the project has been raised.

Santa Cruz has only four home games slated for next season and the school is hoping to secure a nearby facility to play those games. Among those discussed? Harvery West Park, a site where Santa Cruz used to play. 

Among the upgrades to the field area, a new eight-lane, 400-meter track and a new sythetic surface field, which will be used for soccer, football and lacrosse.