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Wednesday Softball — Red Bluff at Pleasant Valley, 4 p.m. MLB— Marlins at Cubs, 11:10 a.m., WGN MLB — Yankees at Tigers, 4 p.m. MLB — Athletics at Rangers, 5 p.m., CSNCA MLB—Padres at Giants, 7 p.m., CSNBA NHLPlayoffs — Canadians at Penguins, 4 p.m., VERSUS Sports 1B Wednesday May 12, 2010 Spartans golf team wins Division I title Daily News photo by Rich Greene The Red Bluff Spartans golf team poses with their Northern Section Division 1 Championship plaque, Tuesday, at Tierra Oaks. From top left: Bryan Benton, Shane Graham, Brad Patchen, Drew Wagner, Peter Mitzel and Daniel Frantz. By RICH GREENE DN Sports Editor REDDING — If this is a slump, the Northern Section better watch out. The Red Bluff Spartans captured the Division 1 title, Tuesday, at Tier- ra Oaks despite many of the Spartans saying afterward they were playing poorly. The Spartans won the Eastern Ath- letic League title last week and with Tuesday’s performance qualified for the Northern Section Championships to be played May 18 at Fall River Valley Golf and Country Club. While it was hard to contain their excitement over the team accom- plishment, individually each Red Bluff golfer said they could have per- formed better. “I’d feel better if I played better, but it’s exciting to move on,” Drew Wagner said. Wagner shot an 86. Teammate Bryan Benton shared similar thoughts. “I feel like I’m slumping more than anyone,” said Benton who fired an 87. A combination of youth and expe- rience, Wagner and Benton are two of four seniors the Spartans used for their six-man team on Tuesday. The other two members were freshmen, including EAL individual champion Daniel Frantz. There was no individual title for Frantz on Tuesday — his 79 was two shots back of Pleasant Valley’s Jessie Stephens and Chico’s Davis Rich — but the freshman said the pressure of playing in championship tournaments hasn’t bothered him much on the course. “On the first tee, maybe, but other than that we’re confident,” Frantz said. “You gotta’ work hard on your game and the harder you work the more confidence you gain on the course.” Fellow freshman Peter Mitzel had another consistent round and shot an 85 for the second lowest Spartans round. Brad Patchen and Shane Graham said they don’t mine sharing the spot- light with a couple of freshmen and that Frantz and Mitzel’s contributions have only helped lead to a more exciting senior year. “We win more than the football team,” Graham joked. “It’s exciting we’re playing bad and we’re still winning.” Although Red Bluff won the cham- pionship by six strokes over Chico — it was a lot closer than the final scoreboard indicated. Red Bluff and Chico’s Top 4 golfers tied with combined scores of 337. With the sixth score thrown out for all teams it was Patchen’s 92, that made the difference. Pleasant Valley was seven back with a 436. Foothill was fourth, fol- lowed by Lassen and then Central Valley. All three teams qualified for the section championships as did the next four highest individual scores — Enterprise’s Taylor Greenhood, Shas- ta’s Nick Schwabauer and Foothill’s Calvin Noetzel and Trey Butler. Now if only the Spartans could break out of their slump in time for Fall River. “I think the courses are getting harder and we’re not really practicing any harder than we did (at the start of the year),” Patchen said. Fortunately another week of prac- tice, along with the hardware, is one thing the Spartans have earned so far. “It’s nice to move on and keep going,” Benton said. Daily News photo by Rich Greene Drew Wagner watches his putt drop in on the 18th hole,Tuesday. Lady Spartans clinch EAL softball title with 6-2 win The 2010 Lady Spartans just accom- plished something last season’s section championship team didn’t do — win an Eastern Athletic League title. Red Bluff’s 6-2 road win at Chico, Tuesday, wrapped up the EAL title and the No. 1overall seed in the section playoffs — although the Spar- tans playoff hopes took a devas- tating blow over the weekend. Second baseman Haley Har- ris injured herself during an AAU basketball game and her status for the rest of the season is unknown. The freshman was leading the Spartans with a .430 batting average. The injury prompted coach J Howell to shake up his line- up against Chico with four Spar- tans moving to new positions. On Tuesday his girls respond- ed well to a challenge to have everyone step up and do a little bit more. Seven of the nine Spartans’ starters had base hits. It started early with a pair of Red Bluff runs in the first inning. Megan McColpin and Brit- tany Fletcher hit back-to-back singles with one out to set up an RBI single from Bryce Etzler. Danisha Slay drew a walk to load the bases and then Kym Perino, pinch running for Fletch- er, used her speed to score on a Krista Rodriguez grounder to the shortstop. Red Bluff struck for two more runs in the fourth inning. Haley Matheson struck out, but hustled to first on a dropped third strike. The Chico catcher’s throw was off target and Mathe- son wound up on second. Jerilynn Purcell then traded places with her with an RBI double to right center and Emily McEnaney drove in Purcell with an RBI double of her own. Chico came back with two runs of their own in the fourth inning to cut the Spartans lead to 4-2 With two outs in the seventh inning, Fletcher worked a full- count walk, in what Howell described as a really good quali- ty at bat. It proved key as Etzler then singled, which set up RBI sin- gles from Slay and Rodriguez to push the Spartans lead back up to four runs. Chico got two baserunners on in the seventh inning, but McColpin eventually shut the door for a complete game that clinched the league title as the Spartans improved to 11-1 in the EAL. Red Bluff has a pair of games left in the regular season — today at Pleasant Valley and then at home on Friday against Oroville. “The big focus will be on get- ting new kids playing new posi- tions,” Howell said. The Spartans will have that flexibility in two games where the pressure of wrapping up the No. 1 seed has been removed. “It was nice to that accom- plished early in the week,” How- ell said.