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Wednesday NBAPlayoffs — Suns at Lakers, 6 p.m., TNT MLB— Rays at Yankees, 4 p.m., ESPN MLB— Giants at Diamondbacks, 6:30 p.m., CSNBA MLB— Tigers at Athletics, 7 p.m., CSNCA Cycling — Tour of California, 2 p.m., VERSUS Sports 1B Wednesday May 19, 2010 Kings and queens of diamonds Daily News photo by Rich Greene Scott Avery is mobbed by teammates following Tuesday’s semifinal. Daily News photo by Chip Thompson Bryce Etzler surprises Kym Perino and Megan McColpin with a leap. Red Bluff baseball and softball reach section finals Spartans blast Shasta 11-0; one win away from school’s first baseball title since 1999 By RICH GREENE DN Sports Editor REDDING — Despite identical league records and the Spartans beat- ing Shasta twice during the regular season, the Wolves were given a higher playoff seed and home field advantage for Tuesday’s Northern Section Division 1 baseball semifi- nal. Perhaps the formula used forgot to take into account on the field play. Red Bluff earned a trip to Satur- day’s Northern Section Final at Butte College with an 11-0 hammering of Shasta. Pitching on three days rest, Scott Avery allowed just three hits in five innings and Trevor Gipson followed him with two more shutout innings. Derek Jones led the game off by taking four consecutive balls. He’d end up with four walks by the end. Behind him EJ Stanton picked up two hits, Cody Gappa had two dou- bles and Austin Brownfield drove in three runs against Shasta pitchers Colby McNabb and Cody Loe. “We don’t listen to the talk. We back it up with how we play and we showed that today,” Gappa said. After Jones led off the game with a walk, Stanton singled and then Gappa drove in Jones with his first of two doubles after battling back from an 0- 2 count. Avery then hit a ball to shortstop Mike Lauritzen that was misplayed, allowing Stanton to score. Two batters later Jordan Fox drove in a third Red Bluff run on a fielder’s choice. Shasta loaded the bases in their half of the first inning, but with two outs Avery got Bryson Schreder to groundout to Stanton at shortstop and the threat was over. Shasta wouldn’t get that close to scoring again until the seventh inning. The Spartan bats weren’t done. In the third inning with one down, Avery singled, then Maison Etzler reached on an infield error. With Avery at third base, Fox put down a perfect squeeze bunt to score him. Brownfield then ripped an RBI double dotting the right field line to bring home Etzler and the Spartans were up 5-0. Trevor Miller opened up the fourth inning with a single. Jones then took another one of his four free passes and Stanton moved both runners over with a sacrifice bunt. The Wolves intentionally walked Gappa to load the bases. Avery smashed a ball to Dallas Chadwick at third base, that bounced off a glove and into left field allow- ing Miller to score. Etzler fol- lowed with a sacrifice fly to left field to score Jones. Already up 7- 0, Red Bluff put up four more runs in the final inning. Etzler and Fox took back- to-back walks then advanced on a wild pitch. Brownfield scored them both on an sin- gle. Dante Garaventa, pinch running for Brownfield, scored later in the inning on a Stanton single. Gappa capped the scoring with an RBI double. Shasta speedster Camren Harris opened up the seventh inning with a walk, stole second base and moved to third on a passed ball. Lauritzen grounded to third and showing how much the Spartans wanted the shutout, Gappa elected to throw home and Brownfield hung onto the ball to nail Harris at the plate. “I had an easy play (at the plate),” Gappa said. The Spartans will take on Pleasant Valley at 3 p.m. Saturday at Butte College. Top-seeded Pleasant Valley beat Foothill 8-6 in Tuesday’s other semi- final. The Spartans and Vikings met three times this season, with Pleasant Valley winning two of the meetings. Both teams scored 11 runs in the three games. The last meeting between the two went 10 innings, before Pleasant Val- ley prevailed 7-6 on May 5. The Vikings only losses of the sea- son have come against Shasta, Green Mountain of Colorado and the Spar- tans, who handed them their first of the year in a 5-1 win in Red Bluff. “The butterflies are going to be going,” Red Bluff outfielder Cliff Dais said. “It’s going to be a high intense game.” Red Bluff coach Joe Gallaty was- n’t going to let the score of Tuesday’s semifinal game inflate his Spartans’ egos. “We played well today, but we can still get better,” he said before rat- tling off a list of improvements, one for almost every run the Spartans scored on Tuesday. Besides another hard week of the practice, the Spartans will have the anticipation of Saturday to deal with. “I’ll be nervous. I’ll be thinking about it, but I’ll be prepared,” Gappa said. Daily News photo by Rich Greene Cliff Dais makes an acrobatic catch in foul territory during the second inning of Red Bluff’s 11-0 win at Shasta. Lady Spartans shutout Shasta 5-0 in semis; seek back-to-back championships Saturday By RICH GREENE and CHIP THOMPSON So many under- classmen, but yet so much experi- ence. The Lady Spar- tans are headed for their third straight Northern Section title game following a 5-0 win over Shasta Tuesday. They’ll also be looking for back-to-back titles. Megan McColpin struck out six Lady Wolves and once again shutout Shasta during another strong perfor- mance on the mound for Red Bluff. Her teammates didn’t wait long to get her the run support she needed. Brittany Fletcher opened up the second inning with a single. Then with two outs Krista Rodriguez and Jerilynn Purcell hit back-to-back doubles and Red Bluff had a 3-0 lead. In the fourth inning following a Rodriguez walk, Purcell reached on a fielder’s choice. Emily McEnaney and McColpin then hit back-to-back doubles to give Red Bluff a 5-0 lead. Shasta threatened in the fifth inning and even loaded the bases, but McColpin induced a groundout back to her to get out of the jam. “Another team’s really going to have to play well to beat us,” coach J Howell said following the game. The team that will get the opportu- nity is Chico, who handled Pleasant Valley in Tuesday’s other semifinal. Saturday’s championship game is set for 2 p.m. at Red Bluff High School. Chico did beat Red Bluff once this season, on March 20 at the Lassen Tournament during an 8-inning game. It was Red Bluff’s third game of the day. Since then Red Bluff has handed Chico three losses, twice in league play and a third at the Anderson Tournament. Second baseman Haley Harris returned Tuesday, from an ankle injury and went 2-for-3 with a dou- ble. “Haley’s going to give you every- thing she has and there’s no way I’m not putting her on the field,” Howell said, who credited the Wellness Cen- ter for getting his freshman star back into playing condition. But it was McColpin, who Howell tipped his hat too following the semi- final win. In her last 28 innings pitched, opponents have been held scoreless during 27 of them.