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Monday's results SPRING TRAINING Seattle 6 Athletics 1B Sports Tehama Tracker Tuesday March 19, 2013 Mercy gets 'W' over LosMo at tourney MARYSVILLE RACEWAY CRASH 5 SEA — Ackley 2-4, 2 RBI OAK — Norris 2-3, 2 RBI Friday's results TRACK & FIELD North State Relays at Chico State Red Bluff Girls Results 4x100 Relay — listed as 2nd, 51.50 Joanna Smith Conrad Lily Brose Allison Winning Adrienne Hinkston 4x200 Relay — 1st, 1:49.85 Brose Winning Conrad Hinkston 4x400 Relay — 3rd, 4:17.1 Nicole Renfroe Taylor Wood Natalie Renfroe Laurel Shoop Sprint Medley 1,1,2, 400m — 1st, 1:52.46 Brose Winning Conrad Hinkston Shot Put 4kg — 2nd Kayla Thayer, 34'6.5 Discus 1 kg — 1st Thayer, 119'1 Red Bluff Boys Results 4x100 Relay — 2, 44.77 Dylan Schaible Michael Stone Blake Villa Stephen Hackstaff 4x200 Relay — 2nd, 1:34.07 Austin Torres Stephen Hackstaff Blake Villa Michael Stone 4x400 Relay — 2nd, 3:44.59 Greg Dufour David Gomez Austin Torres Sean Freeny Sprint Medley 1,1,2, 400m — 2nd, 1:40.31 Stone Villa Hackstaff Dufour High Jump — 2nd Austin Torres, 6'0 BASEBALL Paradise 7 Red Bluff 5 Jaime Gonzales 1-3, 1 RBI Walker Dodero 1-3, 1 RBI Today's games BASEBALL H Hayfork Mercy 3:30 p.m. Red Bluff Corning 7 p.m. Los Molinos University Prep 3:30 p.m. SOFTBALL H Hayfork Mercy 3:30 p.m. Los Molinos University Prep 3:30 p.m. TENNIS 3:30 p.m. Mercy Willows 3:30 p.m. Corning University Prep 3:30 p.m. NBA LA Clippers CSNC Kings 7 p.m. SPRING TRAINING Athletics LA Dodgers 1:05 p.m. Giants Seattle Probe looks at steering wheel SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Authorities are investigating whether a faulty steering wheel caused a California raceway crash that killed two people, including the young cousin of the teenage driver, officials said Monday. The Yuba County Sheriff's Department is looking into witness reports that the detachable steering wheel came off just before 17-year-old Chase Johnson's car careened off the dirt track and crashed into pit row Saturday evening, Undersheriff Jerry Read said. ''It's shaping up to look like a mechanical failure, but there's still work to be done,'' Read said of the ongoing investigation. Race car owner Dale Wondergem, 68, of Grass Valley and Marcus Johnson, 14, of Santa Rosa were killed by the collision at Marysville Raceway Park, officials said. Autopsies were scheduled Monday. The accident occurred when Chase Johnson and several other drivers were doing warm-up laps on opening day of the California Sprint Car Civil War Series. No one else was injured in the crash, authorities said. Marcus Johnson's father, Rob Johnson, said his nephew Chase told him the wheel detached from the steering column as he was heading into a corner at about 90 mph, according to KTVUTV. The car hit a sloped wall, launched into the air and crashed about 150 feet from the track, striking his son. Johnson said the car was brand new, so he believes the steering wheel's quick-release mechanism malfunctioned. ''He had no control of the car,'' Rob Johnson told KTVU-TV. ''I don't know how it could come off. He always double-checked it just to make sure it was down tight. He wasn't careless.'' Rob Johnson, who lives in Santa Rosa, said the two cousins were close friends, and Marcus had been helping Chase in the pits during races for three years. ''The two of them were just peas in a pod. They'd do everything together and enjoy every minute of life together,'' Johnson said. ''He was one of the sweetest boys you'll ever know.'' Friends and family gathered Sunday evening at Marcus Johnson's Santa Rosa middle school, where they remembered the eighth-grader as a passionate basketball player who loved racing cars. Almost all race cars have detachable steering wheels that drivers must take off each time they climb in and out of the cockpit, but it's extremely rare for them to come off by accident, said Ron Lingron, the track announcer at Petaluma Speedway who is a friend of the Johnson family. ''It's a very, very freak accident,'' Lingron said. ''When the steering wheel comes off, you have no control over a car going 90 miles per hour.'' Wondergem owned one of the race cars at the track Saturday, but not the one involved in the crash, Read said. Wondergem is a former sprint car driver who after retirement provided a race car for his son and then for another driver, said Bob Burbach, the announcer at the Marysville racetrack, who said he first met Wondergem 21 years ago. ''Wondergem was a racer in the purest sense of the word,'' Burbach told the Marysville Appeal-Democrat. ''I knew Dale personally as a kind, gregarious and positively motivated individual.'' The Wondergem family declined to comment to The Associated Press on Monday. Chase Johnson, a senior at Petaluma High School north of San Francisco, is an accomplished race car driver whose father, grandfather and great-grandfather were also champion drivers at the Petaluma Speedway, where Chase was last year's series champion. ''There are no words to express our sorrow. Our family has been racing for four generations and loves the sport that has now brought us so much pain,'' Don Johnson, the driver's father and victim's uncle, said in a statement on behalf of his family. The sprint car circuit, where small, high-powered vehicles race on short dirt ovals, is considered a stepping stone to higher level circuits like NASCAR. Many drivers start racing when they're as young as 15, as Chase Johnson did. Saturday's crash was the second fatal accident at the Marysville Raceway Park in three years. In August 2010, Merle Shepherd of Rio Linda was killed during the Big Rig Trucks exhibition when his truck collided with another vehicle. TENNIS Enterprise Red Bluff AP photo This Sunday photo shows the racetrack where a sprint car accident killed two people on Saturday at Marysville Raceway Park in Marysville. 7:05 p.m. Around town The Red Bluff Tritons swim team is holding tryouts for swimmers aged 5 to 18 on March 23 from 4 to 6 p.m. and March 24 from 10 a.m. to noon at the Physical Therapy and Wellness Center at 2498 S. Main St. Fees are $85 for the first swimmer, $75 for the second and $45 for any additional swimmers. Nadal buoyed by comeback, rests INDIAN WELLS (AP) — Rafael Nadal arrived at Indian Wells not believing he could win the tournament. A week later, the crystal trophy awarded to the champion was on the table next to him. Nadal has been busy picking up trophies since he returned from a left knee injury in early February. The Spaniard has won three tournaments, including two on his favorite clay surface, and been runnerup in another after missing seven months. ''I did much more than what I dreamed,'' he said after rallying to beat Juan Martin del Potro in three sets at the BNP Paribas Open on Sunday, his first hard-court tournament title since October 2010. ''Coming back is certainly something amazing for me, totally unexpected, and I received more support than ever from the crowd every place that I played.'' Nadal is cresting now after last summer's low point, when injury forced him to miss the London Olympics. He couldn't practice because of tendinitis in his knee and various treatments yielded little success. ''When you feel that you are doing everything and the results are not being very satisfactory, you go down a little bit. The doubt when and where you will be able to be back on a tennis tournament is hard,'' he said. ''When you are there and wake up every morning and test yourself and the test is negative, it's not the right feeling, that's not nice.'' Nadal tapes his leg just below his left knee during matches, and he's taking things day by day. He withdrew from this week's tournament near Miami — where he pulled out of his semifinal last year because of his knee — on the advice of doctors. He was told to go home and rest, and work on strengthening his quadriceps. He said he takes antiinflammatories nightly because of his knee, and AP photo Rafael Nadal poses with the BNP Paribas Open trophy after defeating Juan Martin del Potro Sunday at the in Indian Wells. hopes he can play without them shortly. He won't return to the ATP Tour until mid-April on clay in Monte Carlo. Nadal moved up one spot to No. 4 in this week's rankings, and Del Potro thinks he can consistently challenge the big three of Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Andy Murray soon. Nadal beat Federer in straight sets at Indian Wells. ''Rafa can do everything. Not many players can do that,'' Del Potro said. ''He's very strong mentally. His game is very good, very strong, very solid. He has big talent, as well. It's amazing how fast he's recovered the level.'' The Mercy Warriors softball team (2-4) beat the Los Molinos Bulldogs (1-6) 17-15 on Thursday. Mercy freshman Cheyanne Johnson led the Warriors by going 4 for 4 at the plate and batting in six. Johnson also added six runs. The Warriors are listed as losing to Redding Christian, 19-0, and Fall River, 15-4, at the tournament. The Bulldogs are listed as suffering an additional 17-7 loss to Quincy on Friday. JV Spartans baseball team stays undefeated The Red Bluff Spartans junior varsity baseball team remains undefeated (12-0) after starting its season with tournament wins in Redding, Chico and Oroville. At the Oroville tournament last week, Red Bluff beat Corning, Central Valley, Chico and Sutter. The winning pitchers were Eric Schrater, Harrison Dobson, Walker Dodero and Lane Pritchard. The JV Spartans next visit Corning at 4 p.m. today. BASKETBALL NCAA women's tourney has familiar feel The NCAA women's tournament will have a familiar feel. All four No. 1 seeds had the same spots last year. Baylor, Notre Dame, Connecticut and Stanford are the top seeds in the 64team field announced Monday night. It's the first time that the same four teams are top seeds in consecutive seasons. The Lady Bears are trying to become the fourth different school to win consecutive national championships, joining UConn, Tennessee and Southern California. Baylor's only loss this season came against Stanford and the two teams could meet in the Final Four for the second straight year. UConn and Notre Dame would face each other on the other side of the bracket. Those two schools could meet for the fourth time this season. Raiders sign DT Vance Walker The Oakland Raiders signed former Atlanta defensive tackle Vance Walker to a free-agent contract on Monday in the latest move to upgrade a depleted defense. Walker is the sixth defensive free agent signed by Oakland in the past week. He joins tackle Pat Sims and Jason Hunter on the line with linebackers Nick Roach, Kaluka Maiava and Kevin Burnett also added to the mix.