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Tehama Tracker 1B Thursday February 27, 2014 Sports Today's schedule GIRLS BASKETBALL PLAYOFFS No. 6 Foothill at No. 3 Red Bluff, 7 p.m. BOYS BASKETBALL PLAYOFFS No. 8 Mercy at No. 1 Chester, 7 p.m. NHL San Jose at Philadelphia, 4 p.m. Sports on TV GOLF 6 a.m. TGC — European PGA Tour, Tshwane Open, first round, at Centurion, South Africa (same-day tape) 11 a.m. TGC — PGA Tour, The Honda Classic, first round, at Palm Beach Gar- dens, Fla. 7:30 p.m. TGC — LPGA, HSBC Women's Champions, second round, at Singapore MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL Noon WGN — Preseason, Chicago Cubs vs. Arizona, at Mesa, Ariz. MEN'S COLLEGE BASKETBALL 4 p.m. ESPN — Arkansas at Kentucky ESPN2 — Ohio St. at Penn St. FS1 — Charlotte at East Carolina 5 p.m. ESPNU — Green Bay at Oakland NBCSN — Duquesne at Saint Louis 6 p.m. ESPN — Iowa at Indiana ESPN2 — Temple at Louisville FS1 — Georgetown at Marquette 7 p.m. ESPNU — Gonzaga at Pacific 8 p.m. ESPN2 — Oregon at UCLA FS1 — Oregon St. at Southern Cal NBA BASKETBALL 5 p.m. TNT — New York at Miami 7:30 p.m. TNT — Brooklyn at Denver SOCCER 10 a.m. FS1 — UEFA Europa League, Napoli at Swansea Noon FS1 — UEFA Europa League, Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk at Tottenham AP photo Novak Djokovic of Serbia returns the ball to Spain's Roberto Bautista-Agut during the third day of the Dubai Tennis Championships in Dubai, United Arab Emirates on Wednesday. A's open Cactus League play with win SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP) — Josh Reddick made two highlight-reel catches to take away homers from Michael Morse, Brandon Moss and Stephen Vogt each drove in two runs during a six-run fourth inning against San Francisco closer Sergio Romo, and the Oakland Athletics opened Cac- tus League play with a 10-1 victory over the Giants on Wednesday. ''We were getting challenged right away,'' said Reddick, who also drove in a run. ''That first one got my heart pump- ing a little bit.'' Morse hit the ball hardest of any Giant starter without anything to show for it. In his first two at-bats, in the second and the fourth, he hit drives that were headed over the fence in right field but Reddick reached over the wall to catch both. Yoenis Cespedes also drove in two runs as the A's won their first spring opener in three years and their second in 10 years. Alberto Callapso, John Jaso and Michael Taylor also drove in runs. Sam Fuld and Nick Punto each added two hits. Pablo Sandoval drove in a run for the Giants. Yusmeiro Petit took the loss, allowing four runs — three earned — on five hits in one inning. STARTING TIME Athletics: Jesse Chavez allowed a hit and struck out a bat- ter in two innings. Chavez was 2-4 with 3.92 ERA in 35 games, all in relief, for the A's last year. A's manager Bob Melvin loves his versatility out of the bullpen and thinks he could start a game or two. Giants: Petit, 4-1 with a 3.56 ERA in eight games — seven starts — last year, threw strikes but just got too much of the plate. TRAINER'S ROOM A's OF Craig Gentry will miss at least 10 more days to help him recover from a lower back strain. Jaso caught in a game for the first time since sustaining a concussion last July. He singled and was hit by a pitch and left after the top of the third. ''It hit just above the right elbow,'' Jaso said. ''I thought I would get four or five innings bit after that happened, Melvin made the call.'' THE CATCHES Reddick made two sensational catches, each time robbing Morse of home runs. Reddick said the first one, in which he climbed the 10-foot fence in right field to snag a ball that was clearly over the fence, was the best he's ever made. ''I don't know how I did it,'' Reddick said. ''When I got to the fence and climbed it, I looked back and the ball was already two feet over my head. I was lucky enough to get my glove on it.'' After the second one, which was similar, Morse raised his arms in disbelief: ''I was like, 'I thought we were friends.' I know Reddick and he takes his defense so seriously,'' Morse said. Fuld, who made his own running, over-the-shoulder catch in center field, was also impressed. ''I'm pretty sure that's the best play I've ever seen live and then it just got wacky with the second one. You'll never see that again.'' PABLO TALK Giants president and CEO Larry Baer said the team is open-minded to talking long-term contract with infielder Pablo Sandoval. ''On opening day, if Pablo doesn't have a long-term deal it doesn't mean he's not going to be a Giant. There have been no discussions yet. We want to let Pablo get acclimated and then the evaluation starts. We've got the month of March. We'll see.'' Jason Collins jersey sells well NEW YORK (AP) — Jason Collins hasn't even worn his No. 98 jersey in a game yet, and already it's a big seller. Collins had four of the top five selling jersey items Wednesday on NBAStore.com, the day the NBA's first openly gay player was to wear the jersey in a game for the first time at Portland. His home and road replica jerseys, the women's replica road jersey and the men's T-shirt with num- ber on it were top in their categories. A LeBron James item led the fifth category. A league spokesperson says Collins' items were No. 1 in those four categories. He wore No. 46 on Sunday against the Los Angeles Lakers because his preferred number wasn't available yet. Collins picked No. 98 in tribute to Matthew Shepard, who was killed in 1998 in a gay hate crime. The league doesn't provide the number of jerseys sold. Federer, Djokovic reach Dubai quarterfinals DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Defending champion Novak Djokovic needed less than an hour to advance at the Dubai Championships on Wednesday, while Roger Federer faced a strug- gle to seal his place in the quarterfi- nals. Top-seeded Djokovic swept to a 6-1, 6-3 win over 51st-ranked Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain in just 57 minutes, but fourth-seeded Federer had to see off a serious challenge from 48th-ranked Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic before coming through 6-2, 6-7 (4), 6-3. ''I have done really well today from the first to the last point,'' Djokovic said. ''There was no major ups and downs, especially with the serve that helped me to win comfortably my service games, a lot of free points.'' In the first set, Djokovic raced to a 5-0 lead before Bautista Agut held serve to win his only game in the set. The only hiccup Djokovic had in the second set was when serving for the match at 5-2. He dropped his serve in that game but broke serve in the next to close out the match. Djokovic will play sixth-seeded Mikhail Youzhny, who beat British wildcard recipient James Ward 6-1, 7-6 (3). Federer came into his two hour, eight minute match with a 12-2 winning record over Stepanek. He's now won their last nine meetings dating back to the 2008 Rome quar- terfinals. ''I got broken four times which is difficult, but it's good to win those type of matches,'' said Feder- er, who faced eight break points against his serve. ''I'm happy to get through. ''It didn't look good there for a while, but I got it done.'' Federer handled the first set with confidence, but started to falter as Stepanek became more aggressive in the second set. Federer managed to rebound from 4-2 down in the second set to force a tiebreaker — where Stepanek raced into a 6-2 and a first set point when Federer double faulted. Stepanek won the set on his third set point when Federer netted a forehand. Stepanek also took an early 2-0 lead in the third set, but Federer rebounded to go ahead 5-2 to serve for the match. Federer's serve was broken when he double faulted in the eighth game. Stepanek, however, surrendered his serve in the next game to allow Federer to move into the quarterfi- nals. He'll now face another Czech player in Lukas Rosol, who upset eighth-seeded Dmitry Tursunov of Russia 6-4, 7-6 (4). ''Today was quite frustrating,'' Federer said. ''I had momentum on my side at the beginning, but it was tough to keep it going. ''After the first set I was under pressure the entire match.'' Like Djokovic, third-seeded Tomas Berdych had an easy path to the quarterfinals with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine. Berdych, who will face fifth- seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the quarterfinals, has won his last eight matches. Despite Berdych having trouble with his first serve — his percent- age was a ghastly 37 percent — he controlled the match. He lost his serve once, and won 12 of the last 14 points. ''I was working a little more on my return stats than on my service stats,'' Berdych said. ''The main focus really for the next days is to get my percentage of the first serve back and really find a nice and sweet rhythm for my serve.'' Tsonga won his second-round match by walkover when his oppo- nent, Nikolay Davydenko, with- drew with a rib injury. Seventh-seeded Philipp Kohlschreiber was a 6-3, 6-3 win- ner over Andrea Seppi of Italy. Kohlschreiber will play Tunisian wild card Malek Jaziri, who beat Somdev Devvarman of India 6-3, 7- 5. BOYS BASKETBALL The No. 8 Mercy Warriors downed No. 9 American Christ- ian, 68-60 at home Tuesday in the first round of the Northern Sec- tion CIF Division VI playoffs. Mercy's Teddy Ranberg led the Warriors in scoring with 26 points. Reid Gardner scored 16 points and grabbed 4 rebounds. Adil Syed tallied 10 points and four steals. William Gentry scored eight points, Brandon Gorden finished with five points and Tommy Gar- cia scored three points and grabbed nine rebounds. Mercy will travel to No. 1 Chester at 7 p.m. today for a quarterfinal. PREP ROUNDUP Bags banned at Boston Marathon BOSTON (AP) — This year's Boston Marathon will have a ''no bags'' policy as part of stepped-up security following last year's deadly bombing, the Boston Athletic Association announced Wednesday. Marathon runners typically are allowed to bring bags or backpacks to keep personal items. Those bags are bused between the starting line in Hopkinton and the finish line in Boston. But this year, runners will not be allowed to bring backpacks or bags, which will also not be allowed in certain areas near the start or finish line, or along the 26.2-mile course. Runners will be given a chance to check gear on Boston Common on the morning of the marathon to allow them to have a change of clothing at the end of the race. The athletic association said it will provide clear plastic bags for that purpose. Twin bombs placed in backpacks near the 2013 fin- ish line killed three people and injured more than 260. Prosecutors say two spectators were responsible. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 20, is awaiting trial and faces the possibility of the death penalty on 30 federal charges, including using a weapon of mass destruc- tion. His brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, died following a gun battle with police several days after the marathon. The Boston bombing prompted stepped-up securi- ty and stricter rules at marathon events that followed. State, local and federal law enforcement officials have been meeting for months to prepare a stringent security plan for this year's April 21 marathon. The new rules were outlined in an email sent by the athletic association to registered runners. The BAA said unregistered runners, known as ''bandits,'' who traditionally jump into the race at var- ious points along the course, will be strictly prohibit- ed this year. ''Anyone on the course for any distance who has not been assigned, or is not displaying, an officially issued bib number from the B.A.A. is subject to inter- diction,'' the association said in its email. Runners were told they cannot bring backpacks or any similar item carried over the shoulder or handbags of any size. Those items will be prohibited from all marathon venues, including along the course, near the start or finish areas and at all official marathon events. Glass containers and any container larger than one liter will also be banned. The list of prohibited items for runners also includes strollers, suitcases and rolling bags, weight vests or any type of vest with pockets, except for lightweight running vests, which will be allowed. Props, including sporting equipment, military and fire gear, and signs or flags larger than 11 inches by 17 inches are also prohibited. The BAA said runners will be allowed to wear small fanny packs to carry food, medicine, identifica- tion, cellphones or other necessary small items. They can also bring water bottles, but they must be one liter or smaller. Organizers are discouraging runners from wearing headphones, but they will be permitted.