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Friday Baseball — Corning at Yreka, 4 p.m. Baseball — Quincy at Los Molinos, 4 p.m., DH Baseball — Red Bluff at Lassen, 4 p.m. Softball — Red Bluff at Lassen, 4 p.m. Softball — Quincy at Los Molinos, 4 p.m., DH Track — Red Bluff at Yreka Invitational Sports 1B Friday April 29, 2011 Spartans cruise to league title TENNIS By RICHGREENE DNSports Editor The Spartans wrapped up a span of three matches in three days with a third win, Thursday, shutting down visiting Paradise 9- 0. Thursday’s shutout followed huge wins over Pleasant Valley and Foothill as the Spartans locked up the Eastern Athletic League-South title. Paradise offered a lighter chal- lenge and coach Stan Twitchell elected to rest top players Thunder Shaffer and Cody Yarbrough and move everyone up two spots in the ladder. C.J. Varner defeated Dillion Garcia 6-2, 7-5. Paul Hendricks beat Tim Wion 6-0, 6-0. Arthur Germano handled Greg Christie 6-0, 6-0. Aaron Vasey beat Andrew Kaye 6-0, 6-1. Bernhard Toth defeated Dylan Cranton 6-0, 6-3 and Davis Palubeski beat Jordan Steche 6- 1,6-0. Daily News photo by Rich Greene Red Bluff’s Arthur Germano gets set to serve,Thursday, against Paradise. In double play Hendricks and Germano beat Garcia and Wion 10-6. Newton goes 1st; 49ers draft Aldon Smith NEW YORK (AP) — Cam New- ton's selection as the No. 1 pick was perhaps the only predictable element of this most unusual NFL draft. While the league's labor dispute played out in the courts, and the com- missioner struggled to speak over a howling crowd chanting "We want football," the draft got under way Thursday night with a few surprises. Newton was not one of them. The Auburn quarterback and Heis- man Trophy winner went to the Caroli- na Panthers —the worst team in the league — and vowed to immediately fix that. Newton led Auburn to an undefeated season and its first national championship since 1957. "I'm ready to change this whole organization around, to go from worst to first," he said. "Just being a Panther is the most special part about this." Not so special but certainly unusual was Commissioner Roger Goodell get- ting booed as he prepared to conduct a moment of silence for victims of the devastating storms that ripped through the South. He responded to their chants for football by saying, "I hear you. So do I." Then he was bear-hugged by a play- er who is suing the league. With the second pick, Denver took Texas A&M linebacker Von Miller, a plaintiff in the antitrust lawsuit players filed to block the lockout. He strode across the stage with tears in his eyes and embraced Goodell. With the third pick, Buffalo selected Alabama nose tackle Marcell Dareus, who gave Goodell an even bigger hug. Cincinnati, perhaps calling the bluff of quarterback Carson Palmer, who is demanding a trade, instead took the top receiver in this crop, A.J. Green of Georgia. Arizona, also in need of a quarter- back, selected the top cornerback avail- able, Patrick Peterson of LSU. The labor strife caused speculation not many trades would be made Thurs- day. But just six picks in, Atlanta cut a massive deal with Cleveland and moved up from No. 27 to grab Alaba- ma receiver Julio Jones — the fifth Southeastern Conference player in the first six. The Browns received the Falcons' first-rounder, second- and fourth- rounders, plus their first pick and fourth-rounder in 2012. San Francisco chose defensive end Aldon Smith of Missouri to bolster a weak pass rush, then the second quar- terback was selected: Washington's Jake Locker to Tennessee. That began a small run on passers. After Dallas went for offensive tackle Tyron Smith of Southern California with the ninth pick, Jacksonville saw a chance to get its future quarterback. The Jaguars moved up six slots for Missouri's Blaine Gab- bert, dealing their first-round pick and a second-rounder to Washington. Houston bolstered its weak defense Vasey and Curtis Twitchell shut out Christie and Kaye 10-0 and Palubeski and Eddie Samay defeated Cranton and Steche 10-1. Twitchell said the two main reasons for the Spartans success in 2011 has been their depth and the players’ positive attitude toward practice. “They want to get better, which makes it real easy to coach,” he said. The Spartans were already poised to be a deep team with the amount of returners they had, but the addition of Shaffer, a freshmen brought the ladder to new strengths. Shaffer won a challenge match to take over the No. 1 singles spot and hasn’t looked back — com- peting against the EAL’s elite match in and match out. “I just try to do my best if I know I’m going to lose or not I just try to get the most out of it with experience,” Shaffer said. Last year’s No. 1 Yarbrough dropped down to the 2-slot and Twitchell said he’s continued to play great tennis and has been get- ting stronger through the season. The depth showed itself Wednesday as the Spartans won five of six singles matches against Foothill to clinch the match even before doubles started. Red Bluff is 9-2 on the season. They travel to Chico on Tuesday. Red Bluff Pro-Am reaches 20 years GOLF In it’s 20 years, the Red Bluff Pro-Am has made a bit of a reputation for itself. It’s a fun, but challenging tournament loved by both pro- fessionals and amateurs and above all else — it’s well ran. “It’s a great tournament, great course and the way it’s ran —we have a blast,” 2009 champion Dan Scott said. Action begins at Wilcox Oaks on Saturday with an open- ing day 3-person horse race. The Pro-Am Competition tees off Sunday at 8 a.m. with the second and final round taking place on Monday. One change this year from recent tournaments that has the professionals excited is the strong possibility of great weather. With an already notorious Back 9, taking the weather out of the equation should help the pros as much as it does the amateurs. Scott said knowing the difficulty of the Back 9 before hand is a benefit to golfers — the real trap to the tournament may be those other holes. “This Front 9 is so side open you actually kind of lose concentration a little bit,” he said. Scott is considered one of the favorites this year, as is defending champion Dave Carr, from Teal Bend in Sacra- mento. MCT file photo The 49ers selected Aldon Smith in the 1st Round,Thursday. with Wisconsin end J.J. Watt at No. 11 before yet another QB was chosen: Florida State's Christian Ponder, who impressed Minnesota with his work- outs leading up to the draft. Auburn DT Nick Fairley, once pro- jected as a top-three selection, was cho- sen 13th by the Lions. It was a head- scratcher because the Lions already have a star defensive tackle in Ndamukong Suh, the 2010 defensive rookie of the year. St. Louis, undeterred by Robert Quinn's lost season — the linebacker- end was suspended from North Caroli- na for his role in an agents scandal — took him at No. 14. Mike Pouncey, whose twin brother, Maurkice, was a sensational rookie center for Pittsburgh last year, was cho- sen by Miami to play the same posi- tion. After moving down to No. 16, Washington took Purdue LB Ryan Kerrigan. Cleveland traded again, from No. 27 to 21st for Baylor DT Phil Tay- lor, with Kansas City sliding to 27th. New England addressed concerns about protecting Tom Brady by taking Colorado tackle Nate Solder, and archrival Indianapolis safeguarded Peyton Manning by selecting Boston College tackle Anthony Castonzo. Former firefighter and hockey play- er Danny Watkins went to Philadel- phia. The Canadian guard from Baylor apologized to Giants fans in the audi- ence who booed him for going to the rival Eagles. Watkins was told to get used to such treatment in New York. Baltimore passed after using all 10 minutes at No. 26 and Kansas City, in the next slot acquired through Atlanta and Cleveland, swooped in. The Chiefs got Pitt wide receiver Jonathan Bald- win while the Ravens still pondered their pick. Mark Ingram, the 2009 Heisman Trophy winner, went 28th overall to New Orleans, which traded with New England to get the spot. The Saints sur- rendered a 2012 first-rounder for the Alabama running back, giving them two Heisman winners in their backfield — sort of. Reggie Bush won the award in 2005, but he relinquished it after an NCAA probe found he accepted improper gifts while playing at South- ern California. Super Bowl champion Green Bay concluded the 31⁄2-hour first round by taking Mississippi State tackle Derek Sherrod. Scoreboard MLB American League Thursday’s results Boston 6, Baltimore 2 Cleveland 8, Kansas City 2 New York 12, Chicago 3 Seattle 7, Detroit 2 Tampa Bay 15, Minnesota 3 Tampa Bay 6, Minnesota 1 Toronto 5, Texas 2 Today’s games Texas (C.Wilson 3-0) at Oakland (Cahill 3-0), 7:05 p.m. Detroit (Scherzer 4-0) at Cleveland (J.Gomez 0-1), 4:05 p.m. Toronto (R.Romero 1-3) at New York (F.Garcia 1-0), 4:05 p.m. Los Angeles (E.Santana 0-3) at Tampa Bay (Price 3-2), 4:10 p.m. Seattle (Vargas 0-2) at Boston (Matsuzaka 2-2), 4:10 p.m. Baltimore (Arrieta 2-1) at Chicago (Danks 0-3), 5:10 p.m. Minnesota (S.Baker 1-2) at Kansas City (Chen 3-1), 5:10 p.m. National League Thursday’s results San Francisco 5, Pittsburgh 2 St. Louis 1, Houston 7 Washington 4, New York 3 Chicago at Arizona, late Today’s games San Francisco (Lincecum 2-2) at Washington (Marquis 2-0), 4:05 p.m. Other past champions in the field include Mike Piver and J.J. Abraham. Youngsters Jason Schmul and Adam Lewis join Dane Judson, Greg Senestraro and Isaac Sanchez as some of the others that should top the leaderboard. Wilcox Oaks’ own professional, Bill DeWildt, has a the- ory on why the tournament has been pleasing players for going on two decades. “The reason that it’s so successful is we have enough vol- unteers to cover everything we need to do to let everyone have fun,” he said. Seems like all the golfers notice as well. New York (Pelfrey 1-2) at Philadelphia (Worley 0-0), 4:05 p.m. Florida (Vazquez 1-2) at Cincinnati (T.Wood 1-2), 4:10 p.m. St. Louis (Carpenter 0-2) at Atlanta (T.Hudson 3-2), 4:35 p.m. Milwaukee (Marcum 2-1) at Houston (Myers 1-0), 5:05 p.m. Pittsburgh (Correia 3-2) at Colorado (Chacin 3-1), 5:40 p.m. Chicago (Zambrano 2-1) at Arizona (Galarraga 3-1), 6:40 p.m. San Diego (Richard 1-1) at Los Angeles (Lilly 1-2), 7:10 p.m. NBA PLAYOFFS Thursday’s results Atlanta 84, Orlando 81 Atlanta wins series 4-2 L.A. Lakers 98 New Orleans 80 L.A. Lakers win series 4-2 Dallas at Portland, late Dallas leads series 3-2 Today’s game San Antonio at Memphis, 6 p.m. Memphis leads series 3-2 Other series Boston beat New York 4-0 Chicago beat Indiana 4-1 Miami beat Philadelphia 4-1 Oklahoma City beat Denver 4-1 NHL PLAYOFFS Thursday’s Game 1result Vancouver 1, Nashville 0 Vancouver leads series 1-0 Today’s Game 1s Tampa Bay at Washington, 4 p.m. Detroit at San Jose, 7 p.m. Paradise 0 Red Bluff 9 Les Schwab Tires Red Bluff Pro-Am NFL Draft