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Corning’s Howell wins NAL titleSports 1B Tuesday Special Olympics at Red Bluff, 9 a.m. Tennis — Playoffs —Chico at Red Bluff, 3 p.m. Softball — Red Bluff at Foothill, 4 p.m. Soccer — Red Bluff at Pleasant Valley, 3 p.m. NHLPlayoffs — Sharks at Red Wings, Game 6, V MLB— D-backs at Giants, 7 p.m., CSNB Tuesday May 10, 2011 TENNIS Corning’s Ryan Howell swept his way through the Northern Athletic League Finals over the weekend to claim a league title. Teammates Erik Espinoza and Durante Rodriguez also made All-League with their performances. All three will represent Corning in the NSCIF individ- ual finals. Espinoza reached the NAL semifinals and Rodriguez made it to the quarterfinals, before battling through the loser’s bracket to earn his trip to sections. Espinoza and Rodriguez both lost to Yreka’s Austin Kishche. Howell lost his first set to Kishche in the championship, but rallied back for a 3-6, 6-3, 6-1 win. Corning coach Mike Albee said he was proud of how all six of his players played over the weekend. Robert Garcia and Javier Curiel each won a match dur- ing the tournament and Omar Diaz drew a tough opponent in Anderson’s No. 1. Howell and Espinoza also faced Kishsche in the doubles tournament. The Cardinals gave Kish- sche’s Yreka team all it could handle in the semifinals before falling 3-6, 6-4, 6-1. Howell and Espinoza knocked off Yreka’s second doubles team to take third place and an All-League finish. Cahill improves to 6-0 Tehama Tracker TRACK &FIELD The Spartans won the boys and girls competitions at Mt. Shasta’s Dave Allen Twilight Invitational, Friday. The Red Bluff boys finished beat 11 other schools with 124 points, ahead of hosts Mt. Shasta (72) and Yreka (63.5). Colin Dahlberg continued his unbeaten season with another win in the 100 meters (11.00) and the long jump (22’1.5”). Dahlberg also helped the Spartans’ relay teams to a pair of wins. Jeff Foster, Dahlberg, Zach Iverson and Anthony Ragone won the 4x100 (45.30) and Foster, Jonah McInnis, Dahlberg and Iverson won the 4x400 (3:36.22). Iverson grabbed the 400-meter title in 52.49 seconds. Garritt Sanders placed first in the 3200 meters (11:14.33). Ty Smith gave Red Bluff a win in the 300-meter hurdles (42.31) and Cody Lehman placed third in the 110-meter hur- dles. Dominic Lightfoot (50’7”) and Zak Stroing placed 1-2 in shot put. In discus Stroing (141’) got the better of Lightfoot, who placed third. The Lady Spartans racked up 105 points to beat 15 other schools. Yreka was second (62) and Etna (46) third. Erin Eicholtz won the 400 meters (1:03.97). The Lady Spartans won both of the varsity relay events. Riley Kittle, Roxanne Luppino, Jessie Slade and Alana Hinkston won the 4x100 (53.90) and Luppino, Hinkston, Slade and Eicholtz won the 4x400 (4:26.57). The Lady Spartans racked up second place finishes. Katelin Collins placed second in the 100-meter hurdles, long jump and triple jump. Hinkston was third in the triple jump. MCT photo Josh Willingham (16) is congratulated at the plate, Monday, following his 3-run home run. with a 6-0 record for Oakland. Cahill’s only crucial mistake was ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Trevor Cahill pitched seven strong innings to earn his sixth straight win to start the season and Josh Willingham homered and drove in five runs and the Oakland Athletics beat the Texas Rangers 7-2 Monday night. Cahill (6-0) matched the major league lead with his sixth victory, and equaled his career best by winning his seventh consecutive decision. The 23- year-old right-hander struck out seven, walked one and allowed five hits. He became Oakland’s first 6-0 starter in 21 years. Willingham, in the Oakland lineup after appealing his one-game suspen- sion for making contact with an umpire, hit a three-run homer in the third put the Athletics ahead to stay. The previous Athletics starting pitcher who began a season 6-0 was Dave Stewart in 1990. Six years later, reliever Jim Corsi finished the season the first pitch he threw in the fifth, when Mitch Moreland pulled a homer into the second deck in right field. Chris Davis followed Moreland’s fifth homer of the season with a single before Cahill retired his last nine bat- ters, including four consecutive strike- outs during that span. Cahill improved to 8-2 with a 2.18 ERA in 11 career starts against Texas — he has no more than four wins against any other team. Even more impressive is that the big right-hander is 3-0 with a 0.98 ERA (three earned runs over 27 2-3 innings) in four starts at hitter-friendly Rangers Ballpark. Jered Weaver of the Los Angeles Angels already had six wins this sea- son, and Detroit’s Max Scherzer improved to 6-0 with a win at Toronto on Monday night. C.J. Wilson (4-2), coming off a complete game victory at Seattle last Wednesday, allowed only two hits over seven innings. But the left-hander walked five and hit another batter — and those accounted for four of the five runs against him. He struck out two. Willingham’s sixth homer of the season, a 402-foot blast deep into the left-field seats, came after Wilson issued consecutive two-out walks. Wil- son was gone after hitting Coco Crisp with a pitch to start the eighth and then walking Daric Barton for the second time in the game. Major League Baseball earlier Monday suspended Willingham for one game and fined him an undis- closed amount for making contact with umpire Bill Miller during an argument of a called third strike Saturday night at Kansas City. Willingham, who was ejected from that game, can keep playing until the appeal process is complete. After Wilson came out, rookie Ryan Tucker failed to retire any of the four batters he faced. Tucker allowed a two-run single to Willingham that See A's, page 2B James, Wade lead Heat past Celtics in OT BOSTON (AP) — Miami’s Big Three was assembled for just this pur- pose: To dominate the bul- lies from Boston who knocked them from the playoffs so many times before. LeBron James scored 35 points, Dwyane Wade had 28 and Chris Bosh had 20 on Monday night to give the Heat a 98-90 overtime victo- ry over the Celtics and move Miami within one game of the Eastern Conference finals. The Heat lead the best-of-seven East semifi- nals 3-1, with a chance to close out the series in Miami on Wednesday. ‘‘Wednesday night will be our greatest challenge that we’ve had with this group so far,’’ Miami coach Erik Spoelstra said. ‘‘We’ll get their best games on Wednesday. And we have to be better. If we’re real about what we want to do, we have to beat the Boston Celtics at their best.’’ One game after their worst performance as a threesome, James, Wade and Bosh had 83 of Miami’s 98 points and 35 of its 45 rebounds. They scored all 12 of Miami’s points in overtime; Bosh and Wade had five apiece after James’ fallaway jumper on the Heat’s first possession of the extra period game them the lead for good. ‘‘He had some incredible ’will’ plays there in the fourth quarter and over- time,’’ Spoelstra said. ‘‘We needed every bit of his talent and competitive will.’’ Paul Pierce scored 27, Ray Allen had 17 and Kevin Garnett had seven points and 10 rebounds for Boston, which eliminated Miami from the playoffs last season one round after knocking James and the Cavaliers out for the second time in three years. The Celtics would need to win the next three games — two in Miami — to have a chance to defend their Eastern Conference championship. ‘‘These are those moments. I look forward to it,’’ Allen said. ‘‘Everybody on this team, we know what to do. We can’t talk about it; we just have to put our best foot forward. It’s not easy. It just makes it that much more special if we’re able to do it.’’ Boston took an 84-81 lead with 2:28 left after back-to-back 3-pointers by Delonte West and Allen, but James hit a 3 to tie it and then made a left-handed lay- in with 48 seconds to play to give Miami an 86-84 lead. Pierce drove to the basket to tie it, but James lost control of the ball while he was dribbling down the clock. Allen went for it and was bumped by James Jones, giving Boston the ball out of bounds with 19.5 seconds left and the game tied at 86. Pierce got the ball, waited out the clock and then took a high-arcing fallaway jumper in the final seconds that bounced off the rim as time expired. The Celtics scored just four points in overtime, shooting 1 for 6 and making four of their 18 turnovers. Garnett started things off by throwing the ball away, and then James made a fallaway jumper as the shot clock expired to give Miami an 88-86 lead. Allen missed, Bosh dunked at the other end, West missed a 3-pointer and then James drew a charging foul on Pierce. After another Boston turnover, Wade made a 2-pointer with his foot on the 3-point arc to give Miami a 92-86 lead with 2 minutes left in over- time. ‘‘We just had poor execu- tion down the stretch,’’ Pierce said. ‘‘It just carried into overtime, it seemed like. We feel like tonight we beat ourselves.’’ Rajon Rondo, who dislo- cated his left elbow Satur- day night in Game 3, played 39 minutes with a padded sleeve covering what appeared to be a brace on his left arm, scoring 10 with five assists. One game after the Heat’s Big Three combined for just 44 points — their lowest total since they assembled their superteam in Miami — they provided almost all the offense. No one else had more than four points, and the Heat’s bench See HEAT, page 2B Luppino was second in the 100 meters, Jessica Taylor was second in the 3200 meters, Meaggan Rector was second in the shot put and Kittle was second in the high jump. J.D. Whited won both the long (19’7”) and triple (37’5.25”) jumps at Friday’s Gary Burton Invitational in Corning. Favian Castrejon won the pole vault at 10 feet. Michael Radcliffe won the 400 meters at 57.22 followed by fellow Cardinals John Juels and Elias Vallejo-Solano. Corning also went 1-2-3 in the 800 meters as Pedro Ramos won with a time of 2:15.85 followed by Enrique Tor- res and Diego Contreras. Torres grabbed the 1600-meter title in 5:05.32 followed by Luis Pahua and Antonio Garcia. Corning’s 4x400 relay team of Juels, Crooks, Radcliffe and Torres turned in a 4:00.63 time to take first. Kevin Garnica, of Los Molinos, won the discus at 134’11”. Corning’s Fernando Gonzalez was second in the 3200- meter hurdles. Brendon Schromm placed second in the 110-meter hur- dles and 3200 meters. The Lady Cardinals’ Mayra Diera won the 800 meters (2:48.28). Silvia Diaz was second. Diaz went on to win the 3200 meters (14:11.06) and Jan- nel Montes was third. Diera placed second in the 1600 meters. Kelcey Nooner gave Corning a win in the discus (100’1”). Bethan Vader placed second in discus and the shot put. Nicole Mason won the pole vault (8’) and long jump (13’5”). Jennifer Crane placed second in the pole vault and Sher- ry Bell was third in the long jump. Lexus Duby was second in the 100-meter hurdles and Tara Healey was second in the 300-meter hurdles. Francis Ocampo, of Los Molinos, was second in the triple jump. RED BLUFF TRITONS Tryouts for new members interested in joining the Red Bluff Tritons will be May 14 from 4 to 6 p.m. at Tehama Family Fitness Center as well as May 23 and May 25 from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. If you are interested in joining contact Pam Jackson at 736-1459 or email mattandpam@sbcglobal.net. Returning swimmers will begin practice May 23 from 3:30 to 5:15 p.m. at the high school pool.. There will be two groups during this time and coaches will be assigning spe- cific time frames for each child and age group. A parent meeting is scheduled for May 25 at 6:30 p.m. at the pool. AMERICAN LEGION Greg Cadaret will now be the featured speaker at Satur- day’s Red Bluff American Legion Baseball Hall of Fame Dinner and Auction . Cadaret pitched 10 seasons in the major leagues, includ- ing in the 1988 World Series for the Oakland Athletics. He has managed the Redding Colt .45s and at Simpson University and was hired by Comcast Sports Net California as a studio analyst. The Hall of Fame dinner will take place at the Veterans Memorial Building at the corner of Oak and Jackson Streets. Tickets can be purchased in advance from a current Red Bluff Bulls player or at the Avant Garde or Memorial Build- ing. Twilight Invitational Dave Allen Gary Burton Invitational Northern Athletic League Finals Athletics 7 Texas 2 Miami 98 MIA Boston 90, OT 3-1