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Friday NSCIF Track & Field Championships at West Valley, 4 p.m. American Legion — Redding at Red Bluff, 7 p.m. MLB— Giants at Brewers, 5 p.m., CSNB MLB— Orioles at Athletics, 7 p.m., CSNC NHLPlayoffs —Lightning at Bruins, 5 p.m., VS French Open — Third Round, 9 a.m., ESPN2 Sports 1B Friday May 27, 2011 Bulls open season tonight BASEBALL By RICH GREENE DN Sports Editor It’s Memorial Day weekend, so it must be time to start another American Legion baseball season. The Red Bluff Bulls annual holiday round robin tournament starts tonight with Redding tak- ing on the hosts at 7 p.m. at Red Bluff High School. Action continues with games all day Sat- urday and Sunday and a Memorial Day double- header with the consolation and championship games. “It’s kind of like a preseason kickoff we have all the local teams here.” said Mike Weibling, who returns as the Bulls head coach this season. “We’re not playing anyone different, but it’s a good way to gauge what our competition is local- ly.” While the Bulls have experience in 10 return- ers to their 17-man roster. They enter the season a little out of game shape, with only five players who are coming off of a high school or college season. The rest of the team is made up of college red shirts and players Weibling described as breaking their cleats back out. “A lot of guys who haven’t played this spring, so we’re going to have to knock some rust off,” Weibling said. Still there’s plenty of potential and Weibling compares what he may have to the 2010 San Francisco Giants — if all the random pieces come together, there could be success at the end of the year. The Bulls hope once the rust is played off, they’ll be looking at a deep pitching staff. Red Bluff High’s Gerald Baker and Corning High’s Austin Arbogast will be relied upon early as their arms are still in shape from their recently completed prep seasons. There’s plenty of power potential in 6-foot 5- inch Eric Vidal, and Feather River red shirt and 2010 Red Bluff graduate Trevor Gipson. Offensively the Bulls return their top three hit- ters from last year’s 36-game season in Joel Dug- gins, Shawn Greene and E.J. Stanton. Duggins batted .376 for the Bulls with 18 RBIs last year and just completed a solid season as the Red Bluff Spartans right fielder. Greene led the Bulls with 26 RBIs last year and batted .323. Stanton hit .442 for the Bulls with four homers, 16 RBIs and 22 walks and just finished his freshman season as Shasta College’s short- stop. “We’re going to be counting on those guys heavily to carry the load this year,” Weibling said. Gipson, Vidal and Austin Brownfield will add more power to the Bulls lineup. Meanwhile the speed will come from Red Bluff’s Taylor Figgs and Corning’s Daniel Mahutga. Cody Fox, Stephen Jensen, Richard Penne, Trey Samons and Cameron Vietti also return to the Bulls this season, who are also adding Wyatt Dodero and Marc Mason into the mix. Weibling is being assisted by Scott Hogan and Andrew Lish. Appreciation Night Saturday’s 7:45 p.m. nightcap game featuring the Shasta County Trojans and Bulls will be Sponsor and Alumni Appreciation Night. Both sponsors and alumni get into the game admission-free and a raffle will be held for a bar- becue donated by the Home Depot. Red Bluff Gold completes stellar season 2011 Memorial Day Tournament Schedule Friday 7 p.m. Noon 2:30 p.m. 5 p.m. 7:45 p.m. Redding vs Red Bluff Saturday Oroville vs Chico Shasta County vs Oroville Chico vs Redding Shasta County vs Red Bluff Sunday 9:30 a.m. Redding vs Shasta County Noon Redding vs Oroville 2:30 p.m. 5 p.m. 7:30 p.m. 10 a.m. 12:30 p.m. Shasta County vs Chico Oroville vs Red Bluff Chico vs Red Bluff Monday No. 3 team vs No. 4 team No. 1 team vs No. 2 team All games at Red Bluff High School Red Bluff’s BMX star BMX Tanner Puckett has con- quered local, regional and state BMX scenes. Now he’s tackling the world. The 15-year-old Red Bluff High School freshman is headed to the UCIWorld Challenge in Copenhagen, Denmark, July 25-31. Puckett, No. 1 in the Dis- trict, qualified for Team USA on April 16 during an event in Chula. He has become a fixture on the BMXscene since he began racing in 2007 from Chico to Redding and often teaches and trains younger kids in Red Bluff. To help with the expenses of traveling to Denmark, several fundraisers are being held in the coming months. • On June 5, Hal’s Eat ’Em Up will hold a fundrais- er with proceeds benefiting Puckett’s travel expenses. • Asoftball tournament at Frey Field, July 9-10. A car wash, raffles and food will also be a part of the festivi- ties. • Cornerstone Communi- ty Bank is also accepting donations. Anderson leads A’s ANAHEIM (AP) — The Oakland Athletics, starved for runs most of the month, finally got some, with every player notching a hit against the Los Angeles Angels. Brett Anderson tossed three-hit ball over eight scoreless innings and Andy LaRoche drove in three runs to help the last-place A’s win 4-3 on Thursday. The A’s split their four- game series with the second- place Angels, who fell to 4-7 in their past 11 games. ‘‘It’s good to finish the series with two out of three wins,’’ LaRoche said. ‘‘Hopefully, it will give us some momentum going home and it will carry over. We’re starting to see signs of life from our offense. As long as our pitchers continue to do the same job they’ve been doing, hopefully our offense will start to liven up a little bit.’’ Courtesy photo The AAU Red Bluff Gold Volleyball Club went 26-3 this season in four tournaments. They won one tournament, finished sec- ond twice and were fourth in the other tournament. Each tournament had 20 ore more teams and featured teams stretching from Sacramento to Phoenix, Ore.The team was (from top left): Coach Ashley Bauguss, Hailey Reineman, Nicole Sauve, Aslynn Lair, Molly Murphy, Summer Frantz, Jillian Strom, Sofia Frantz, Abby Brown, Bailey Frantz and Kelsey Cantrell. Buster Posey likely out for year SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Buster Posey was carted through a tunnel at AT&T Park on Thursday, a makeshift cast covering his left ankle and no emo- tion on his face. Not exactly the exit the cornerstone of the Giants lose 1-0 on Thursday Story 2B World Series champion Giants wanted this sea- son. A night after Florida’s Scott Cousins crashed into him at home plate, San Francisco’s star catch- er was put on the disabled list because of a frac- tured bone in his lower left leg and three torn lig- aments in his ankle, likely ending his season and putting a major dent in the Giants’ chances of repeating. ‘‘You just don’t replace a guy like Buster Posey,’’ said Giants manager Bruce Bochy, a for- mer catcher who was so stricken by the news he called on Major League Baseball to review rule changes for collisions at the plate. As word spread throughout the clubhouse, players began to come to grips with what Posey’s injury meant. The normally blaring speakers near bearded closer Brian Wilson’s locker were uncharacteris- tically silent. Televisions were turned off. No one was playing dominoes or card games. See GIANTS, page 2B Buster Posey tags out Chris Coghlan earlier in Wednesday’s game. Anderson (3-4) struck out four and walked three to beat the Angels for the first time in six career starts. ‘‘My stuff wasn’t particu- larly better today than it was on other days, I just mixed and matched well,’’ he said. ‘‘I can’t give enough credit to my defense behind me, it was unbelievable. The defense was spectacular all day.’’ The left-hander had been 0-3 in his previous five starts. Anderson finally got some run support from his teammates, who had sup- plied two runs or less in seven of his previous 10 starts this season. ‘‘He’s not overpowering, but he can sneak his fastball in there a little bit,’’ said Mark Trumbo, who was 0 for 3 against Anderson. ‘‘In the sixth, I was just a rally- killer — chopping a ball to third base. I didn’t really stick with my game plan, and that hurt us right there.’’ But Trumbo helped the Angels avoid the shutout, hitting a three-run homer off Grant Balfour with two outs in the ninth. The Angels’ Torii Hunter, who had a hit and an RBI in each of his previous six games, failed to extend the longest such stretch of his career, going 0 for 3 with a walk. MCT photo The Angels’ only hits off See A's, page 2B Athletics 4 L.A. Angels 3 Red Bluff Bulls San Francisco Giants