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Friday MLB—Marlins at Cubs, 11:10 a.m., WGN MLB— Angels at Athletics, 7 p.m., CSNC MLB— Giants at Padres, 7 p.m., KRVU British Open — Second Round, 1 a.m., ESPN PGATour —Viking Classic, 1 p.m., TGC Tour de France — Stage 13, 5 a.m., VERSUS Sports 1B Friday July 15, 2011 All-Stars hit the road Bulls 1-1 at Area AMERICAN LEGION The Red Bluff Bulls blew a 8-0 lead, Wednesday, to fall 11-8 against the Chico Nuts in their Area 1 tourna- ment opener, but bounced back Thursday to stay alive. Red Bluff got a seven- inning mercy shortened win over the South Humboldt 76ers by beating them 11-1. They play again today at 1 p.m. Their next loss sends them home. Stephen Jensen threw all seven innings for Red Bluff to pick up the win. He scat- tered six hits and two walks and the Bulls turned three double plays behind him. Catcher E.J. Stanton also picked off a runner at second base, to go along with a pair of doubles and a walk at the plate. Austin Brownfield tripled and drove in two runs. Cameron Vietti went 2- for-3 with an RBI and Shawn Greene drove in a pair of runs with a double and a single on the day. Courtesy photo Red Bluff’s Little League Baseball California District 1 Champion team is (from back left):Coach Gary Clawson, Coach Aaron Ross,Coach Steve Ross,Manager Donnie Button,Bode Parks,Wesley Clawson,Kolby Button,Blake Blocker,Taylor Chapman,Lane Pritchard,Michael Chapman, Evan Tanner, Deonte Antolin, Dimitre Kent, Nicholas Rodriguez,Tanner Tweedt and Austin Youngblood. LITTLE LEAGUE By RICHGREENE DN Sports Editor Red Bluff Little League manager Donnie But- ton wasn’t necessarily talking about physical sur- faces when he answered a question about his team’s trip to Eureka this weekend for the start of the Section 2 tournament. “We know that road pretty, pretty well,” he replied. While the trip to the other side of the moun- tains may be a new experience for a few of the 11- and 12-year-old All-Stars, playing beyond district tournaments has become a bit of routine culture for Red Bluff’s Little League program. Whether it’s been baseball or softball, 9-year- olds or 12-year-olds Red Bluff has often had at least one team of youngsters play deep into sum- mer. That experience isn’t lost on Button and his coaching staff, who have even factored in poten- tial car sickness into this week’s travel plans. A few players will leave a day early. The rest of the team hopes to arrive at least three hours before game time. This is the second consecutive year Red Bluff’s 11-and 12-year-old team has qualified for sectionals. This year’s 10-11 team is also a district champion. Three hold-overs from the 2010 11-12 team — Kolby Button, Wesley Clawson and Lane Pritchard — are back this time around. Not sur- prising the trio helped supply plenty of hitting power and pitching prowess for Red Bluff’s unde- feated run through the district tournament. Austin Youngblood has settled in as the team’s productive center fielder and leadoff hitter, while Tanner Tweedt has been a quality backstop and Evan Tanner has been solid at second base. Deonte Antolin, Michael Chapman, Taylor Chapman and Dimitre Kent have patrolled Red Bluff’s outfield, the versatility of Nicolas Rodriguez has been used across the infield and Blake Bocker and Bode Parks have provided quality depth. “They all seem to get along really well and they’re a competitive bunch,” said Donnie Button. “But they also seem to like each other, which I think is a positive chemistry.” Button, who has been around the All-Star scene for years, said he can’t recall a team where he never saw any bickering between the players. Perhaps it was a series of pool parties, which helped tighten their bond — whatever it is the results are glaring to their manager. “They really mesh well together,” Button said. Obviously winning is the key to staying alive in any tournament, but Button said a win in Sat- urday’s Game 1 is crucial as staying in the win- ner’s bracket brings advantages besides just being unbeaten. The road to the championship through the loser’s bracket is brutal, with games every day. Red Bluff won their opener last year, but lost their next game and slipped into the loser’s brack- et where they were knocked out by Chico Central. Winning the tournament in Eureka, would be the second step in the path toward the Little League World Series in South Williamsport, Penn. The last Red Bluff team to win a section tour- nament and head to the Northern California Championships was the 1996 team. However District 1 champions advanced in two of the past three years. “We’re coming in with a lot of experience and they know how to play the game,” Button said. A’s need offensive resurgence in second half OAKLAND (AP) — Injuries to the pitching staff, an offense that struggles to generate any runs and a team that always seems to end up on the short side of close games. The problems that marred the end of manager Bob Geren’s tenure in Oakland and ultimately contributed to his firing are just as evident under replacement Bob Melvin. The Athletics come out of the All-Star break with the third- worst record in the American League at 39-53 and are 12 games behind Texas in the AL West after being swept by the Rangers in a four-game series. ‘‘Luckily we have four days to relax and put our mind off base- ball and come and pretend like it’s a different half,’’ starter Trevor Cahill said. ‘‘It’ll be good for us. Some guys are banged up, some guys need a mental break. I don’t think anybody thinks we’re out of it, If we keep battling, anything’s possible.’’ The Athletics were off Thurs- day, but the news didn’t get any better. Left-handed pitcher Brett Anderson had reconstructive surgery on his elbow and will miss the rest of the season. The A’s originally had hoped rehabilita- tion would be enough to help him. Oakland resumes Friday night when it hosts the Angels. And right now, the A’s just need to fig- ure out how to score some runs. A franchise that was once known for its big bashers at the plate such as Reggie Jackson, Jose Canseco, Mark McGwire, Jason Giambi and Miguel Tejada is on pace for one of its worst offensive ‘‘Ultimately we’re going to have to score more runs if we’re going to get back in this thing.” seasons in history. The A’s have managed just 3.4 runs per game — the second-low- est mark in the league. They are also second worst in batting aver- age (.233) on-base percentage (.299) and slugging percentage (.337). Oakland has an AL-worst 50 home runs, having hit more than two in a game just once all season. The A’s are on pace for the lowest marks in average, on-base percentage and home runs since moving to Oakland in 1968 and the second-lowest runs per game in the Oakland era. That all adds up to the team’s worst record at the All-Star break since they were 37-52 in 1997. Few hitters have stepped up, including key offseason acquisi- tions Josh Willingham, David DeJesus and Hideki Matsui, who have failed to provide the upgrade on offense that Oakland sorely needs. ‘‘Ultimately we’re going to have to score more runs if we’re going to get back in this thing,’’ Melvin said. ‘‘That’s going to be the focus in the second half, to really believe in ourselves offen- sively. You can get into a rut. Your expectations come down some where you go through a half and underachieved offensively. It’s my job, the coaches’ job, the players’ job, to get a better mindset and get higher expectations. We have quite a few guys here who can do better offensively.’’ The A’s hoped that their first midseason manager change in a quarter century would help wake up the struggling bats. Geren was fired on June 9 after four-plus sea- sons, losing his final nine games as manager to end this season with a 27-36 record. Melvin came in and steadied the team quickly and the A’s even showed some life in a six-game winning streak that included a sweep against the World Series champion Giants that raised hope that Oakland could make a sec- ond-half run. But the A’s lost 13 of their next 18 games, including six of seven to division rivals Seattle and Texas in the final week before the break. The A’s scored two or fewer runs in five of those seven games. Making the offensive struggles even more frustrating is that the pitching has been outstanding for much of the first half. Behind All- Star Gio Gonzalez and Cahill, the A’s have posted an AL-best 3.14 ERA despite having five starters and former All-Star closer Andrew Bailey spend time on the disabled list during the first half. ‘‘This pitching staff we have is pretty unbelievable,’’ infielder Scott Sizemore said. ‘‘They keep us in the game every time. If we can manage to put up some runs for them, we can make a run in the — Oakland Athletics manager Bob Melvin second half.’’ The question now is if it’s too late to make that kind of run to get back into contention. The A’s are more likely to trade some of their key players to a contender in the coming weeks than they are to add a needed piece. But the players aren’t quite ready to give up on this season yet, pointing to a major league- worst record of 12-20 in one-run games as a sign that the team is close to turning the corner. ‘‘We just need to be a little bit more consistent,’’ rookie second baseman Jemile Weeks said. ‘‘Right now we’re in every game that we’ve lost. That’s the frustrating part about it, we’re los- ing by one run, two runs. That’s every game. We just need better at-bats and a few more two-out hits. We’re playing great. It’s just a few little things that gives the other team the edge.’’ Weeks has been one of the few bright spots in the first half, bat- ting .288 with 11 extra-base hits and seven stolen bases in 30 games. His emergence led to the trade of the team’s longest tenured player, Mark Ellis, to Colorado on June 30. ‘‘Sometimes all it takes is two or three guys or a series where you start to hit on all cylinders,’’ Melvin said. ‘‘It can be contagious just like it can be when you’re struggling.’’ Amateur leads Open SANDWICH, England (AP) — Thomas Bjorn and Tom Lewis have nothing in common except for the unlikely position they shared Thursday atop the leader- board at the British Open. It’s not just that one is twice as old. Or that Bjorn is a 40- year-old pro who wonders how much longer he can compete at the highest level, while Lewis is an amateur making his major champi- onship debut, his best golf still to come. The biggest difference are their memo- ries of Royal St. George’s. Bjorn took a small step toward atonement with a birdie on the par-3 16th — the hole that cost him the claret jug in 2003 when he took three shots to escape a pot bunker — on his way to a 5-under 65 in the toughest conditions of the opening round. He made a birdie on Thursday, and couldn’t help but smile when he saw it bounce away from trouble and toward the flag. ‘‘When I hit the shot, I thought, ’This is going to struggle.’ So when it just made it over that bunker, that was just a smile of knowing that things were going my way today,’’ Bjorn said. Lewis ran off four straight birdies late in his round, an amazing stretch that began on the par-5 14th. That’s the hole where Lewis wrapped up the British Boys Amateur Championship two years ago, the highlight of a sterling amateur record. A par on the final hole gave him a 65, the lowest ever by an amateur in the British Open, making him the first amateur to lead this champi- onship in 43 years. ‘‘It was a special moment for me, winning here, and to come back to where you’ve won is extra special,’’ Lewis said. ‘‘I was just thrilled to be here, but to shoot 65 the first round was something I wouldn’t have thought. I was just happy to get the drive off the tee at the first, and that was all that mattered.’’ Adding to the nerves was playing alongside Tom Wat- son, such a popular figure in the Lewis household that they named their oldest son after the five-time Open champion. And to think the kid only wanted to make sure he didn’t embarrass himself in front of Watson. ‘‘He could be my grand- son,’’ Watson said. Tournament Area 1 11-and 12-year-olds Red Bluff