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NAMY.HUH—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS The San Francisco Giants' Hunter Pence, right, celebrates with Brandon Crawford a er hitting a solo home run during the seventh inning Friday against the Chicago Cubs in Chicago. ByAndrewBaggarly BayAreaNewsGroup CHICAGO BrandonCrawfordledoff from second base as he watched Ed- uardo Núñez make hard contact in three acts. First came the lineout into the glove of Chicago Cubs third baseman Kris Bryant. Then came Núñez's bat, which whacked the ground with such force it's a wonder he didn't strike oil. Finally, off came the helmet, for a test of its own shock resistance. Could Crawford relate, after lin- ing out twice in the San Francisco Gi- ants' 2-1 loss at Wrigley Field? "Yeah," the Giants' stoic shortstop said. "I just tried to hide it a little bet- ter today. I mean, may have had to get a new helmet. May have." As Crawford softly spoke at his locker, a nearby trash can contained the remnants of one of his bats with a No. 35 decal on the handle. The con- crete corridors at Wrigley Field af- ford greater privacy. Despite being 103 years old, they are as sturdy as ever. The Giants' psyche is less solid. For the second consecutive day, they reg- istered three hits in a one-run loss to baseball's best team. It took Hunter Pence's home run to break up Jon Lester's no-hit bid with two outs in the seventh inning. What's more, Pence's shot snapped the Giants' unconscionable 0-for-40 run at the plate that began following Pence's single in the third inning of Thursday night's loss. Over the two games, they failed to register a hit in 12 consecutive in- nings — something that hadn't hap- pened to them since June 26-27, 1980, when the Dodgers' Jerry Reuss no-hit them at Candlestick Park. The Giants had a hard time squar- ing up those results when they … BASEBALL CubsbeatGiantson3-hitter Lesterthrowscomplete game, allows solo homer by Pence in 7th inning CUBS2,GIANTS1 Up next: San Francisco Giants at Chicago Cubs, 11:20a.m. Saturday, TV on CSN-BA. THESCORE Special to the DN CHICO The Red Bluff Spartans swim team traveled to Chico on Wednesday to compete in a tri- meet with Pleasant Valley and Chico high schools. The format of the meet was a Sprint Pentathlon in which the only events were the 50- yard butterfly, the 50 back- stroke, the 50 breaststroke, the 50 freestyle and the 100 indi- vidual medley. Freshman swimmers Jaxon Balken and Jayne Brandt made amazing debuts. Balken cap- tured three first places in the 50 breaststroke, the 50 free- style and the 100 IM. Brandt won the 50 breaststroke and etched her name into the top 10 swims at Red Bluff High in the 50 freestyle. Brandt's time of 26.94 seconds is the fourth- fastest swim ever at the high school. Ellie Fletcher finished third in the 50 butterfly and fourth in the 100 IM. Jordan Munoz placed fourth in the 50 butter- fly and sixth in the 100 IM. On the boys' side, Nathan Fregoso was fourth in the 50 freestyle, fifth in the 50 back- stroke and sixth in the 100 IM. Jacob Patterson finished fifth in the 50 breaststroke and sixth in the 50 butterfly and 50 free. It was a great first meet for all of the Spartan swimmers and culminated with all three teams enjoying a pot luck dinner. The Spartans will be back in action Wednesday in Paradise. SWIMMING SPARTANS KICK OFF SEASON IN SPLASH Freshmen Balken, Brandt earn victories in 3-way meet against Pleasant Valley, Chico CONTRIBUTED PHOTOS Team captain Nathan Fregoso competes in the 50-yard backstroke on Wednesday against Chico and Pleasant Valley high schools. The Red Bluff Spartans swim team. By Howard Fendrich The Associated Press NEW YORK Before Jack Sock took on 2014 U.S. Open cham- pion Marin Cilic in the third round, the 23-year-old American acknowledged that, as of a cou- ple of years ago, simply making it that far would have made him, to use two of his words, "satis- fied" and "excited." Now Sock wants more. He thinks his game and his mind- set are ready for deep Grand Slam runs. And the way he over- whelmed the No. 7-seeded Cilic 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 in a little more than 1 hours on Friday to reach the fourth round at Flushing Mead- ows for the first time, who would doubt Sock? "Just all around, I think I'm putting things together, bet- ter and better," said the 26th- seeded Sock, who celebrated his victory with a racket-as-foil jousting move in tribute to his friend and fellow U.S. Olympian, bronze medalist fencer Miles Chamley-Watson. "I definitely feel more confident out there in everything I'm doing." Rightly so. Against Cilic, who followed up his title with a semifinal appear- ance a year ago, Sock won all 14 of his service games, never fac- ing so much as one break point. Not much of a surprise there on a hard court for a guy whose game is best known for two parts — "'serving and forehand' is what I hear all the time," he said with a hint of a smirk. But on this windy afternoon, Sock showed off other improv- ing parts of his repertoire. Sure, he delivered 10 forehand win- ners, but he also produced four on the backhand side (Cilic only had two). And as good as his serving was, with a top speed of 138 mph and 86 percent of first- serve points won, Sock's returns were in fine form, too: He broke Cilic four times. "He's a very dangerous guy in these kind of conditions," Cilic U.S. OPEN TENNIS Sock of US overwhelms 2014 champion Cilic Staff Report RED BLUFF The Mercy Warriors girls' tennis team lost a home match Thursday to the Orland Trojans, 8-1. Mary DiMaggio lost her sin- gles match 6-1, 6-1; Grace Grin- ton 6-0, 6-2; Fabiola Carrera 6-0, 6-0; Jocelyn Wigno 6-1, 6-0; and Sarah Sun 6-0, 6-0. A sixth match was forfeited. In doubles play, DiMaggio and Grinton took an 8-3 win over Trinity Smith and Katie Kramer in the first match. Carrera and Wigno fell 8-1 in their doubles match and a third doubles match was forfeited. Thursday's was the first match of the season for the team, which was scheduled to see action again Friday afternoon against Live Oak. No score had been reported for Friday's match as of 5:30 p.m. Fri- day. TENNIS Warriors beaten by Orland in home loss The Associated Press Matt Besler scored his first in- ternational goal just hours after the birth of his daughter, 17-year- old Christian Pulisic added two late strikes and the United States routed St. Vincent and the Grena- dines 6-0 on Friday to move into prime position to advance to the final round of World Cup quali- fying. Bobby Wood scored in the 28th minute, Besler doubled the lead in the 32nd and Jozy Altidore con- verted a penalty kick in the 43rd as the Americans built a 3-0 half- time lead at the Arnos Vale cricket ground in St. Vincent. Pulisic and Sacha Kljestan en- tered midway through the second half and combined for three goals. Pulisic scored in the 71st minute off a pass from Kljestan, who had not played for the national team since March 2014, and the 30-year-old Kljestan tapped in a cross from Pulisic seven minutes later for his first U.S. goal in six years. Pulisic scored from 18 yards off Kljestan's pass in the second minute of stoppage time, his third international goal. Besler, a 29-year-old defender who started at the 2014 World Cup, was making his 36th in- ternational appearance. Just be- fore kickoff, the U.S. Soccer Fed- eration announced Besler's wife, Amanda, gave birth to Parker Besler earlier Friday. After the goal, Besler was surrounded by five teammates in a rocking baby celebration reminiscent of Bebe- to's at the 1994 World Cup. The 26th-ranked United States (3-1-1) moved into first place in SOCCER Besler helps US win over St. Vincent GIANTS PAGE 2 SOCCER PAGE 2 TENNIS PAGE 2 SPORTS » redbluffdailynews.com Saturday, September 3, 2016 MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS B1