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Sports 1B Friday March 5, 2010 Friday D-VI Boys BBall Final — Maxwell v Mercy at Chico, 4:15 p.m. CIF State Wrestling Championships at Bakersfield Los Molinos Glenn Cox Tournament Baseball — Red Bluff at Central Valley Tournament Girls Soccer — Red Bluff at Shasta Spring Classic NBA — Kings at Mavericks, 5:30 p.m., CSNCA Spartans alpine wins championship DN Staff Report The Red Bluff Spartans girls alpine ski team repeated as North 2 Division champions and all four athletes quali- fied for the state championships set to begin Monday at Mt. Shasta. Shelby Foley, Shay McCluskey, Christina Tang and Christina Oliver qualified for the giant slalom ski. Foley, McCluskey and Tang also qualified for slalom ski. Eric Johnson qualified from the boys ski team as did snowboarders Ryan Houk, Curtis (Logan) Olson and Nik Kitchel. Girls snowboarder Haley Keaton also qualified. Foley, who qualified for her fourth time for the state championship, fin- ished second at the girls Feb. 8 meet at Mt. Shasta. Right behind her in third was Oliv- er, who finished at 1:45.37. McCluskey was sixth. The girls competed in two races on Feb. 22. In the first race McCluskey led Red Bluff with a sixth place finish and Tang was ninth.. After an aggressive run left her dis- qualified in the first run, Foley came back in the second race to place sec- ond. McCluskey continued her good day with a fifth place run and Tang was seventh giving the girls a second place finish at the event. On the boys team, Blake Villa and Ryler Gallagher finished third and fourth on Feb. 8 with times of 1:38.84 and 1:39.31. At the Feb. 22 races, Eric Johnson placed second in both races. In alpine snowboarding, Nik Kitchel finished seventh and Curtis (Logan) Olson was eighth at the Feb. 8 race. Haley Keaton, the only Red Bluff girls snowboarder placed 10th. On Feb. 22, Hock placed seventh in both races, Kitchel took an eighth and 12th place finish and Olson was 10th in both runs. Keaton finished 12th in the after- noon race. The state championships will begin with the slalom and giant slalom events on Monday and Tuesday followed by snowboarding on Wednesday and Thursday. Courtesy photo Red Bluff snowboarder Ryan Houk races Feb. 22. Red Bluff lacrosse opens season Courtesy photo Red Bluff's lacrosse teams opened their season on Sunday. The Under-15 team lost to Gold Hills of Grass Valley on a goal with 20 seconds remaining. Logan LeVier scored five goals for Red Bluff, Cory Twitchell scored twice and Curtis Twitchell, Josh Panza, Bubba McArthur and Tony Chavez also scored.The Under-13 team got five goals from Dallas Hethcoat, but lost 7-5 to Redding and the Under- 11 team had a learning experience in a 11-1 loss to Redding. Listen to the Mercy game For those who can't make it to Chico, tonight, to see Mercy attempt to become section champions, there is an alternative. An audio stream of the game will be available at kbc- sports.com. The CIF Northern Section Division VI boys basket- ball game begins at 4:15 p.m. Free baseball clinic Sunday The Red Bluff American Legion Baseball Club will be hosting a free pitcher and catcher clinic on Sunday from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Red Bluff High School baseball field. The clinic is open to everyone from ages nine to 19. If the weather is implement plans have been made to go to inside batting cages. Among the notable coaches at the clinic: • Mike Goff, former pitcher for Fresno State and Seattle Mariners AAA • A.J. Ampt, former pitcher for Santa Clara and Chico Heat • Scott Hogan, catcher at Shasta Jr. College • Mike Weibling, former pitcher for USC's NCAA Division I World Series team All level of coaches are also welcome to attend to listen and learn from some of the best in our area. Wells, Byrd lead Cubs past Athletics in spring opener 9-3 MESA, Ariz. (AP) — With none of the distrac- tions common in recent years — no brooding out- fielders, no major injuries, no contract dra- mas, no World Series pre- dictions — it's been a blissfully quiet spring training for the Chicago Cubs. Thursday, they finally got to make some noise. Marlon Byrd homered in his Cubs debut, one of five home runs in Chica- go's 16-hit attack that opened the exhibition sea- ''Marlon's a profes- sional,'' manager Lou Piniella said. ''He's a hard worker. He's got a good way about him. The play- ers like him.'' Signing Byrd to play center field also let Kosuke Fukudome return to right. That's where moody Milton Bradley played last season as part of an experiment gone bad. The absence of Bradley has made camp more mellow — as have downsized expectations ''Not much going on, and that's the way we like it,'' said Derrek Lee, whose first-inning homer got the offense going. ''Everyone's pretty healthy. It has been quiet. It's nice. Just going about our business.'' The beneficiary of the businesslike hitting approach was Randy Wells, who didn't allow the ball out of the infield in two perfect innings of work. In his seventh season Zito plunks Fielder, Giants beat Brewers SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP) — After a long winter, there's nothing like taking a pitch in the middle of the back to get the bad blood flowing again. Milwaukee Brewers first baseman Prince Fielder was the target of apparent retalia- tion on Thursday when he was hit by the first pitch from San Francisco left-hander Barry Zito in the first inning of a 5-3 victory by the Giants on Thursday. The Giants had been simmering since Sept. 6, when Fielder celebrated a walk-off home run against them at Mil- waukee's Miller Park by acting like a bowling ball and ''knocking over'' his teammates, who fell like bowling pins. There had been talk that payback might occur. ''My fastball was running in and it just got away from me,'' Zito said. ''It's not like we've thought about (the cele- bration) for months and months.'' Zito didn't seem worried about possible discipline. Plate umpire Ted Barrett issued no warnings after Fielder was hit. Fielder ambled toward first base, tossing the ball lightly toward Zito and clapping his hands when he reached the bag. ''I don't even know about those things,'' said Zito. Giants manager Bruce Bochy said it was ''time to let bygones be bygones, focus on the game and move on. We're trying to get ready for the season and put it behind us.'' Fielder might not be so quick to forget. He said he did- n't expect to be hit, but was irritated by what occurred. After the latest heavily scrutinized incident with a pitcher, Fielder said he is ''working on growing up.'' ''If that's what they gotta do, let them hit me once, if it makes them feel better,'' said Fielder, who has a home run, double and four RBIs in 12 career at-bats against Zito. Taking one for the team was worth the celebration, he added. He knows a lot of people portray him as a villain. He admitted that he is ''tired of being the bad guy,'' but he will continue to play the game with as much gusto as he can. ''Any time something happens, I'm always the one who is videotaped,'' he said. ''I play the game hard, run hard, and after that, I don't care what anybody is thinking, except for my teammates.'' He apparently doesn't always care what Brewers man- ager Ken Macha is thinking. After a fifth-inning single, Macha instructed Joe Inglett to run for Fielder, but Fielder waved Inglett back to the dugout. Macha said something to Fielder at the end of the inning. ''I was just trying to work on my baserunning,'' Fielder said, adding that Macha ''was cool'' with what he did. NOTES: The Giants did not have a hit through the first four innings before overcoming a 3-0 deficit with four runs in the fifth. Andres Torres' RBI single put the Giants in front, and Kevin Frandsen's single brought home an insur- ance run in the eighth. ... Brewers 2B Rickie Weeks looked strong after missing much of last season with an injured left wrist. He had two hits and drove in two runs. ... Giants reserve INF Emmanuel Burriss will be sidelined indefinite- ly after injuring his left foot in the opener against Seattle on Wednesday. It is the same foot that was broken last season and he is on crutches. ... Giants non-roster OF Thomas Neal is expected to return to action against Colorado on Friday after being hit in the head by a pitch against Seattle.