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Staffreport CORNING The Corning Cardi- nals baseball team took a 4-2 win Wednesday night over the Wheat- land Pirates, while the Lady Car- dinals softball team fell to Wheat- land 3-2. Devin Wunsch got the com- plete game win for the Cardinals, giving up 2 runs, 1 earned, on 6 hits while walking 2 and striking out 12 Pirates. Sophomore Bryce Armstrong, Noah Miller and Reeve Evans each recorded an RBI and Wun- sch and Evans hit doubles. Miller stole 1 bag on 2 attempts. The Cardinals (4-4-1) kick off league play with a 4 p.m. road game Friday against the Sutter Huskies (5-5) in Sutter. They will face the rival Orland Trojans (7-6) at 4 p.m. Tuesday in Orland and return home Thurs- day for a 6:30 p.m. start against the Gridley Bulldogs (7-6-1 over- all, 0-1 league). LadyCards2,Wheatland3 CORNING The Lady Cardinals out-hit the visiting Wheatland Pirates on Wednesday night but finished down 3-2 for a home loss. Both teams scored in the third and fifth innings, with the Pirates putting up 2 and the Cards just 1 in the fifth. As of 5 p.m. Thursday no indi- vidual stats had been posted for the Cards. The Lady Cardinals (5-4 over- all, 0-1 league) are scheduled to face the Sutter Huskies (9-3-1 overall, 1-0 league) at 4 p.m. Fri- day in Sutter. HIGH SCHOOL BASEBALL, SOFTBALL CardinalsbeatvisitingWheatland By Elliott Almond Bay Area News Group DALLAS It hasn't always been perfect, but Stanford has re- turned to the Women's Final Four for the seventh time in the past decade. It took a rousing comeback Sunday in the regional final to stun second-ranked Notre Dame to reach the national semifinals at the American Airlines Center. Now Stanford (32-5) has one of its biggest challenges of the sea- son in trying to stop All-American forward A'ja Wilson and third- ranked South Carolina. Wilson, a 6-foot-5 forward from Hopkins, South Carolina, is the kind of player who attracts de- fenders. "She's obviously one of the greatest players in the nation, there's no debating that," Stan- ford forward Kaylee Johnson said. "But we have ours here," she added while pointing at Erica Mc- Call, the Cardinal's leading scorer at 14.4 points per game. McCall shook her hand, saying she's going to help to slow down a talent who averages 17.9 points and 7.4 rebounds a game. "It is going to take all of us talk- ing on the court and figuring out the best way to fluster her," junior Brittany McPhee added. Wilson has heard it all before. She doesn't care what kind of de- fense the sixth-ranked Cardinal WOMEN'S FINAL FOUR ONE TALL TASK ERICGAY—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS Stanford coach Tara Vanderveer, top center, works with her players during practice Thursday for the Women's NCAA Final Four. TONY GUTIERREZ — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Stanford guard Karlie Samuelson takes part in practice for the women's NCAA Final Four on Thursday in Dallas. By Eddie Pells The Associated Press GLENDALE, ARIZ. It's one thing to have Nike as a sponsor. It's quite another to have the owner of Nike as your No. 1 fan. After a 78-year absence from college basketball's biggest stage, Oregon is at the Final Four this week. For a good deal of this success, the Ducks can thank Nike's billionaire owner, Phil Knight — the man who keeps the money flowing into the hoops program, and all the rest of the sports, too. One of Knight's most recent, and benevolent, gifts to Oregon was a $100 million donation to help fund the school's opulent basketball arena, named after Knight's late son, Matthew. "Phil Knight and Nike have essentially created a lab at the University of Oregon," said Da- vid Carter, executive director of the Sports Business Institute at Southern California's Marshall School of Business. "The stu- dents welcome that. As long as the programs perform well and stay out of trouble , it's rinse and repeat." Among the other beneficiaries of Knight's largesse: The foot- ball team, which has played for the national title twice this de- cade; and the men's and wom- en's track teams, which have combined for 13 indoor and out- door NCAA titles since 2010. All this after Oregon spent de- cades playing in the second divi- sion of the Pac-12 and in relative obscurity in the college town of Eugene, population 160,000. MEN'S FINAL FOUR Swoosh of success: Nike a boost for Oregon SATURDAY'SSEMFINALS Glendale, Ariz. TV: All games CBS • South Carolina (26-10) vs. Gonzaga (36-1), 3:09p.m. • North Carolina (31-7) vs. Oregon (33-5), 40minutes a er first game MONDAY'S NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP • Semifinal winners, 6p.m. TUNEIN By John Hickey Bay Area News Group SAN FRANCISCO Sonny Gray won't be ready to pitch in a big league game for maybe a month, but he nevertheless made the trip north with the A's for the Bay Bridge Series. The man who would have been the A's opening day starter had he been healthy is recovering from a strained right lat muscle. He's been cleared to play catch but has yet to have a bullpen session. The A's say he won't need the equivalent of a full six weeks of what would be spring training to get back to pitching shape, but they aren't going to rush him ei- ther. "It's not my decision to make, and they haven't asked me," Gray said. "I feel good. I'm throwing ev- ery day, out to 120 feet, and the last two days I've thrown curves and I've thrown sliders." Manager Bob Melvin said there was no date set yet for Gray to get back on a mound, "but it would probably be sometime in the next week or so." Once that's done, it's possible Gray will fly back to Arizona or head out to Stockton once he's gotten enough bullpen work in to get into games. The A's are hop- ing Gray will be ready to pitch in the Oakland rotation again by the end of April. MLB A's Gray could return soon By Jon Becker Bay Area News Group Kevin Durant says the NBA has a double-standard when it comes to teams resting players and that commissioner Adam Silver is only concerned about superstars sit- ting out games. "Thetruthaboutitis,it'sonlyfor a couple of players in the league," Durant told ESPN's Chris Haynes. "They don't care if the 13th man on the bench rests. It's only for like LeBron (James), Steph (Curry), (James) Harden, Russell (West- brook).It'sonlyforlikefiveplayers. "So you want a rule just for those five players?" Silver sent a memo to owners last week warning of "significant penalties" if teams didn't adhere to the NBA's standing rule to pro- vide notice when resting players. Durant, who has a written ex- cuse from his doctor (sprained MCL, bone bruise) for missing the Warriors' last 15 games, says play- erssometimesneedamentalbreak as much as a physical one. How- ever, he completely understands frustration from fans when star players sit out. "I also get if I was a fan and could afford to get tickets, and I'm circling LeBron James, Stephen Curry and Russell Westbrook on my calendar, I would want to see them play live. I would be disap- pointed as well." NBA Durant: Rest rules target only star players Lady Cards, however, come up short in so ball St an fo rd m us t t ry t o s to p S ou th C ar ol in a' s W il so n — a 6 -f oo t- 5 A ll -A me ri ca n STANFORD PAGE 2 FINAL FOUR STANFORD VS. SOUTH CAROLINA When: Friday, 4:30p.m. TV: ESPN 2 TUNEIN CHRIS PIETSCH — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE Nike's Phil Knight acknowledges the crowd during Oregon's NCAA Tournament game against Southern California in Eugene, Ore. OREGON PAGE 2 SPORTS » redbluffdailynews.com Friday, March 31, 2017 MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS B1