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Wednesday Baseball — Mercy vs Corning, 8 a.m., BLD in Redding Softball — Mt. Shasta vs Mercy, 10 a.m. Golf — Chico, Oroville and Red Bluff at Wilcox Oaks, 1 p.m. MLB— Giants at Astros, 11 a.m., CSNBA MLB— Mariners at A’s, 7 p.m., CSNCA NBA — Warriors at Timberwolves, 5 p.m., CSNBA Sports 1B Lifters honor Mobilio Free batting clinic Sunday A free batting clinic will be held Sunday from 1 p.m. to around 2:30 at Red Bluff High School for ages nine to 19 and for all coaches. The clinic is being hosted by Red Bluff American Legion Baseball Club. The featured batting instructor in 2009 Coach of the Year Bob Anderson from the 32-2 Central Valley Fal- cons. Anderson will be assisted by local Red Bluff coach- es. Giants blank Astros HOUSTON (AP) — San Francisco’s great spring has led to a solid start. Barry Zito pitched three-hit ball over six innings and four relievers finished up the Giants’ 3-0 victo- ry over the Houston Astros on Tuesday night. The Giants followed their major league-best 23 spring wins by taking their first series of the season. Zito (1-0) struck out five before he was replaced by Courtesy photo Kyle Dudley, Marcus Sannadan, Rick Mederios, Jeff Crow and Greg Duarte took part in the first annual Dave Mobilio Bench Press Championships. Special to the DN Around 30 area weightlifers raised $300 toward the Dave Mobilio Schol- arship fund March 19 at the first annu- al bench press championship in mem- ory of the fallen Red Bluff police offi- cer. The event was held at Dave’s Cave and hosted by the Tehama Family Fit- ness Center. Medals were awarded to the top lightweight and heavyweight men and women, top teams, body weight for repetitions and strength to body weight ratios. Some of the standout performances included: •Kyle Dudle, a 182-pound light- weight, lifting 325 pounds. • Marcus Sannadan, 19 years-old winning the heavyweight division with a lift of 390 pounds. • Lightweight woman Leticia Ramos benching her body weight of 130 pounds, three times. • Joe Brown, 70 years-old, benching 200 pounds. • Scott Lewis benched his body weight of 270 pounds, 15 times. • Jenifer Bourchard and Rosalie Henderson won the top women team total. • Greg Durate benched his body weight 29 times • Rick Mederios and Jeff Crow were the top team with a total of 645 pounds. • Larry Birdsong represented the Tehama Family Fitness Center the next day in Chico and took second-place with a lift of 490 pounds. Stanford shuts down UConn, but can’t end unbeaten streak SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Every basket built their streak, every romp enriched their legacy. From the first shot of the season, it seemed inevitable that Maya Moore, Tina Charles and the Connecticut Huskies would win the NCAA championship. And so they did Tuesday night, rallying from a horri- ble first half to beat Stanford 53-47 for their 78th straight victory and stamp them- selves as one of the most dominant teams ever — in their sport or any other, men or women. Held to only five points through the first 12 minutes and trailing 20-12 at the break, coach Geno Auriem- ma’s team bounced back and played like champs. ‘‘We knew a run was coming,’’ said Maya Moore, the tournament’s outstand- ing player. ‘‘We settled down and hit some big shots.’’ Did they ever. UConn surged to start the second half, bolting to an 11-point lead. Moore scored 23 points and grabbed 11 rebounds to help Auriemma win his sev- enth national championship, moving within one title of Pat Summitt and Tennessee. He’s never lost in the title game. ‘‘This one was by the far the hardest and most diffi- cult,’’ Auriemma said. ‘‘Not because of what we went through, but we played a great team and they had a great game plan. It took everything we had to beat that team.’’ The Huskies (39-0) are the first team ever to have consecutive unbeaten sea- sons, but that doesn’t cover it. They’ve been unstop- pable over the past two years, winning every game until Tuesday night by dou- ble figures, and passing their own NCAA women’s Divi- sion I record of 70 straight wins set from 2001-03 in early March. The champi- onship victory put them within 10 of the vaunted 88- MCT photo Stanford’s JJ Hones tries to keep the ball away from Connecticut’s Maya Moore in Tuesday’s championship game. game winning streak set by the UCLA men in the early 1970s. Charles added nine points, 11 rebounds, and 6 blocks. The senior and Auriemma shared an embrace after the final buzzer. The lowest-scoring game in NCAA championship game history was played in front of a crowd of 22,936 that included Vice President Joe Biden, who hugged the UConn players after the game, as well as former U.S. Secretary of State Con- doleezza Rice. While Biden showed impartiality in his cheering, Rice was rooting on Stanford — the school at which she served as provost for six years. She visited with the team at a morning shootaround, offering words of encour- agement. Rice had hoped to see the Cardinal win their third championship and first since 1992. Stanford (36-2) played a nearly flawless defensive first half, holding UConn to 12 points — the lowest ever in a championship game and the lowest in school his- tory. But then Moore and the Huskies took over. ‘‘I’ve never been prouder of a group of young peo- ple,’’ Auriemma said. ‘‘How they fought back today. It was easy for them to pack it in. People wondered ’what are you going to do the first time we’re in a close game?’ We reacted how champions react.’’ UConn opened the sec- ond half by scoring 17 of the first 19 points to take its first lead since early in the game. Moore had 11 points during the spurt, scoring from all over the court. Her 3-pointer from the top of the key made it 23-22, giving UConn its first lead since it was 5-0. That ended a 19-minute stretch in which UConn was behind — the longest that UConn had trailed this season. The only time that the Huskies were behind longer than 10 min- utes also had been against Stanford, the first time they met. Moore followed up her 3 with a sweet jumper and a layup on the break after Charles had blocked Nnemkadi Ogwumike on the other end. ‘‘I tried to step up and hit big shots,’’ she said. ‘‘We’re champions.’’ JJ Hones’ 3-pointer with 11:46 left in the game cut the deficit to 29-25, but then Charles made her presence felt, scoring seven of the Huskies next nine points to make it 38-27 with 7:42 left. Stanford would only get as close as five the rest of the way. UConn let the Cardinal close the gap late, making just 9 of 22 free throws for the game. This was the sixth time the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the final AP Top 25 poll met for the title. The last came in 2002 when UConn beat Oklahoma in San Antonio. Even though Stanford was second in the poll all season and its only loss came to Connecticut, it would have been a monu- mental upset had the Cardi- nal won. The two teams have developed a cross-country rivalry over the past three seasons after Stanford beat UConn in the 2008 national semifinals. The Huskies haven’t lost since, beating the Cardinal three times dur- ing that stretch. Waldis Joaquin. Joaquin, Dan Runzler, Sergio Romo and closer Brian Wilson combined for one hit in the last three innings. Wilson earned his second save. Wilson believes this early success has something to do with how they played in spring training. ‘‘I think so,’’ he said. ‘‘We had 20-something wins in spring in the Cactus League, it wasn’t by acci- dent.’’ Giants newcomer Aubrey Huff had two hits and drove in a run in a game that was scoreless until the sixth. It was the second tough offensive night for a Hous- ton team playing without star Lance Berkman. The loss followed Monday’s 5-2 season-opening defeat, where the Astros were shut out for eight innings. ‘‘Give Zito credit for how he pitched, but he threw some pitches we could have hit,’’ Houston’s Hunter Pence said. ‘‘This is not the way we should be play- ing. We just have to start scoring runs and start hit- ting. Hitting is contagious and once the first guy hits, we all will.’’ Zito was pleased with his first outing. ‘‘You want to start out on the right foot and let the team know that I’m going to carry my end of the load here as one of the five guys,’’ he said. ‘‘It’s big to come out and win a series in the second day and we can go out and get that sweep (Wednesday).’’ Astros starter Wandy Rodriguez (0-1) did better than he did this spring when he posted a 12.10 ERA, but took the loss after allowing seven hits and three runs in six innings. He struck out four and walked four. Neither team scored until Huff’s RBI single that came after consecutive walks in the sixth inning. San Francisco scored again when Pablo Sandoval narrow- ly evaded a tag from catcher Humberto Quintero after Pence caught a long fly ball and threw home. The third run of the inning came on an RBI single to right field by Juan Uribe. Rodriguez walked Andres Torres before striking out Zito to end the inning. ‘‘Wandy kind of answered all of our questions,’’ manager Brad Mills said. ‘‘He walked those two guys in the sixth, and we weren’t able to turn the double play, but he threw extremely well.’’ Houston rookie Tommy Manzella got plunked in the left forearm by a pitch by Joaquin with two outs in the seventh inning. Manzella was shaken up, but took his base after talking to Mills and a trainer for a bit. Joaquin was replaced by Runzler for the next bat- ter and he retired Geoff Blum to end the inning. Mills said he is OK but that he’ll probably get Wednesday See GIANTS, page 2B Tehama Tracker Spartans golf Daniel Frantz placed second overall and the Spartans were fourth at the Bear Creek Invitational in Stockton, Monday. Frantz’s 72 was good for second-place in a field of 109 golfers from 19 differ- ent teams. Bryan Benton shot an 84, Drew Wagner and Peter Mitzel each shot an 86, Brad Patchen shot an 87 and Justin Martinson shot 90. Spartans track and field Jeffrey Foster had a strong day for the Spartans, Saturday, at the Hornet Invitational hosted by Enterprise High School. Foster placed third in the 100 meters (11.43) and 200 meters (23.92) and also teamed with Colin Dahlberg, Grant Blaser and Taylor Hickson to take second in the 4x100 relay with a time of 44.16. Foster and Blaser also teamed with Devin Shoop and Zach Iverson to take fourth in the 4x400 relay. The Spartans boys team placed fifth out of 16 teams. Shoop took a fourth place finish in the 800 meters and a fifth place finish in the 3200 meters. Iverson was fifth in the 400 meters. Hickson was fifth in the 110-meter hurdles and sixth in the triple jump. Robert Schatz took a fifth place finish in the long jump and was sixth in the high jump. Ben Watland finished ninth in the 3200 meters. Tyler Demarath was 11th in the 300-meter hurdles and Zak Stroing was 11th in the discus and 14th in the shot put. For the Lady Spartans, Roxanne Luppino placed third in the 200 meters with a time of 28.33. She was seventh in the 100 meters. Alicia Brown was 10th in both the long jump and triple jump. Kathleen Parks was 10th in the 300-meter hurdles. Yoselin Polanco was 14th in the shot put and Mayra Jimenez was 18th in the discus. Wednesday April 7, 2010