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Friday Baseball — Corning at Yreka, 4 p.m. Baseball — East Nicolaus at Los Molinos, 4:30 p.m. Baseball — Red Bluff at Enterprise, 4 p.m. Softball — East Nicolaus at Los Molinos, 4:30 p.m. Softball — Yreka at Corning, 4 p.m. MLB— Rockies at Giants, 7 p.m., MNT-21 Sports 1B Friday April 30, 2010 Farewell...for now? By RICH GREENE DN Sports Editor The wind gave Red Bluff phys- ical support, Thursday as the Spartans banged out 16 hits, including two homers, but it was the mental support that was hon- ored in a mercy shortened 5- inning 14-4 win over Paradise. On Senior Night, the support of mothers, fathers and even team- mates was at the heart of a win that helped the Spartans close out a perfect regular season at home. Steve Gappa, an assistant coach with the Spartans this season, has also been coaching a majority of the players at one level or another since they were five years-old. Many of them played on Red Bluff’s 10 year-old Little League team that pushed for a state cham- pionship. “They just have fun. They rally around each other and they’ll kick each other’s butt,” Gappa said of the senior class. A family affair on Thursday, it was Steve’s son, Cody Gappa that ignited the fireworks for Red Bluff with a three-run homer in the first inning. Cody was a single shy of a cycle and drove in six games in what may have been his last Red Bluff home game. With the win the Spartans pushed their record to 17-7 overall and 8-2 in the Eastern Athletic League — leaving a first round playoff game back at home a real- istic possibility. However the Spartans were saying all the right things follow- ing their rout of Paradise, not wanting to talk about a possible league title and instead focusing on playing out the remaining four games of the regular season. They would talk about each however. “We’re all buddies. We hang out all the time. It helps our team to be that much stronger,” said leadoff hitter Derek Jones. The top of the order did it’s job setting the table in the win. Jones reached base all four times he came up to bat, including hitting a pair of singles and dou- ble. Right behind him EJ Stanton matched his performance with a double, two singles and a walk of his own. The Spartans tacked on one more run in the first inning after Gappa’s blast to center field when senior Maison Etzler drove in senior pitcher Scott Avery on a fielder’s choice. Avery held the Bobcats in Daily News photo by Rich Greene EJ Stanton (9) celebrates with Scott Avery (5) and Derek Jones (11) following Cody Gappa’s three-run homer,Thursday. check for four of five innings, but was touched up by a couple of long balls in the fourth inning to cut the Spartans lead to 6-3. It didn’t matter. Red Bluff responded with six runs of their own in the fourth inning as they batted around, highlighted by a feel-good homer by senior Trevor Gipson cranked to center field that also scored senior Dante Garaventa. Senior Trevor Miller had an unlucky day at the plate, ripping two hard hit balls right at Paradise fielders. Senior Cliff Dais leant his defensive efforts in a strong error- free performance behind Avery. Following a ceremony to honor the seniors during the middle of the fifth, Red Bluff came out and finished the job in short order. Jones doubled. Stanton doubled him home and then Gappa tripled in Stanton for the 14-4 win. “Every game at home we came out ready to play,” said Stanton, who was all smiles talking about his senior year. He wasn’t the only one. And on Thursday the Spartans’ homes away from the baseball diamond were adding just as much to their excitement as a 10- run win. Streaking PV upends Spartans By RICH GREENE DN Sports Editor Even for a team as good as the Lady Spar- tans this wasn’t going to be the year to see an undefeated run through the Eastern Athletic League. Not with the depth in talent in 2010. Red Bluff suffered their first league loss, Thursday, in a 5-2 defeat handed to them by the Pleasant Valley Vikings. The same Vikings team that opened the EAL 0-4. Four games later, they’re 4-4 and knocking off the league leaders. That’s parity. “We got outhit, out- pitched, outplayed — pretty simple,” Spartans coach J Howell said. It started early as the Pleasant Valley leadoff hitter ripped a double to left field and then came around to score on a pair of passed balls. The game stayed quiet until the sixth inning when Pleasant Valley tacked on two more runs following a leadoff walk and back- to-back singles. Red Bluff finally found some offense as well in the sixth inning. Los Molinos golf, win league title Los Molinos finished off Mid-Valley League play with one of their best per- formances of the season and in doing so captured their third league title since 2001. The Bulldogs have auto- matically qualified for the Division III championships to be held at Plumas Pines beginning May 10. Zach Mathues led the way for Los Molinos with an 84 and Wills Mathues shot a 100. Los Molinos took full points on both the Front 9 and Back 9 and finished the season 10 points ahead of second place Esparto. Tehama Tracker Cardinals softball Corning remained perfect in the Northern Athletic League wit a 10-3 win over Central Val- ley, Thursday. Lizeth Wilfong led the way with a pair of doubles and three RBIs. Anna Curry tripled and drove in a run. Sonya Scott had a dou- ble, Michelle Silva drove in a run and Karlie Jennings picked up two hits. Hailey Winterson earned the win. Cardinals track and field The boys 4x400 relay team of Blaine Glover, Fontaine Richardson, Anthony Miranda and Jose Torres took first place a tri-meet with Lassen and Yreka Glover also took a first place in the high jump with a mark of 5’4” and was second in both the long and triple jumps. Corning finished 1-2 in the discus as Luis Piseno was first with a toss of 128’1” and Kevin Landavazo was second. Piseno also placed second in the shotput. Gear McMillan was third in the pole vault and Jose Tor- res was third in both the 800 and 1600 meters. On the girls side, Mattie Maloney was first in the pole vault, clearing 9-feet and placed third in the long jump. Kelcey Nooner was second in the discus. Regan Albee was third in the 300-meter hurdles and Karen Torres placed third in the 800 and 3200 meters. A’s give up three homers to John Buck and lose 6-3 TORONTO (AP) — An extra session of batting practice helped John Buck have the best game of his career. Buck became the first catcher in six years to hit three home runs in a game, Travis Snider added a solo shot and the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Oakland Ath- letics 6-3 Thursday night. ‘‘Buck had a night that you can only dream of as a kid: three home runs in a ballgame,’’ manager Cito Gaston said. Buck led off the third inning with a drive off right-hander Justin Duchscherer into the left field bullpen. His next two homers came off left-handers as he greeted reliever Jerry Blevins with a three-run homer into the second deck in left in the fourth and connected against Craig Breslow for a solo shot off the center-field restaurant in the sixth. The barrage came after Buck took early batting practice with hitting coach Dwayne Murphy watching and pitching coach Bruce Walton throwing. ‘‘I’ll do it every day if I’ll get those results,’’ Buck said. ‘‘(Walton) is my favorite right now.’’ The focus of the session was to get Buck’s hands moving more quickly. ‘‘I’ve been getting pitches to hit and I’ve been fouling them straight back, then swinging at the nasty pitches and missing the ones I should be hitting,’’ he said. ‘‘I was just concentrating on getting my foot down early and getting my hands ready.’’ Daily News photo by Rich Greene When one out, Haley Harris singled and then advanced to second on a Bryce Etzler groundout. Danisha Slay was able to double in Harris and then Brittany Fletcher traded places with Slay with a double of her own. The Vikings came back with two more runs in the top of the seventh to seal the game after their leadoff hitter reached on a two-base Megan McColpin lays down a bunt,Thursday, in the first inning. error. The Vikings outhit Red Bluff nine to five and as Howell pointed out afterward, it’s hard to win games being out- hit almost two-to-one. Megan McColpin pitched six innings for Red Bluff and struck out five. With the recent spell of rain the Lady Spar- tans schedule has been altered. As of Thursday Red Bluff is expected to trav- el to Paradise on Tues- day for a 5:30 p.m. game then host the Lady Bob- cats at 4 p.m. Wednes- day and Shasta at 4 p.m. May 6. There’s road games scheduled at Chico May 11 and at Pleasant Val- ley on May 12, before the Lady Spartans wrap up their regular season schedule at home against Oroville at 4 p.m., Friday, May 14. Buck got a standing ovation from the crowd of 10,721 when he led off the eighth against Oakland righty Andrew Bailey. He swung and missed the first two pitches, fouled one back, then flied out to right. The fans remained standing as Buck jogged back to the dugout. ‘‘He’s always been a guy that has power,’’ Oakland man- ager Bob Geren said. ‘‘If you don’t locate the ball, he can do damage and he did tonight.’’ It’s the first three-homer game and sixth multihomer game of Buck’s career. It was the first three-homer game by a Blue Jays player since Adam Lind did it at Boston on Sept. 29, 2009. ‘‘He did a tremendous job,’’ Blue Jays left-hander Ricky Romero (2-1) said. ‘‘It’s pretty cool when you get to see something like that. Three home runs in one game is not something you see every day. Good for him. He deserves it, he’s been working hard.’’ Victor Martinez was the last catcher with a three-homer game, doing it for Cleveland at Seattle on July 16, 2004. Oakland lost Duchscherer to a sore left hip three batters into the fourth. Manager Bob Geren and trainer Stephen Sayles came to the mound to check on the right-hander when he grimaced after throwing a pitch to Toronto’s Jose Bautista. Duchscherer stayed in the game but was replaced by Blevins after Bautista lined a single to center. He limped back to the dugout. Duchscherer (2-1) missed all of last season after having elbow surgery and was limited to 17 games in 2007 with a right hip injury that required two surgeries, one that year and another in 2008. He said this pain, ‘‘a real sharp, quick jolt,’’ reminded him of the earlier injury. See A's, page 2B