Oregon improves
in second round
■ After the second day in
Arizona, the Ducks are
poised for a top-10 finish
By Peter Hockaday
for the Emerald
Two-thirds of the way through
the Arizona Wildcat Invitational,
and the Ducks are only getting
better with age.
After a dismal performance
Monday, the women’s golf team
took a step in the right direction
in the second round, which took
place yesterday. The Ducks
jumped three positions and fin
ished the day 14th of 18 teams.
Of the six golfers playing with
the team, all but senior Angie Riz
zo improved their scores from the
first round to the second. Rizzo
still enjoys the team’s best overall
score, a four-over par 148.
Senior Anika Heuser had the
most dramatic improvement,
jumping from a 10-over par 82 on
Monday to a one-under 71 in the
second round. That improvement
was enough to move her from
90th to 62nd place.
Junior Jerilyn White improved
her score by five strokes, finishing
in 37th. Senior co-captain Pam
Sowden improved by six strokes,
earning the 69th position. Sopho
more Julia Smith had the team’s
worst score yet still managed to
shoot seven strokes better than
her performance on Monday.
While Arizona senator John
McCain was tearing it up in the
presidential primaries, his state’s
largest university was tearing it
up on the golf course. The No. 1
ranked Wildcats moved into first
at their tournament, finishing sev
en strokes ahead of second place
teams Arizona State and Stan
ford. Arizona is 37 strokes ahead 1
of Oregon.
More importantly, Southern j
California is nnly ten strokes
ahead of the Ducks. USC holds
down the tenth spot right now,
but if Oregon can repeat Tues
day’s perform
ance they could
find themselves
taking over
USC’s spot by
tonight.
The fight for
second place in
the tournament may be more cap
tivating than the race for first.
Fourth-ranked Arizona State and
No. 6 Stanford share the second
spot with 2-under par 574s, while
No. 2 Duke is three strokes be
hind the two second-place teams.
For Oregon to finish well, they
will have to overcome a handful
of ranked teams. Fourteen of the
country’s top 25 teams lead the
Ducks, including the top seven in
MasterCard’s Collegiate Rank
ings. Oregon needs a strong per
formance in order to keep their
spot at 24th in the rankings.
The 54-hole tournament, being
held at the Randolph Park Golf
Course in Tucson, concludes to
day with an 18-hole round.
O’Neill
continued from page 7 A
coup that could rival the infa
mous Babe Ruth deal to the New
York Yankees, it may prove to be
too much for the Reds to give up
for one player — albeit a very
good, if not great player. But they
still gave up arguably their best
major league arm and a good mi
nor league one.
Many experts say Tomko (5-7,
4.92) was the best of Cincinnati’s
pitchers. ESPN.corn’s Peter Gam
mons wrote in his recent article
about the trade.
“In Gil Meche, Freddie Garcia,
John Halama, and Brett Tomko
they (Mariners) have four young
pitchers whose ceilings run from
No. 1 starter to No. 3. Watch
Tomko, who has undergone a
vigorous off-season program and
• is ready to take off after a side
tracked season.”
With the departure of Tomko,
the Reds are left with a starting
rotation that consists of Ron Vil
lone, Steve Parris, Denny Neagle,
and Pete Harnisch. Not very good
for a team that considers itself in
the hunt for the pennant.
Villone has seemed to have fi
nally found his niche with the
Reds, going 9-7 last season after
stints with four other teams and
compiling a career record of 13
11. Parris has split all four of his
major league career decisions be
tween Pittsburgh and Cincy, with
a record of 23-18.
Harnisch and Neagle are the
only two proven commodities on
the staff, but both have yet to re
turn to the level that they experi
enced in the past. Harnisch (102
94) was once a solid starter who
provided innings and quality
starts for both the Mets and the
Orioles before he battled with de
pression, resulting from quitting
chewing tobacco.
Neagle (90-60), who was ac
quired by the Reds in hopes of
being their No. 1 starter, has yet
to bounce back fully from shoul
der surgery.
The big concern for Reds’ gen
eral manager Jim Bowden, in
pulling off this trade was keeping
top prospects, and Griffey’s po
tential salary demands. But Grif
fey took less money, and Bowden
was able to keep his prized
prospects.
Unfortunately for Bowden,
none of those prospects are
pitchers. Even with adequate
pitching, the Reds wouldn’t be
able to go as far as they think they
can.
They need to look no further
than the aforementioned Astros,
who last season had some of the
hottest arms in the league, if not
baseball.
They boasted two 20-game
winners in Mike Hampton (22-4)
and Jose Lima (21-10), as well as
16-game winner Shane
Reynolds, and yet they were still
run quickly from October play.
While Griffey will definitely
sell a lot of season tickets and hit
a lot of home runs, he is still only
one player. And in baseball, un
like basketball, a team needs
more than one player to put it
over the top.
For an example, look no fur
ther than Atlanta. They have a
ton of big bats and great pitching,
but still can’t win a World Series.
So until the Reds can get a le
gitimate No. 1 starter, there will
no return to the glory days of
“The Big Red Machine” that the
reunion of Griffey Junior and Se
nior like the Cincy faithful are
hop.ing for.
Matt O’Neill is a sports reporter for the
Emerald. He can be reached via e-mail at
moneill@gladstone.uoregon.edu.
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