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Large Swimming Pool
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Staie-ol-lhe-Art
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Volleyball and
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Barbecue drills
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Ducks Village
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Pennant race keeps
Ems in fierce battle
■ Having spent the last two seasons at the bottom of the
Northwest League, the Ems play hardball
By Jeff Smith
Oregon Daily Emerald
The sight is a pretty one for the
Eugene Emeralds.
They can look down in the
Southern Division standings of the
Northwest League and see the rest
of the teams looking up at them.
The Ems keep battling through
the day-to-day grind of the minor
league season and still find them
selves in first place. In fact, today
marks the 24th consecutive day that
Eugene has been atop the division.
Even after Monday night’s 14-1
loss to the Vancouver Canadians
up in Vancouver, B.C., the Ems still
find themselves 11/2 games ahead
of the second-place Canadians.
Tonight marks the last of six
straight games between the two
teams, who played against each oth
er at Civic Stadium last week from
Thursday through Saturday. Eu
gene then heads home for a three
game tilt against the Salem-Keizer
Volcanoes from August 9-11.
The Ems actually opened its
homestand last week against the
then-second place Portland Rock
ies, who got swept right out of Eu
gene, and out of second-place.
Many of the Ems credit their
play to the fact that they are in
volved in a pennant race, where
every game gains importance as the
season winds down.
“I think that the kids are compet
itive on both teams and it only
makes them that much more so
when there’s a pennant rade going
on,” said Eugene hitting instructor
Tom Beyers of his team and Van
couver. “You come out here every
day and it’s nice to be in it. When
you gotta play 76 games in a year
and you’re in last place, it’s no fun.
“But this, this is fun.”
Indeed, the fans that continue to
pour into Civic Stadium night after
night are seeing the type of baseball
that makes them feel like they are
getting their money’s worth.
“Oh man, this crowd has been
awesome all year,” centerfielder
Mike Mallory said. “They help us
out more than they know. ”
Beyers has been around the mi
nor-league game a long time and has
been amazed at the type of support
he’s seen in his first year in town.
“You have to enjoy playing in
front of these crowds,” Beyers said. t -
“They draw well every night and
that has to motivate you right there.
This league definitely outdraws *
many of the higher ranked minor
league teams. Crowd-wise, you
can’t beat it.”
With only 29 more games remain
ing in the regular season, the crowds
will continue to play a vital role
down the home stretch as the Ems
try to erase memories of its last-place
finishes in the past two years and
grab a Northwest League title.
The Ems close out the season
with three home games against the
Portland Rockies on Sept. 4-6, with
the Northwest League Champi
onship Series taking place the fol
lowing week between the Northern
and Southern division winners.
“We’re getting a good team con
cept together and are developing a
great team,” second baseman Blake
Blasi said. “Hopefully we can keep
it up and win this league. ”
Basketball
continued from page 5
back-burner during that time of the
year and with Fox Sports helping
out, it could be great. Also, it would
enable the Pac-10 to possibly get
more berths in the NCAA Tourna
ment.”
Oregon women’s head coach
}ody Runge, however, is less than
thrilled with such a proposal. She
admits that she’s probably in the
minority on the issue, but that she
likes it just the way it is.
“I think there are a lot of unan
swered questions,” Runge said.
“Conceptually, yeah, it’s easy to
jump on the bandwagon and say
‘Let’s go for it.’ But the logistics still
need to be worked out.”
The main thing Runge wants to
keep is the double-round robin
schedule with all ten teams playing
each other twice.
“I wouldn’t want to give up a non
conference game in December be
cause those games help our RPI (Rat
ings Percentage Index),” Runge said.
“But as long as we keep the round
robin, I guess I could live with it.”
The two schools that voted
against a Pac-10 tournament were
Arizona and Stanford.
“Those schools are always in
contention so they don’t want to
have to prove themselves over and
over,” Moos said. “But it offers ex
citement to the teams that havfi-^
been struggling and gives them
something to play for toward the
end of the season.”
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