Friday
Best Bet
MLB: Seattle at Texas
5 p.m., Fox Sports Net
SPORTS EDITOR: JEFF SMITH Smittside@aol.com
Tough Pac-10 foes await Ducks in Bay Area
■ Loser of three straight, the Oregon softball squad hits the road to
take on No. 4 Stanford and No. 5 California
By Adam Jude
Oregon Daily Emerald
After two heart-breaking, seventh-in
ning defeats at Portland State Tuesday,
the Oregon women’s softball team is
looking to turn its season around this
weekend in the Bay Area.
And, if you’re the Ducks, in the midst
of a three-game slide and losers of eight
of 11, the worst schedule to have is one
in the Pacific-10 Conference. Head
coach Rick Gamez, however, is trying to
keep up his team’s optimism as they em
bark on a three-game road trip against
two of the nation’s top five teams.
The Ducks (23-21 overall, 1-2 Pac-10)
travel to San Francisco to take on No. 4
Stanford today for a 2 p.m. matchup,
and No. 5 California on Saturday and
Sunday.
“It’s not easy going on the road, espe
cially in the Pac-10,” Gamez said.
“We’re just trying to keep the team posi
tive and stay positive for seven innings.”
At Wednesday’s practice, Gamez said
the focus was for the Ducks to stay
strong for the duration of the games. In
Lorenzo displays ‘grit' in victory
■Junior Santiago Lorenzo beats top
competition to pull off the
comeback victory in the Texas Relays
Decathlon
By Jeff Smith
Oregon Daily Emerald
He was only 288 points behind the
leader after day one.
But did Oregon junior decathlete Santia
go Lorenzo believe he could come from be
hind Thursday to win the two-day Texas
Relays Decathlon?
“Not really,” Lorenzo said.
Lo and behold, the
junior surprised himself
with a personal-best sec
ond day performance to
become the first Duck in
52 years to win the
Texas Relays.
But who could blame
Lorenzo for doubting himself, considering
the leader of the pack was none other than
multi-event track and field star Trafton
Rodgers, who was a three-time national
champion and eight-time Division II All
American while at Abilene Christian in the
late 1990s?
Rodgers, who was competing unat
tached, stumbled in the 1,500 meters — the
10th and final event of the decathlon —
and finished second-to-last in an unim
pressive five minutes and 28.3 seconds.
Rodgers’ slow time left the door wide open
for Lorenzo, and the Duck took full advan
tage.
Lorenzo gave it his all in his last race of
the day and came from 50 meters behind to
catch up to unattached Allen Bullick, who
had led throughout the race. The two creat
ed a photo finish at the line, with Lorenzo’s
final lean proving the difference as he
earned first place in the event by a mere
0.08 seconds.
Lorenzo’s winning time of 4:30.57 also
proved to be the difference in the entire
meet, as he won and earned an automatic
qualification to the NCAA Championships
in the process.
His final point tally of 7,726 was 23
points ahead of second-place Rodgers and
topped his previous career-high of 7,649,
earned at last season’s Pac-10 Champi
onships at Hayward Field.
“I thought I could win among the colle
gians but not against people like Rodgers,”
said Lorenzo, who leaped 275 points over
Rodgers in that final event. “Trafton ran re
ally pathetically in the 1,500. I think he
kind of let up a bit on that. I mean, 5:30 is a
slow time. My grandma could run that
time.”
But don’t think the Buenos Aires, Ar
gentina, native is complaining after climb
ing from sixth to first place in the talented
18-person field.
“It means a lot,” Lorenzo said. “It’s a
Turn to Santiago, page 12
Geoff Thurner
Oregon Media Services
Oregon junior
Santiago Lorenzo
leaped a career-high
of 15-9 in the pole
vault (above) and
launched the javelin
201-4, just a foot less
than his personal
best (right) during his
victorious
performance at the
Texas Relays
Decathlon Thursday.
the second game of a doubleheader
against Portland State, the Ducks sur
rendered a three-run lead in the bottom
of the seventh to lose 8-7. Portland State
also won the first game in the last at-bat.
“We’ve just stressed working hard for
seven innings, which is something we
fell short of in both games [against Port
land State],” Gamez said.
Gamez has not announced the starters
Turn to Softball, page 12
No deadline for
Runge analysis
■ Bill Moos says it’s ‘imperative’ that investigators
have time to conduct a fair review of the women’s
basketball program
SOFTBALL
By Adam Jude
Oregon Daily Emerald
Thursday’s breaking news is that
there is no new news.
Day 33 of the saga surrounding the
Oregon women’s basketball program
and head coach Jody Runge showed
little sign of the controversy coming to
an end any time soon.
Kansas City law firm Bond, Schoe
neck and King, hired by the Athletic
Department March 27, is still looking
into the matter and could take another
two weeks to finish its report.
On Sunday, Oregon Athletic Direc
tor Bill Moos said he hoped that the in
vestigators would be done by the end
of the week, but in a statement released
Thursday, he said he is not putting any
pressure on the lawyers from Bond,
Schoeneck and King.
“There is a strong desire to bring this
process to closure,” Moos said. “It is
imperative, however, that the team be
allowed to conduct its review in the
professional, confidential, fair and ob
jective manner that is consistent with
the firm’s national reputation.
“To ensure that end result, I have not
set a deadline for the review, but have
asked that the team focus on ensuring
the review is thorough, impartial and
fair.”
The investigators have interviewed
more than 80 people, including Runge,
members of the Athletic Department,
players, former players and communi
ty members. The evaluations of the
program stem from a March 4 meeting
between Moos and eight unidentified
players, who asked that Runge — the
winningest coach in Oregon basketball
history — be fired.
“The review team will now assess
the information it gathered and deter
mine whether it requires additional in
terviews or information before prepar
ing its report,” Moos said.
University spokeswoman Maureen
Shine said Thursday that a two-week
timeline is reasonable, but she does
not know for sure when the evaluation
will conclude.
“We’re reluctant to put a time frame
around it right now because we want
the team of investigators to do what
they have to do,” Shine said. “I would
say that two weeks is practical, but
we’re not going to hold ourselves or
the investigators to that.
“Just stay tuned.”
MOOS
Hto
ensure that
end result, I
have not set
a deadline
for the re
view, but
have asked
that the
team
focus on
ensuring the
review is
thorough,
impartial
and fair.
Bill Moo$
Oregon
athletic
director
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