Sports Editor
Peter Hockaday
peterhockaday@dailyemercdd.com
Thursday, April 10,2003
-Oregon Daily Emerald
Sports
Best bet
NBA: Sacramento at L.A. Lakers
7 p.m., TNT
Softball takes two from Portland State
Jeremy Forrest Emerald
Andrea Vidlund (8) finished Wednesday's doubleheader with two
home runs. She went 4-for-6 and also notched a win as a pitcher.
Led by senior Andrea Vidlund,
Oregon sweeps a doubleheader
in its first home games of2003
Softball
Mindi Rice
Sports Reporter
Just like it opened and shut the door on
Portland State, Oregon opened and shut
the day with offense.
The Ducks scored five runs in the bot
tom of the first inning on their way to a 7
2 win in the first game of Wednesday’s
doubleheader.
In the second game, No. 20 Oregon
loaded the bases in the eighth inning and
senior outfielder Amber Hutchison scored
the winning run in the Ducks’ 3-2 win.
“It was great to be home and have our
offense shine today,” head coach Kathy
Arendsen said. “This is a great way to
open our home season and I’m very hap
py with how we played.”
The first game began with solid de
fense as the Vikings hit into a line-drive
out and a groundout. Freshman pitcher
Amy Harris struck out the third batter
to close the inning.
With one out in the bottom of the first,
sophomore second baseman Erin Goodell
and freshman outfielder Beth Boskovieh
earned walks. Sophomore third baseman
Ashley Richards followed with a single to
score Goodell.
Senior Andrea Vidlund singled to cen
ter field, loading the bases for senior first
baseman Alyssa Laux. Laux hit a sacrifice
fly to score Boskovieh.
With two outs and runners still on first
and second, junior catcher Jenn Poore hit a
home run deep over the left field fence to
put Oregon (20-11 overall, 2-5 Pacific-10
Conference) ahead 5-0. Sophomore Mari
Lyn Petrick struck out to end the inning.
Portland State (11-17 overall, 3-1 Pa
cific Coast Softball Conference) answered
with one run in the top of the second on a
double by Annie Peccia.
In the bottom of the third, the Ducks
added two insurance runs on a home run.
Richards singled to left and Vidlund hit her
third home run of the season — a shot to
left field—to close the scoring for Oregon.
The Vikings answered in the top of the
fourth when Peccia drove in a run with
her second double of the day.
Harris gave up two runs — one un
earned — and struck out three batters in
four innings.
Sophomore Lindsey Kontra gave up
one hit in the last three innings. She also
struck out three batters.
Turn to Softball, page 10
Rhythmic
Senior triple jumper Foluso
Akinradewo is leaping to success
for the Duck men, and ife been
simply a matter of finding his beat
Track and field
Peter Hockaday
Sports Editor
Fittingly, Foluso Akinradewo carries
around a CD player and a pair of those fat
headphones. You know the type. The ear
swallowing headphones. The ones that
feel like a stereo on your head.
See, Akinradewo competes in the
triple jump for the Oregon men’s track
and field squad. And the triple jump, it
seems, is all about rhythm.
“It’s kind of like dancing,” Akinradewo
said. “If you don’t have coordination and
rhythm, you can’t triple jump. Some peo
ple can’t control their speed in the triple
jump, and then you can’t do it. You have
to have that rhythm, you have to control
that speed.”
Akinradewo’s got the beat. That’s
partly why the senior from Fresno,
Calif., was able to finish second last sea
son in the triple jump at the Pac-10
Championships. Second only to USC’s
Julien Kapek, who finished third at the
national meet.
But the key number in that sen
tence, in relation to Akinradewo, is
“second.” This year, Akinradewo’s try
ing to dance all the way to the top.
“I’ve been making steady progress, but
I’m hoping I can just blow up this year,”
Akinradewo said. “I was happy with sec
ond place in Pac-lOs, but I didn’t get to
nationals, so that’s what I need to do, start
chasing some national marks. ”
To get what he wants, he will have to
improve on his personal best of 50 feet,
10 3/4 inches. Sure, Akinradewo is good
enough to sit 10th all-time on the Ore
gon list, but Kapek
jumped 55-3 at
Pac-lOs last year,
and with the top
Trojan back this
season, Akinrade
wo knows he needs
to get better.
Sort of like he’s
gotten better every
season since step
ping on the Oregon
campus.
Akinradewo
jumped right into
—pun intended—
his Duck career
four years ago. He had a successful start
to his first season, jumping 50 feet in
winter indoor action and winning four
competitions during the outdoor sea
son. But the pressures of big-time col
lege track eventually caught up with
him, and he went flat like a day-old soda
at the end of the year.
Turn to Track, page 12
Emerald
Foluso Akinradewo said the triple jump is as technical as any track event, as it requires strength and timing.
Masters contenders will cringe like bunnies in front of Tiger
At 10:44 a.m. today, Tiger Woods
will try to rewrite history — again.
His journey begins at the par
4,435-yard hole 1 at Augusta Na
tional, where
he will state his
case to 92
competitors
and the world
to become the
first ever to
win three
straight times
at The Masters.
In 2001,
Woods shot
nothing worse
than par down
the stretch. It
was good enough for his first of the
possible trifeeta.
Jesse
Thomas
Go the distance
Last year’s lead on the back nine
showed Woods’ poise to win his sec
ond straight as some of the world’s
best crumbled.
No player has ever been able to
threepeat at The Masters. Only Jack
Nicklaus in 1965-66 and Nick Faldo
in 1989-90 remotely had a chance.
In Nicklaus’ third attempt, he
shot a second-round 79 and missed
the cut by just one stroke. The
Golden Bear didn’t miss another cut
at The Masters for 27 years.
Faldo made the cut in his third
attempt in 1991. Although he
headed into the weekend nine
strokes off the lead, he was only
able to finish 12th, just five
strokes behind Ian Woosnam.
Now, with the 76th Masters be
ginning, the question is not whether
Woods can win, but whether there
is anyone who can stop him.
The problem surrounding the
rest of the golf world is that no one
can stop Tiger. All you have is a
group of five individuals who, on
their best day, may have a chance
to make a run or contest for sec
ond place.
Who is this group of five individu
als that make up The Masters “B”
squad, might you ask? Allow me to
introduce them.
Ernie Els has never won at Au
gusta, although he finished in the
runner-up position in 2000. Els is
one of the many players whose
greatness is shadowed by the aura
of Tiger Woods, and many people
forget that in the first two months of
2003, Els won four times.
When Els finished runner-up in
2000, he fell two strokes shy of Vi
jay Singh. Singh wore the green
jacket for the first and only time of
his career, although now he is re
covering from a rib injury. He is a
long shot, but he has tasted victory
before and knows the feeling.
At age 39, Davis Love III is run
ning out of time in his prime, or at
least some would think that. Love
just shot a final round 64 at the
Players Championship two weeks
ago. If he can use his experience to
guide him and with deadly putting,
he could have a shot.
Then there is Retief Goosen, the
no-name of the group. Not much to
say except he was runner up last
year after holding a tie for the lead
with Tiger after 54 holes. One can
only hope he will learn from his ex
periences after falling three strokes
off the lead in the final round.
Last but definitely not least is Phil
Mickelson. Talk about someone who
is overdue. Mickelson will be com
peting in his 43rd major and so far,
not a single victory. He does have
21 PGA Tour victories and he is the
one who always seems to finish sec
ond or third behind Tiger.
And if you factor in the chance of
rain almost every day, which makes
the course play much longer, long
hitters like Tiger get an edge. As if
he really needed one.
So now we must think of not if
Tiger will win, but how will he win?
Could it be a four-stroke victory
Turn to Thomas, page 10