Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (June 23, 2017)
8A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, JUNE 23, 2017 CONTACT US FOLLOW US facebook.com/ DailyAstorianSports Gary Henley | Sports Reporter ghenley@dailyastorian.com Blazers trade up to get Gonzaga’s Zach Collins By ANNE M. PETERSON Associated Press AP Photo/Frank Franklin II Zach Collins answers questions during an interview after be- ing selected by the Sacramento Kings as the 10th pick overall during the NBA basketball draft Thursday in New York. SPORTS IN BRIEF PORTLAND — The Portland Trail Blazers traded up to get another big man. Portland, which had three first- round picks going into Thursday night’s NBA draft, dealt the No. 15 and No. 20 picks to the Sacramento Kings for the No. 10 pick, center Zach Collins out of Gonzaga. The 7-footer, who played off the bench in his lone season with the Bulldogs, averaged 10 points, 5.9 rebounds and 1.8 blocks per game. Gonzaga went 37-2 last season, advancing all the way to the NCAA Tournament championship game against North Carolina. Collins, 19, was Gonzaga’s first one-and-done player. For the draft at the Barclays Center in New York, he paid homage to his hometown with a blazer lining and shoes decorated with “Las Vegas” prints. He found out about the trade “about 30 seconds” before he took the stage and donned a Kings hat, he said. In return for Collins, Sacramento got the draft rights to small forward Justin Jackson out of North Carolina, the 15th overall pick, and Duke for- ward Harry Giles, the 20th. Portland also took 6-foot-9 for- ward Caleb Swanigan out of Pur- due with the 26th pick. The Big Ten Player of the Year averaged 18.5 points and 12.5 rebounds last season as a sophomore. Collins said he can play at either the four or the five. He could be used in tandem with Jusuf Nurkic, a 6-foot-11 center who joined Portland in a February trade with Denver. Port- land also has 7-footer Meyers Leon- ard, a four-year veteran of the team. Collins didn’t mince words when it comes to what he thinks he can accomplish in his first year: “I don’t see why I can’t be Rookie of the Year.” Blazers President of Basketball Operations Neil Olshey said Collins caught his eye when Gonzaga played at Portland earlier this year. “He’s everything you want to look for in a big man in our league today, because he can play inside and out, he can defend the rim, he can defend one-on-one, he can defend pick and roll, Olshey said. “We think, whether he plays behind Nurk, then he can play with him too against some big- ger lineups.” Portland went 41-41 this season before getting ousted by the Golden State Warriors in the first round of the playoffs. It was the fourth straight year that the Blazers advanced to the postseason. COLLEGE WORLD SERIES Cano HRs twice, Moore wins debut as M’s top Tigers Associated Press SEATTLE — Andrew Moore justified his surprising call-up with a solid performance — although Robinson Cano made his job a whole lot easier. Cano hit a grand slam and a two-run homer, Moore pitched seven effective innings to win in his big league debut, and the Seat- tle Mariners held off the Detroit Tigers 9-6 on Thursday night for their fifth straight victory. “That was unbelievable,” said Moore, called up Wednesday from Triple-A Tacoma to replace strug- gling Yovani Gallardo in the rota- tion. “It felt like I blinked and it was over. It absolutely flew by. That was pretty special, just the way we kind of took that last punch where they started coming back.” Cano’s seventh-inning grand slam off Francisco Rodriguez, his 13th homer, put the Mariners up 9-3. His two-run shot off Dan- iel Norris (4-5) in the third staked Moore to a 5-1 lead. “The home runs hurt us,” Tigers manager Brad Ausmus said. “I thought we’d fought our way back into the game a little bit, and Cano’s grand slam kind of puts it out of reach.” ‘Small gesture’ for Big Papi: Boston names street for Ortiz Associated Press BOSTON — Ted Williams waited 24 years after his last at-bat before the Boston Red Sox hung his No. 9 from the Fenway Park facade. Bobby Doerr and Joe Cro- nin waited 37 years, and Carlton Fisk and Jim Rice 20. David Ortiz’s No. 34 will join the others tonight — 265 days after he walked off the Fenway field for the last time as a player. “That short amount of time is a symbol,” team president Sam Kennedy said Thursday, “of how everyone ... feels about the player who was the most import- ant player in the history of the Red Sox.” The Red Sox will retire Ortiz’s number Friday night before their game against the Los Angeles Angels. It will be the 11th num- ber on the facade, and the third in three seasons. And, yes, it will be less than a year after the player beloved as “Big Papi” walked off the field for the final time. AP Photo/Nati Harnik Oregon State’s Steven Kwan (4) reacts after reaching first base on a bunt in the first inning of an NCAA College World Series base- ball game against LSU in Omaha, Neb., Monday. The Beavers play the Louisiana State Tigers today at noon. Kwan, Madrigal set the pace for Beavers’ offense By BOB LUNDEBERG Albany Democrat-Herald PAPILLION, Neb. — A frightening inci- dent during the Civil War Pac-12 series indi- rectly led to the ascension of Oregon State’s offense. In the ninth inning of last month’s finale at Oregon, Nick Madrigal took a Kenyon Yovan fastball off his left hand that resulted in a deep bone bruise. Madrigal, the team’s regular leadoff batter, started just four of the Beavers’ final eight regular-season games and went 1 for 5 in the Corvallis Regional opener against Holy Cross. With Madrigal experiencing hand sore- ness, coach Pat Casey decided to have regular two-hole hitter Steven Kwan flip spots with the Pac-12 player of the year. Batting second, Madrigal could swing less and bunt more until the pain subsided. The new-look lineup, which was meant to be temporary, has terrorized opposing pitch- ers from the start. Kwan went 4 for 5 in Game 2 against Yale and 3 for 4 in the finale, winning the region- al’s Most Outstanding Player award. Madri- gal finished 4 for 4 with four bunt singles in Game 3. SPORTS SCHEDULE TODAY Junior Baseball — Kennedy at War- renton, 4 p.m. SATURDAY Junior Baseball — Kennedy at War- renton, 11 a.m. SUNDAY Junior Baseball — Knappa at Astoria Ford, 3 p.m.; Lower Columbia Baseball vs. Astoria Ford, 7 p.m.; Kennedy at Warrenton, 11 a.m. • Oregon State Beavers (2-0) vs Louisiana State Tigers (2-1) • Today, noon TV: ESPN “Coach Casey does a great job with the lineup,” Madrigal said after Wednesday’s practice at Werner Park, home of the Omaha Storm Chasers. The top-seeded Beavers (56- 4) will take a 23-game winning streak into today’s 12:05 p.m. College World Series game. “He knows all of us players, knows what our strengths are. Kwan usually gets deep into counts and it’s been working well for us.” In six games since the switch, both players are 12 for 23 at the plate. Kwan has scored 11 runs and collected five RBIs while Madrigal has eight RBIs and five runs. “We just kind of stumbled into it,” Casey said. “(Kwan) certainly made himself an unbelievable leadoff guy. Nick’s kind of more of an aggressive hitter and (Kwan) doesn’t mind getting deep in counts, so it’s a really good situation for us.” Kwan, a sophomore outfielder, has tried to borrow some of Madrigal’s tricks. Other than the first-at bat of a game, Kwan said his approach at the plate hasn’t changed. “I want to take some pitches, really let the team see what the pitcher’s got,” Kwan said of the first inning. “And after that, I kind of do things the same way as if I was in the sec- ond hole. I kind of watched how Nick does it. Nick’s pretty aggressive early in the counts, so I try to go like that and get a good pitch to hit.” Kwan opened the CWS with a four-pitch at-bat against Cal State Fullerton, reaching on a catcher’s interference. In Monday’s 13-1 thrashing of LSU, Kwan drag bunted the first pitch he saw for a hit and scored on a Trevor Larnach single. He has walked three times in two games at TD Ameritrade Park. “Kwan does a great job of taking and kind of working the pitcher,” Madrigal said. “It makes it a lot easier hitting behind him because he usually puts pressure on the pitcher and makes my job a lot easier.” The effects can be felt up and down the OSU lineup. In seven NCAA tournament games, the Beavers are averaging nine runs and 12.1 hits per contest. OSU has outscored the opposition 63-15. Debate stirs over female lacrosse players not wearing helmets By LARRY LAGE Associated Press SCOREBOARD UP NEXT: BEAVERS ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Erin Fos- ter was running toward a groundball at an indoor lacrosse game when she was pushed, sending her unprotected head into a wall. “It basically cracked my skull,” the 20-year-old Ann Arbor Pioneer High School graduate recalled. “They said it was a traumatic head injury, a level up from a concussion. I had to have surgery that night and I still have a scar on my head.” Would a helmet, like the ones worn by male lacrosse players, have helped? “Yeah, probably,” said Foster, who was unable to play for more than a year because of her injury and now attends Calvin College. Helmets are not a required piece of equipment worn by women who play high school or college lacrosse. Just this year, the National Federation of State High School Associations allowed the optional use of two mod- els of headgear beyond the padded headbands familiar to fans and play- ers of the game. According to Consumer Prod- uct Safety Commission data, lacrosse (both genders) was ranked No. 13 in terms of sports injuries that required trips to the emergency room for ath- letes between the ages of 13-17. Between 2002 and 2014, there were an average of 5,830 such injuries each year, and the most common injury was to the head ; female athletes were just 26.4 percent of the total. In 2018, Florida will become the first state to mandate high school female lacrosse players wear protec- tive equipment over their entire head. At least one coach there, in Fort Lau- derdale, Florida, isn’t in favor of the move. “I do think eventually it is going to make things worse,” St. Thomas Aquinas coach Samantha MacCurdy said. “I think it’s going to make us more aggressive. I think a few more things the refs are going to let slide because we have the helmets on.” Kathy Westdorp acknowledged headgear has been a topic of discus- sion in lacrosse circles for the last few years.
