10A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, JUNE 28, 2017
CONTACT US
FOLLOW US
facebook.com/
DailyAstorianSports
Gary Henley | Sports Reporter
ghenley@dailyastorian.com
Tourney winners, baseball and softball
The Daily Astorian
Submitted Photo
The Lower Columbia 11U All-Stars pose with their first-place trophy, fol-
lowing their tournament victory in Longview, Wash.
There are more recent first-
place tournament finishes for
local teams.
In Cal Ripken Baseball
action, the Lower Colum-
bia 11U All-Stars won a tour-
nament in Longview, Wash-
ington, the weekend of June
16-18.
Lower Columbia lost its
first game, then bounced back
to win four straight to take
first.
In softball, Seaside’s 12U
tournament team took first
place in the Silver Division at
the Alaskan United Fastpitch
Organization tournament in
Newberg, June 24-25.
SPORTS
IN BRIEF
Submitted Photo
Seaside’s 12U fastpitch softball team poses with their first-place tro-
phy, following their tournament win in Newberg.
COLLEGE WORLD SERIES
Former Oregon
tight end
sentenced to 30
days for escape
Associated Press
HILLSBORO — Former Ore-
gon tight end Colt Lyerla has been
sentenced to an additional 30 days
in jail after escaping from custody
last month and nearly dying from
a drug overdose.
The Oregonian reports a Wash-
ington County judge told Lyerla
on Tuesday to get clean and sober.
The judge said he wants Lyerla
to meet with him for progress
updates, establish goals and move
beyond his persona as a former
college star.
Lyerla said he accepts the
challenge.
Lyerla was sentenced in
April to six months in jail after
pleading guilty to forgery. He was
lodged at a minimum-security
work release center. Police found
Lyerla a day after the escape,
overdosing on heroin at a Hills-
boro home.
Once considered an NFL
prospect, Lyerla left the Ducks in
2013 after he was suspended for
violating team rules. He has had
several run-ins with the law since
then.
Franco, Altherr
homer as Phillies
beat Mariners
Associated Press
SEATTLE — Maikel Franco
put the Philadelphia Phillies ahead
to stay with his bat. His defense
earned him a hug.
Franco and Arron Altherr hom-
ered, Aaron Nola pitched seven
effective innings and the Phillies
overcame an early deficit for an
8-2 victory over the Seattle Mar-
iners on Tuesday night.
Franco opened the seventh
with his 10th homer, sending a 1-0
pitch from James Paxton over the
wall in left-center to put the Phil-
lies up 3-2. In the bottom half, he
helped preserve the lead with a
diving stab on Jean Segura’s hard-
hit grounder to third with two run-
ners on.
“As soon as I slid and made
that play, I just got up and threw,”
said Franco, who got a hug from
Nola after the inning. “And it was
not a perfect throw, but that was
my play. Nola did a really good
job. That’s the little things to win
the ballgame. In that situation,
bottom of the seventh, two outs,
two guys on first and second, that
was a big play.”
SCOREBOARD
SPORTS SCHEDULE
TODAY
Junior Baseball — Neah-Kah-Nie at
Astoria Ford (2), 5 p.m.
THURSDAY
Junior Baseball — Warrenton at Sea-
side (2), 4 p.m.
SATURDAY
Baseball — Warrenton Alumni Day at
Huddleston Field, Noon
Junior Baseball — Scappoose at As-
toria Ford, 1 p.m.
Brendan Sullivan/Omaha World-Herald
Florida celebrates after defeated LSU in Game 2 of the NCAA baseball College World Series finals, Tuesday, in Omaha, Neb.
Florida beats LSU for 1st national title
By ERIC OLSON
Associated Press
MAHA, Neb. — Maybe this wasn’t
Florida coach Kevin O’Sullivan’s best
team. It is, however, his first national
championship team.
A year after the Gators went two games and
out at the College World Series with a team
seeded No. 1 and loaded with high draft picks,
they won five of six in Omaha and completed
a sweep of Southeastern Conference rival LSU
in the finals with a 6-1 victory Tuesday night.
The Gators scored four runs in the eighth
inning to pull away and now, for the first time
in the program’s 103-year history, the cham-
O
pionship trophy will be with the team when it
travels back to Gainesville.
“Just a gritty group, that’s all I can say,”
said O’Sullivan, the 10th-year coach who had
brought the Gators to Omaha six of the last eight
years. “There are other teams that may be bigger
and stronger, our starting pitching has carried us
the whole year, but we got some timely hits.”
Florida (52-19) posted the eighth sweep in
the 15 years of the best-of-three finals format,
and first since 2013. LSU (52-20) lost for the
first time in seven appearances in a champion-
ship game.
Florida was in the CWS for the 11th time
and previously had made it to the finals in 2005
and 2011, getting swept each time.
“They’re a very deserving national cham-
pion,” LSU coach Paul Mainieri said. “I’m
happy for Kevin. He works hard, and he has
had several teams that maybe were even better
than this team and sat up here as disappointed as
I am right now. Finally got his championship.”
O’Sullivan got creative for the final game,
sending freshman Tyler Dyson to the mound
for only his second start and calling on Jackson
Kowar, who would have been the starter if a
Game 3 had been necessary, to finish the game.
“Something that made this team so spe-
cial was each and every game, someone new
stepped up,” second baseman Deacon Liput
said. “You never really knew who that person
was going to be.”
UK charges six in 1989 stadium tragedy that killed 96
By DANICA KIRKA
Associated Press
LONDON — British prosecutors
charged a former senior police offi-
cer with manslaughter today as they
announced the first criminal cases in
the 1989 Hillsborough stadium disas-
ter that left 96 people dead — many of
them crushed against metal fences —
and changed English soccer forever.
The families of the victims have
waged a decades-long quest to seek
justice for their loved ones, who they
believed were unfairly blamed in the
April 15, 1989, tragedy. The initial
deaths were ruled accidental — a rul-
ing overturned in 2012 after a new,
wide-ranging inquiry.
Last year new inquests found
that the 96 fans had been unlawfully
killed. Files were sent to prosecutors
to consider criminal charges and they
announced their highly anticipated
decision today.
Barry Devonside, whose son Chris-
topher, 18, was among the 96, pumped
his fist after a meeting with lawyers
and other relatives.
“Everybody applauded when it was
announced that the most senior police
AP Photo
Police, stewards and supporters tend and care for wounded support-
ers on the pitch at Hillsborough Stadium, in Sheffield, England, on
April 15, 1989. British prosecutors today announced charges in the
deaths of 96 people in the Hillsborough stadium crush — one of Brit-
ain’s worst-ever sporting disasters.
officer on that particular day will have
charges presented to him,” he said.
Those charged include the police
commander on the day, David Duck-
enfield, who is accused of gross neg-
ligence manslaughter in the deaths of
95 men, women and children. Prose-
cutors declined to issue a manslaugh-
ter charge relating to the 96th casualty
because he died four years after the
fateful match.
The former chief of South York-
shire Police, Norman Bettison, is
charged with misconduct in public
office for lying about the disaster and
its aftermath.
Graham Henry Mackrell, the secre-
tary and safety officer for the Sheffield
Wednesday Football Club at the time,
was charged with failing to carry out
health and safety duties.
Peter Metcalf, the attorney for the
South Yorkshire Police, was charged
with acting “with intent to pervert the
course of public justice” in regards to
changes in witness statements during
an inquiry into the tragedy. Former
Chief Superintendent Donald Denton
and former Detective Chief Inspec-
tor Alan Foster were charged for their
involvement in the same matter.
“Criminal proceedings have now
commenced and the defendants have
a right to a fair trial,” said Sue Hem-
ming, the head prosecutor for spe-
cial crime and counterterror. “It is
extremely important that there should
be no reporting, commentary or shar-
ing of information online which
could in any way prejudice these
proceedings.”