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10A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, JULY 10, 2017 CONTACT US FOLLOW US facebook.com/ DailyAstorianSports Gary Henley | Sports Reporter ghenley@dailyastorian.com SPORTS IN BRIEF Kingly start from Hernandez gives Mariners 4-0 win Associated Press SEATTLE — The best of Felix Hernandez doesn’t mean what it did in the past. He’s not going to blow away hitters with his fastball the way Hernandez did earlier in his career. What Hernandez showed Sun- day is his best at this stage of his career is still capable of being dominant. “That was absolutely the best we have seen him all year,” Seat- tle manager Scott Servais said. Hernandez rediscovered some of his past form allowing two hits over six strong innings, and Nel- son Cruz hit his 17th home run of the season to give the Mari- ners a 4-0 win over the Oakland Athletics. Making his fourth start since coming off the disabled list late last month, Hernandez had the best command of his pitches per- haps all season. Hernandez struck out a sea- son-high eight, including a stretch with four of five outs retired via the strikeout in the fourth and fifth innings. Hernandez had better separation in the speeds between his fastball in the low-90s and a change up in the mid-80s and an excellent curveball. Hernandez (4-3) allowed only a third-inning double to Matt Joyce and a two-out single to Jay- cob Brugman in the fifth. Tony Zych, Mark Rzepczynski, Nick Vincent and Edwin Diaz got the final nine outs for Seattle’s eighth shutout of the season. AP Photo/Elaine Thompson Seattle Mariners starting pitcher Felix Hernandez turns and lets out a yell after strik- ing out Oakland Athletics’ Jed Lowrie to end the top of the sixth inning of a baseball game on Sunday in Seattle. Hampton resigns as Mariners bullpen coach Associated Press SEATTLE — The Seattle Mar- iners are in search of a new bull- pen coach as Mike Hampton has resigned from the position. Hampton tendered his resigna- tion following Sunday’s 4-0 win over the Oakland Athletics as the Mariners headed into the All-Star break. No immediate replacement was announced, but the team said a new bullpen coach would be in place prior to the team’s season resuming Friday against the Chi- cago White Sox. The Mariners are 43-47 and rank near the bottom of the AL in team ERA. Hampton was in his second season as the Mariners bullpen coach. He had served as a pitch- ing coach for Double-A Arkansas during the 2013-14 seasons. Hampton spent parts of 16 sea- sons in the majors with six dif- ferent teams and was a two-time All-Star. SCOREBOARD SPORTS SCHEDULE TODAY Junior Baseball — Astoria Ford at Seaside (2), 3 p.m. Gary Henley/The Daily Astorian A Kelso, Wash., base runner, center, was eventually tagged out in a rundown that lasted nearly 15 seconds and involved over half of Lower Columbia’s fielders. More photos available online at DailyAstorian.com/sports A perfect weekend for Lower Columbia All-Stars The Daily Astorian Less than a week after the Fourth of July, the Lower Columbia All-Stars held their own holiday parade over the weekend — a parade featuring offensive fireworks, never-ending steals, hits and runs. And five easy wins. It all resulted in another perfect week- end of baseball for Lower Columbia’s 11U Cal Ripken baseball team, which went 3-0 in pool play Saturday, then defeated a pair of Washington teams from Longview and Kelso Sunday to win the Columbia River Classic. After a 10-0 win over the Longview All- Stars in the semifinals, Lower Columbia pounded Kelso 16-1 in the championship game of the tournament, Sunday afternoon at Columbia Field. Lower Columbia’s roster consists of players from Astoria, Knappa, Ilwaco and Naselle. And while the local All-Stars were run- ning and stealing bases at will, three Lower Columbia pitchers (Merrick Benesch, Kar- son Hawkins and Jaxon Dietrichs) teamed up for a six-inning no-hitter in the title-clinch- ing win. Six errors and 11 walks hurt Kelso’s cause, in addition to wild pitches that were too numerous to count. Lower Columbia set the tone in the first inning, drawing a leadoff walk and scoring two runs on pair of Kelso errors. After a scoreless second, the All- Stars tacked on nine runs in the third, with run-scoring singles from Ethan Hopkins, Dean Helvey and Hawkins; a two-run double by Dietrichs followed by two walks; a two- run single from Benesch; and Teague Palm- berg’s two-run base hit to cap the scoring. Lower Columbia added four runs in the fifth, scoring twice on errors and two more Gary Henley/The Daily Astorian Infielder Jude Miller of the Lower Columbia 11U All-Stars puts the tag a Longview, Wash., base runner. The All-Stars beat Longview 10-0 on their way to five total wins. runs on wild pitches. With the exception of a couple errors that led to Kelso’s only run in the fifth, Lower Columbia’s pitchers were unhittable, giving up just three walks. The All-Stars also made several “web gem” plays in the field to secure the no-hitter. It was a similar story in the semifinal win over Longview, which committed four errors in the first inning and trailed 5-0 after two. After a leadoff double by Garrett Hil- lard in the second inning, Lower Columbia took advantage of two wild pitches and four straight walks to score three runs. After three more walks to start the bottom of the fourth, Parker Kilponen’s sacrifice fly brought in one run, and Helvey belted a two- run, ground rule double to deep right for an 8-0 lead. Helvey took care of the rest on the mound, as the pitcher from Naselle finished with a two-hit shutout. In pool play action Saturday, Lower Columbia’s All-Star team posted wins over Longview (9-2), West Linn Green (15-3) and West Linn Gold (6-2) to finish as the day’s only unbeaten team. The Lower Columbia Red team was 0-3, with losses to Kelso (11-1), West Linn Gold (15-6) and Longview (7-3). Venus Williams wins, Kerber loses at Wimbledon By CHRIS LEHOURITES Associated Press LONDON — Five-time Wimble- don champion Venus Williams won and top-ranked Angelique Kerber lost. Williams, who last won the title at the All England Club in 2008, advanced to the Wimbledon quar- terfinals by beating 19-year-old Ana Konjuh 6-3, 6-2 on Monday. Williams is playing at the grass- court major for the 20th time in her career, with her Wimbledon debut coming a few months before Konjuh was born. Kerber, who reached the Wim- bledon final last year but lost to Ser- ena Williams, was beaten by Gar- bine Muguruza on No. 2 Court, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4. With the loss by Kerber, either Simona Halep or Karolina Pliskova will take over as the top-ranked player after the tournament. Williams will next face French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko in the quarterfinals. The 20-year-old Latvian, who won her first tour-level title at Roland Garros last month, beat fourth-seeded Elina Svitolina 6-3, 7-6 (6) on Court 12. AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth Venus Williams of the United States returns to Croatia’s Ana Konjuh during their Women’s Singles Match on day seven at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London Monday. Ostapenko led 5-3 in the second set, but was broken and forced into a tiebreaker. She finally won by con- verting her eighth match point. Ostapenko had never before been past the third round at a major tour- nament prior to this year’s French Open. She was the first woman to win her debut tour-level title at a Grand Slam tournament since 1979. At Wimbledon, the Latvian is into the quarterfinals for the first time. However, the 20-year-old Lat- vian won the girls’ title at the All England Club in 2014. Two-time Grand Slam champion Svetlana Kuznetsova and Magda- lena Rybarikova also advanced to the quarterfinals. The second Monday at Wimble- don is, arguably, the busiest day in tennis. All 16 fourth-round matches at the All England Club are played on the same day, a schedule that will produce all eight male and all eight female quarterfinalists. Andy Murray was on Cen- tre Court against Benoit Paire, and Roger Federer will follow. On No. 1 Court, Johanna Konta was up first, followed by Rafael Nadal. Novak Djokovic is third. Kuznetsova was the first to fin- ish her match on Monday, beating Agnieszka Radwanska 6-2, 6-4. The seventh-seeded Russian is a two-time Grand Slam champion who will be playing in the Wimble- don quarterfinals for the fourth time. She has never advanced past that stage. In the quarterfinals, Kuznetsova will face Muguruza. Rybarikova, who beat Pliskova in the second round, defeated Petra Martic of Croatia 6-4, 2-6, 6-3 and advanced to the Wimbledon quarter- finals for the first time. Rybarikova missed nearly seven months after last year’s Wimbledon because of injuries.
