10A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, JULY 10, 2017
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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.