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FOUR-PAGE PULLOUT B3 S PORTS THE BULLETIN • FrIday, JUNE 4, 2021 bendbulletin.com/sports PAC-12 BASEBALL NBA PLAYOFFS Nuggets eliminate Blazers in Game 6 with 126-115 win Ducks’ Zavala player of the year Oregon outfielder Aaron Zavala was named the Pac-12 Conference Player of the Year on Thursday in a vote of the league’s coaches. Zavala is the first Ducks’ player to claim the conference honor. Zavala was also named a Collegiate Baseball Newspaper second team all-American on Thurs- day, and first baseman Gabe Matthews and out- fielder Tanner Smith were named to the third team. The three have played big roles in leading the Ducks to a 37-14 record and the No. 14 overall seed in the NCAA Tour- nament. Oregon will open the NCAA Eugene Regional against Cen- tral Connecticut State at 2 p.m. Friday in Eugene. All of Oregon’s NCAA Tournament games will be streamed live on the ESPN app. LSU and Gon- zaga are also in the Eu- gene Regional. Oregon is in the post- season for the first time since 2015 and hosting a regional for the first time since doing so in back-to- back seasons in 2012-13. Zavala, a sophomore, is batting .398 with seven home runs, 34 RBI and 58 runs, with a .538 on-base percentage and a .613 slugging percentage. He leads the Ducks in bat- ting average, runs, hits (72), slugging percent- age, walks (49) and stolen bases (11). Matthews, a senior, is Oregon’s career re- cord-holder in hits, RBIs, doubles, multiple-hit games and at-bats . He’s hitting .326 with seven home runs and 32 RBI. Smith is hitting .324 with five home runs and 34 RBI as the Ducks’ leadoff hitter. The soph- omore has a Pac-12 best 23 doubles, which is also a single-season school. He’s fourth nationally in doubles . This is the first time three Oregon players have received all-America honors from Collegiate Baseball in the same season. — (Eugene) Register-Guard 3 Beavs make all- conference teams The Pac-12 announced its all-conference and all-defensive teams Thursday afternoon, and several Oregon State players were voted among the league’s best by its coaches. Troy Claunch, Will Frisch and Jake Mulhol- land all received first- team all-Pac-12 honors. Claunch started 47 of the Beavers’ 56 games this season, with most of the coming at catcher. He hit .321 with four homers and 27 RBIs. Frisch, a freshman right-hander , was Ore- gon State’s most versatile pitcher, pitching in 18 games and starting six. He allowed just 13 runs in 54 innings, good for a 2.17 ERA, and struck out 51 batters while walking just 22. In his final season as a Beaver, Mulholland accu- mulated 13 saves and be- came Oregon State’s all- times saves leader in the process. He tallied a 3.07 ERA and struck out 23 batters over 29.1 innings. Kevin Abel, Garret Forrester, Jacob Melton and Bryant Salgado all earned honorable men- tion honors. Arizona State shortstop Drew Swift was named the Defensive Player of the Year. — Corvallis Gazette-Times BY ANNE M. PETERSON Associated Press Craig Mitchelldyer/AP Denver Nuggets guard Austin Rivers, left, reacts after making a 3-pointer against the Portland Trail Blazers during Game 6 of a first- round playoff series on Thursday night in Portland. PORTLAND — Nikola Jo- kic had 36 points and the Den- ver Nuggets eliminated the Portland Trail Blazers in six games with a 126-115 victory Thursday night. Michael Porter Jr. added 26 points, including 22 in the opening quarter, for the third- seeded Nuggets. They await the outcome of the first-round se- ries between the Phoenix Suns and Los Angeles Lakers, whose Game 6 ended after The Bulle- tin’s print deadline. Denver advanced to the Western Conference semifinals for the third straight season. Damian Lillard finished with 28 points and 13 assists for the sixth-seeded Blazers. They led by 14 points in the third quarter but couldn’t stave off elimination. Monte Morris hit a buzz- er-beating 3-pointer to close Denver to 101-98 heading into the last period. Jokic hit a 3-pointer to put Denver ahead 108-106 and Denver stretched it to 117-108 on Austin Rivers’ 3 with 3:52 left. Portland tired to catch up, getting to 121-115 on CJ Mc- Collum’s layup, but Aaron Gor- don hit a 3-pointer that all but sealed it for Denver with less than a minute to go. The Nuggets took a 3-2 lead in the series with a 147-140 double overtime victory in Denver on Tuesday night. See Blazers / B4 TENNIS | FRENCH OPEN Americans in Paris 4 U.S. men, 8 women alive into 3rd round BY HOWARD FENDRICH • AP Tennis Writer W hen the French Open’s third round got underway early Friday morning Pacific time, there were four men from the United States on the schedule — the largest contingent from the country to get that far in Paris in 25 years. “It beats all of us losing and getting on flights home,” said one member of the quartet, Stevie Johnson, who has won a pair of five-setters this week. “That’s for sure.” The other American men still in the draw: No. 31 seed John Isner, No. 32 Reilly Opelka and Marcos Giron. The country has eight women headed to the third round — including Serena Williams and Danielle Col- lins, who face each other Fri- day — but given all of the Grand Slam titles accumu- lated and finals reached by Williams and other female Americans in recent years, that seems less significant, even if it is the most at Roland Garros since nine in 2003. “It’s good to see,” said Jennifer Brady, the Austra- lian Open runner-up who won Thursday to set up an all-American meeting against 17-year-old Coco Gauff. “There’s a lot of us left on the women’s side. And there’s a lot of us left on the men’s side.” You have to go back to 1996 to find this many U.S. men in the third round; a half-dozen got there then. Michel Euler/AP United States’ John Isner celebrates winning a point against Serbia’s Filip Krajinovic during their sec- ond-round match at the French Open in Paris, France, on Wednesday. “Anytime an American wins it’s a good day, you know?” — Reilly Opelka, American men’s tennis player There hasn’t been more than one American man in the fourth round at the clay- court major since 2001, when Andre Agassi and Michael Russell did it. There could be as many as four this time, but it will not be easy. Consider the opponents: Opelka, a 23-year-old based in Florida, plays No. 2 Daniil Medvedev of Russia; Isner, a 36-year-old who lives in Dal- las, faces No. 5 Stefanos Tsit- sipas of Greece; Johnson, a 31-year-old from California, goes up against No. 12 Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain; and Giron, a 27-year-old from California, takes on No. 22 Cristian Garin of Chile. “Anytime an American wins,” Opelka said, “it’s a good day, you know?” In this case, they’re all in the same quarter of the draw, so if they all win Friday, they would pair off Sunday: Isner vs. Johnson, and Opelka vs. Giron. Their success this week cre- ated a data point that’s prefer- able to the sorts of stats they hear about far too often for their liking: See French Open / B5 HORSE RACING | BELMONT STAKES Hot Rod Charlie being run in memory of teen killed in car crash in August BY STEPHEN WHYNO Associated Press John Minchillo/AP Belmont Stakes entrant Hot Rod Charlie takes a training run on the main track ahead of the 153rd running of the Belmont Stakes horse race on Wednesday at Belmont Park in El- mont, New York. NEW YORK — Jake Panus wanted to help Native American children and walk on to play football at South Car- olina. His death in August in a car crash stopped all that at age 16. After his father, Stephen, fought through the first wave of grief, good friend and trainer Doug O’Neill called to offer any help he could for the family. Turns out it came in the form of 3-year- old colt Hot Rod Charlie, co-owned by nephew Patrick and now running in the Belmont Stakes in memory of Jake Panus. “There aren’t really proper words to describe the gratitude that we have for Doug and Patrick, their selflessness in allowing my family and Jake’s story to kind of become part of Hot Rod Char- lie’s journey on the Triple Crown this year,” Stephen Panus said Thursday. “It’s remarkable.” O’Neill, himself with a son around Jake’s age, couldn’t believe what Panus was going through and the willingness to spearhead this cause through the pain. “He’s done it in a brave way because I’d be in a fetal position and not wanting to come out,” O’Neill said. Neither Doug nor Patrick O’Neill ever met Jake Panus but heard all about him from Stephen, a horse racing ex- ecutive with The Jockey Club and America’s Best Racing. They learned even more about him over the past few months, while Hot Rod Charlie was winning the Louisiana Derby and went into the Kentucky Derby as a top con- tender. “Everyone around him was just drawn to him in a way that has that almost natural leadership,” Patrick O’Neill said. “That guy whenever he enters the room, it’s smiles, it’s laughs and he just has this aura to him. Talking to Stephen or talking to some of the people that run this foundation — it sounds like that’s kind of who Jake was.” Hot Rod Charlie’s saddlecloth bears Jake’s initials and symbols of his life and goals, and his Triple Crown season is dedicated to raising awareness for scholarships in Jake’s name. See Belmont / B4
