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FOUR-PAGE PULLOUT A5 S PORTS THE BULLETIN • THURSDAY, JULY 21, 2022 bendbulletin.com/sports COLLEGE FOOTBALL Oregon’s season opener is sold out The Oregon Ducks’ season opener will be played in front of a capac- ity crowd. The Chick-fil-A Kick- off Game between the Ducks and reigning na- tional champion Geor- gia is officially sold out, game officials announced Wednesday. “This has already proven to be one of the toughest tickets we’ve ever seen for the Chick- fil-A Kickoff Game,” Peach Bowl CEO and president Gary Stokan said in a statement. “You have the defending national cham- pions squaring off with arguably the most suc- cessful Pac-12 team in the CFP era. With two passion- ate fan bases and the best neutral-site matchup on opening weekend, it’s no surprise we’ve seen such a strong demand for tickets.” It’s the 14th time in 18 games the Chick- fil-A Kickoff Game — scheduled for Sept. 3 (12:30 p.m., ABC) at Mer- cedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta — will be sold out. The marquee event began in 2008 and has featured an average at- tendance of 67,064. The Ducks and Bull- dogs will battle for the Old Leather Helmet Trophy, with the winners wearing the helmet on the field after the game, starting with the head coach. It’s Oregon first appear- ance in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game and it will be only the second meet- ing between Pac-12 and SEC teams, with the SEC claiming the lone victory. In 2018, Auburn beat Washington. “This is going to be a tremendous matchup between two of college football’s premiere pro- grams,” Oregon coach Dan Lanning said in a state- ment. “The game being sold out already speaks to the power of these two brands and the na- tional buzz around this matchup, and we look for- ward to seeing Duck fans out in full force in Atlanta.” — The Oregonian CYCLING Vingegaard moves closer to Tour title PEYRAGUDES, France — Tadej Pogacar claimed a third stage win as he sprinted away from Jo- nas Vingegaard in the punishing last climb of a grueling trek in the Pyr- enees but failed to take significant time out of the Tour de France leader on Wednesday. Pogacar, the two-time defending champion, attacked in the final kilo- meter up to Peyragudes to win Stage 17 stage but could not drop Vinge- gaard, who made another step toward a maiden Tour de France win. Vingegaard was run- ner-up last year behind Pogacar. The Danish rider has been impressive since the start in Copen- hagen and once again showed no sign of weak- ness during Wednesday’s tough ride featuring four big climbs. Vingegaard crossed the finish line just behind Pogacar, with Brandon McNulty completing the stage podium, 32 seconds behind the pair. With the time bonus awarded to the stage win- ner, Pogacar moved four seconds closer to Vinge- gaard, who now has an overall lead of 2 minutes, 18 seconds in the general classification. — Associated Press TRACK AND FIELD A golden feeling For Ukrainian high jumper, world silver might as well be gold Gregory Bull/AP Yaroslava Mahuchikh, of Ukraine, competes during the women’s high jump final at the World Athletics Championships in Eugene on Tuesday . BY EDDIE PELLS • AP National Writer EUGENE — The second-place finish at world championships was beside the point for Ukraine’s best high jumper, Yaroslava Mahuchikh. “For me, it’s gold,” she said Tuesday night, as she looked down at her newly won prize, one nobody would have been right to expect four months ago after she took a three-day car trip to flee her hometown and get away from the bombing. Mahuchikh left shortly after her country came under siege by the Russian military. The war grinds on. Though thousands of civilians and soldiers are dying, Mahuchikh felt it was her duty to keep doing what she does best, if for no other reason than to give people back home something to be happy about. And, she said, to show Ukraine is strong. “We will fight for our independence and for our territory,” she said. “And of course, finally, we will win.” She came into the biggest high jump contest of the year as a favorite, in part because the three- time defending champion, Maria Lasitskene, is from Russia and not allowed to compete in ma- jor events due to the war. The Ukrainian finished behind the surpris- ing Eleanor Patterson of Australia, who had one fewer miss than Mahuchikh at 2.02 meters (6 feet, 7½ inches), which made the difference be- tween first and second. Still, this was a night to celebrate for Ukraine, and for Mahuchikh, who said she felt the MLB | COMMENTARY warmth from the stands, where the yellow-and- blue Ukraine flags dotted a few seats and fans cheered for her before every jump. “Now, everything is for our Ukrainian people, and everything you do, you want to show the good results,” she said. The silver medal goes alongside the gold she won at the world indoor championships in March. That came shortly after she escaped her hometown of Dnipro, which had come under at- tack by Russia and, she said, is under siege today. See Track / A7 PAC-12 FOOTBALL | COMMENTARY Five reasons San Diego Mariners All-Stars Rodriguez, France enjoy American League’s annual victory State is the obvious expansion option BY LARRY STONE The Seattle Times LOS ANGELES — If you considered the All-Star Game to be the national coming-out party for Julio Rodriguez’s mega-stardom, most of the heavy lifting was done Mon- day in the Home Run Derby. “After that, everyone knows who Julio is,” said teammate Ty France. On Tuesday, Rodriguez was quiet, or at least as quiet as a fun-loving, effervescent 21-year-old can be in the American League’s 3-2 win, going 0 for 2 yet still man- aging to charm the national television audience. If you viewed the game as an opportunity to show- case the too-little-recognized skills of France, well, it didn’t quite work out according to plan. The last player se- lected to the game and the last non-pitcher inserted into it, France struck out in his only appearance, yet still headed back to Seattle with the giddy countenance of someone who just had a life- time dream fulfilled — in his hometown, no less. And if you regarded the Mid-Summer Classic as an annoying interruption of the Mariners’ win-a-day stam- pede through the American League, well, I’ve got good news. The game is over, a perfunctory American League victory at Dodger BY JON WILNER The (San Jose) Mercury News Abbie Parr/AP Seattle Mariners’ Ty France (left) and Julio Rodriguez in the dugout during the MLB All-Star game Tuesday in Los Angeles. Stadium fueled by Giancarlo Stanton’s two-run home run. Because the AL always wins — nine in a row, and 21 of the last 24. How does such dominance happen? “We’re just better, I think,” deadpanned White Sox re- liever Liam Hendriks, who had a starring role in a lit- tle J-Rod comedy act in the eighth inning. “No, I just think in games like this, it’s all a matter of kind of luck. Everyone on that field is amazing at their job. They’re the best of the best, and I think the American League has managed to pull out a couple of timely swings at the right time.” And now, more to the point, on Friday the M’s host the division-leading Hous- ton Astros, led by Ameri- can League manager Dusty Baker, and find out if the All-Star break was a momen- tum-killer. Oh, and Seattle is now on the clock. The next time the All-Star Game is held, it will be next July at T-Mobile Park, with the Mariners as the host team for the first time since 2001. It seems vaguely possible that 2001 was the last time something else happened, but we won’t get into that here, except to say that the Mariners’ single-minded mission in the second half will be to end that storyline once and for all. See Mariners / A6 The array of lifeboats avail- able for the Pac-12 seemingly has been reduced by one. The conference is no longer discussing a merger or alli- ance with the Big 12, accord- ing to an ESPN report. In the realignment game, nothing is official until it’s of- ficial — and sometimes not even then. But if we presume the leagues don’t reconsider a partnership, the Pac-12 seem- ingly is left with three paths to survival: · Join forces with the ACC under an ESPN media rights umbrella. · Stick together (without the ACC) as a 10-school con- ference. · Stick together (without the ACC) and expand. If expansion is the preferred outcome, one school stands as the obvious addition: San Di- ego State. The Aztecs have been pre- paring for this opportunity for a decade and borrowed from the expansion blueprint used by Utah, which spent years readying itself for the moment the Pac-12 called. Here are five reasons the Aztecs make so much sense for the conference: 1. The competitive factor Admittedly, we don’t have a good handle on San Diego State’s Olympic sports, but it doesn’t matter. Realignment is about foot- ball, men’s basketball, and football. Also, football. On the field, the Aztecs are 6-1 against the Pac-12 since 2017, with wins over Utah, ASU, UCLA, Stanford and Ar- izona. They have won at least 10 games in five of the past six seasons (excluding 2020) and were ranked in the end-of- year AP poll in 2016 and 2021. While SDSU hasn’t reached the same level of success as Cincinnati — or Boise State under Chris Pe- tersen — the program is on the next tier. Add the resources and cache that would come with Pac-12 membership, and the Aztecs would more than hold their own on a weekly basis. Meanwhile, the men’s bas- ketball program is plenty wor- thy of an invitation, having qualified for the NCAAs in nine of the past 12 years. (Had COVID- not inter- vened, the Aztecs would have been a No. 1 or 2 seed in the 2020 tournament.) Also, have you seen the state of Pac-12 basketball lately? SDSU would enhance the overall product. See Pac-12 / A6
