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Obscure Sports Weekly
“Things Really Have Changed”
by: Soren Hansen
Those were the words uttered by a fellow U of A alum upon making a return trip to the old pueblo and I couldn’t agree more. After hearing for years that In-N-Out Burger would be opening up in Tucson and my half decade of waiting for it, I took a scholastic red shirt, I leave town and it finally opens up. Inspired by that this week’s edition OSW will be “animal style.” “Captain Eegee,” “Rumbly,” and “Grumbly,” not included.
The Oregon schools came into town to battle the No. 4 ranked ‘Cats last weekend and while the speculated family feud at second base between Caitlin Lowe and her sister (OSU second basemen) Paige over a stolen blouse never materialized, there was plenty of thievery this weekend and none of which was reported by a U of A employee. Kristie Fox and Taryne Mowatt “stole” the spotlight over the sibling rivalry Friday night as Fox was 3-3 and was just a single short of the cycle. Mowatt was as dominant as usual going the complete game giving up just one run on two hits while striking out 8 as the ‘Cats beat OSU 3-1. Lowe wasn’t to be upstaged though all weekend as she stole 2 bases in Sunday’s game to tie Alison McCutcheon’s school steals record of 148 while the ‘Cats dismissed the Ducks 4-1 on Saturday and 9-1 Sunday behind two more complete game performances from Mowatt. The team travels up to the bay area this weekend and while both of them are mired in mediocrity, Cal (26-26, 2-10 Pac-10) and Stanford (29-13, 5-7) every game is important with only a two game lead in the conference standings. As long as we’re behind the arm of Mowatt, the legs of Lowe, the mind of Candrea, and the torso of Angelina Jolie, sorry got carried away. In all seriousness though, as long as we’ve got Mowatt in the circle and seniors Fox and Lowe leading the offense it should be a winning trip to the bay.
The Pac-10 golf tournament took place earlier this week. The men’s team was tied for 6th heading into Wednesday’s final round. Prior to those final 18 head Coach Rick LaRose had this to say, "We're pretty much stuck where we are. We have to play good and have those in front of us play bad." Surprisingly the ‘Cats finished…you guessed it 6th. Thanks Rick, way to have that come from behind attitude, the heart, and fight of a Wildcat. Just think if you had been our coach all those years ago would our mascot still be a Wildcat? It might have been a member of the cat family, probably not wild but, I should probably let you all figure this one out on your own.
The No. 16 women’s golf team also competed in the Pac-10 tournament earlier this week. The team was in third heading into the final round but the links weren’t too kind, as the ‘Cats lost 3 strokes to No. 8 USC to finish fourth overall trailing USC by just 2 and overall winner No. 1 ASU by 26. Junior and No. 5 ranked Alison Walshe finished 6th overall though and was also named to the All Pac-10 first team. In addition she was also selected to represent the US in the 2007 Fuji Xerox USA vs. Japan Collegiate Championship on July 11-13. So if you’re feeling like you weren’t patriotic enough on the fourth this sounds like just the thing for you. Congratulations Alison, hopefully we’ll be hearing your name on Sunday’s along with the likes of other U of A alums Annika Sorenstam and Natalie Gulbis.
For this week’s closer we go to the team with two, baseball. The ‘Cats returned from Pullman having lost just their second series of the year as they “threw away” a couple of games to the previously (1-8 Pac-10) WSU Cougars. A costly throwing error followed by a fielding error in the eighth on Sunday allowed the Cougars to come from behind and take the rubber match 5-3. All was not lost last weekend as the ‘Cats did take the opener 3-1 after another strong pitching performance by Preston Guilmet and designated hitter Bill Rhinehart returned after being out with a concussion and tallied his sixth homerun of the year. This week’s trip to conference leading UCLA will be huge and the team will be welcoming the return of closer Daniel Schlereth. Freshman Jason Stoffel, had filled in with three saves in five appearances and is expected to keep the job for the time being. Schlereth had been out with torn cartilage and his return should ease the burden on both our starters and the bullpen. If you think the Schlereth name sounds familiar you might be familiar with his father, the great Mark Schlereth ESPN’s NFL live analyst who always gives expert analysis and is actually my personal favorite. (Mark, please be sure to say only great things about all the ‘Cats in this weekend’s draft). This series figures to be quite a battle but the team looks to return to form and revert back to their winning ways.
OSW Athlete of the Week
This week’s award goes to Taryne Mowatt. The starter struck out 32 in 20 innings and lowered her conference leading ERA to a miniscule 1.62. This is where I’d usually make some reference to her giving me a call but I’ve learned that all our student athletes are dating each other, apparently they haven’t been by the Rec to see my photo on the 2004 intramurals division winning softball team.
As always be sure to check back in next week for all the scores and highlights and the week’s previews.
Bear Down
Soren
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