B4 TA A I AY 4 2 2 2 4 SPORTS East rival Toronto Blue Jays and has wound up start- ing. The early results have ing almost every day, mostly been promising, as the high at third base, where he won a strikeout rate Smith touted Gold Glove in 2020 with the Rangers. Kauai graduate Kirby Yates, meanwhile, has the majors through 10 ap- taken hold of closer role after moving over from Atlanta this offseason. newest major leaguer is another relief pitcher former UH player Cade Smith, who unexpect- edly stuck with the Cleveland whether he gets to stick Guardians out of spring train- as a minor leaguer (1.57 per inning) has translated to lani alumnus played 157 pearances, with 1.5 He stumbled in his past two ap- both Single-A levels essen- pearances, surrendering his tially one full MLB first four runs of the season in just one total inning. How he bounces back from those He scored 126 runs and games will likely dictate around in Cleveland or if the AL Central-leading Guardians will look for veteran bullpen help.
Perhaps the biggest story among minor leaguers with Hawaii ties also involves a franchise change, as the Rays dealt outfielder Shane Sasaki to the Marlins. The games his past two seasons in the Rays system across worth and batted .313 wth 16 home runs and 63 steals. drove in 96. Sasaki is taking the change in stride, saying via text that he is thankful to the for the influence the organization has had early in his career but that he is excited for the new op- He said the transi- tion which also involved a step up to Double-A has been smooth. The interest in Sa- saki come from out of nowhere.
president of baseball operations, Peter Bendix, was with the Rays when they drafted Sasaki and after the trade described him as a well-rounded outfielder that we like the upside Double-A can be a pivotal level in a pro baseball play- career, so it will be inter- esting to see if Sasaki can continue his production. the same for a few other players with Hawaii ties. Ka- Rosario is coming off a breakout season in which the Waiakea grad hit 21 homers in 445 at-bats with 94 runs batted in. His average so far is a mere .216 (as of Satur- day), but more than half of his hits have gone for extra bases and worked a handful of walks, so his OPS is decent. Pitchers Anthony Hoopii-Tuionetoa (Baldwin), Aaron Davenport (Hawaii) and Carter Loewen (UH) have also moved up to AA.
The downside of the off- season is that dozens of play- ers fall out of organized baseball, potentially seeing their careers end. Among the Hawaii players who so far are without teams are three who have at least been fortunate enough to get a taste of the majors in former Hawaii play- ers catcher David Freitas, pitcher Kyle Dowdy and sec- ond baseman Kean Wong, a Waiakea alum. Calderon, who is the fast- est was used mostly as a pinch runner ahead of this series. Frustrated with his role, Calderon approached assistant coach Lindsay Meggs. I just just sit on the bench Calderon recalled.
had to go in and talk to Coach Meggs about do I earn my He told me I just had to get better at every- With help from Meggs and assistant coach Dave Na- kama, Calderon worked on his swing and approach. is just a mental Calderon said. easier when you have guys behind you, when you have great On Friday, Calderon made a leaping catch in the ninth, then scored the winning run in the bottom of the inning. On Sunday, UH circulated a pre-game lineup that did not include Calderon. kind of a crazy head coach Rich Hill said.
kind of had a hunch before the game. I walked into Coach office, and I said, about Naighel for Dallas (Duarte)? Dallas would do good for a day off and watch the game. And Naighel gives us a little said Calderon, a se- bit more on defense and speed. I get the words out of my mouth, and been the greatest athlete. I Coach Meggs was like, was a walk on.
Coach put pumping his fists. That one worked out. Twenty minutes before the still a work in prog- nior from Lanai. since my freshman year, never was evident in the ninth me on scholarship begin- ning of the fall. not me.
my teammates. They pushed me to be account- able. We have that kind of leadership on this The preparation with Miura on second and the Mustangs ahead 4-3. Tanner pitched ery time. Each at bat is a skipped off catcher Ryan pads and rolled to- ward the third-base side.
know we have a big foul ground Miura said. I saw the ball skip, I put my head down and ran as hard as I could. We do a lot in the fall. Coach Rich re- ally stresses being aggres- sive. him.
CRAIG T. KOJIMA coaching. being comfort- able taking Hill said: an actual play we have. We call it the They start yelling, rain- bow, and Matt hesitate. He Of the grittiness, Miura said: just go up there and we go to war ev- tough at bat.
We never give BIG WEST BASEBALL Conference Overall Pct. GB UC Irvine 11 4 .733 28 8 UCSB 11 4 .733 25 10 CS Northridge 11 4 .733 23 14 UCSD 13 5 .722 1 1 2 26 11 Cal Poly 12 6 .667 1 1 2 22 16 Hawaii 6 9 .400 5 22 15 7 11 .389 5 1 2 20 16 UC Davis 5 10 .333 6 17 20 CS Bakersfield 6 12 .333 6 1 2 11 27 CS Fullerton 5 13 .278 7 1 2 13 24 UC Riverside 3 12 .200 8 12 22 not include one tie Sunday CS Northridge 7, Cal State Fullerton 5, 12 inn. UC Riverside 11, Long Beach State 4 UC Santa Barbara 4, UC Davis 1 UC Irvine 7, x-San Diego State 6 UC San Diego 11, Cal State Bakersfield 6 Hawaii 6, Cal Poly 5, 11 inn. HAWAII 6, CAL POLY 5, 11 INN. MUSTANGS BI BB SO AB Steels cf 0 0 0 1 5 0 Stafford 3 2 1 1 5 0 Fenn 2b 1 0 0 1 5 1 Yorke 1b 2 1 1 0 5 0 Garza 3b 1 0 1 0 5 2 Kordic rf 2 0 0 1 4 0 Shimao pr 0 0 0 0 0 0 King rf 0 0 0 0 0 0 Murray ph 0 0 0 0 1 0 MacDonald rf 0 0 0 0 0 0 Casillas ss 0 0 1 2 4 0 Hoiland dh 1 0 0 1 3 1 Cloyd 1 2 0 0 1 0 Daudet lf 0 0 1 1 4 1 TOTALS 11 5 5 8 42 5 RAINBOW WARRIORS AB BI BB SO J.
Donahue ss 2 1 0 0 5 2 Tsukada dh 1 0 0 0 5 1 Machado 1 2 0 1 4 0 Duarte 0 1 0 0 0 0 K. Donahue 1b 2 0 0 0 5 0 Miura cf 1 0 0 1 4 1 Zeigler-Namoa lf 1 0 0 0 5 0 Ickes 3b 0 0 1 0 4 1 Miyao 2b 2 0 0 1 4 1 Nahaku ph 0 0 0 0 0 0 Calderon rf 1 1 2 0 2 0 TOTALS 11 5 3 3 38 6 Cal Poly (22-16, 12-6) 100 000 210 1 0 5 11 0 Hawaii (22-15, 6-9) 000 010 021 1 1 6 11 1 Poly 1. Poly 13; Hawaii 8. Kordic; J. Donahue, Machado, Calderon.
Steels; Miura, Nahaku. King; Calderon. Duarte. Hoiland. CAL POLY ER BB SO IP Naess 1 1 1 2 7 4 Baum 1 3 0 1 1 1 1 Torres 1 3 2 1 1 0 0 Sagouspe 2 2 1 0 2 3 Pearlman (L, 0-1) 2 3 2 1 1 0 0 HAWAII ER BB SO IP Giroux 1 1 3 3 1 1 0 2 Harrison 4 1 3 1 0 0 1 3 Veloz 1 1 3 2 2 2 1 1 Bodendorf 1 3 1 1 1 2 0 Dyball 1 1 3 1 0 0 0 0 Standish 1 3 0 0 0 0 0 Magdaleno 1 0 0 0 0 1 Marx (W, 2-0) 0 0 1 2 2 2 Naess (Miura); by Veloz (Steels); by Pearlman (Nahaku).
Jason Rogers. (First): Eduardo Ruiz. (Second): Kellen Levy. (Third): Michael Carr. Reach Sjarif Goldstein at sgoldstein GOLDSTEIN Continued from B1 Continued from B1 Connor Harrison pitched 4 3 innings of shutout ball in relief on Sunday at 1 Les Murakami Stadium.
He allowed one hit and struck out three. GOLF Korda ties LPGA Tour record while winning second major Associated Press THE WOODLANDS, TEXAS Nelly Korda have imagined the incredible run put together this sea- son while at home recover- ing from a blood clot that required surgery in 2022. obviously then I was just more scared for my she said. ing was kind of on the back seat. I was not thinking about competing at all.
But I think all of the sad times and the health scares that I have gone through have made me who I am Fully healthy now, Korda is seemingly unstoppable. The No. 1 player lost a tournament since January, and now a two-time major champion. Korda etched her name in the LPGA Tour record books Sunday, winning her re- cord-tying fifth straight tour- nament with a two-stroke victory in the Chevron Championship. Korda joins Nancy Lopez (1978) and Annika Sorens- tam (2004-05) as the only players to win five consecu- tive LPGA events.
Her previ- ous major victory was in 2021 at the PGA Championship. been an amazing feel- ing these past couple weeks knowing that I can go on this stretch and that if I stay in my bubble and I keep golf in a sense simple and let it flow, then I can have so, so much fun out she said. Korda shot a 3-under 69 in the final to outlast Maja Stark of Sweden, who bird- ied her final two holes to shoot 69 and pull within one. Korda stayed aggres- sive on the par-5 18th, easily clearing the lake in front of the green and setting up an easy up-and-down birdie for a two-shot victory. She had a four-day total of 13-under 275 at Carlton Woods.
Korda nearly aced the par-3 17th, with her tee shot hitting the hole and hopping in the air before settling within 10 feet. She settled for par to maintain her two- shot lead. Korda wowed the large crowd, which followed her throughout the day, by chip- ping into the wind for birdie on the par-4 10th hole to take a four-stroke lead. The 25-year-old raised her club above her head with one hand and pumped her fist af- ter the ball rolled into the hole. Her parents former Australian Open tennis champion Petr Korda and Regina Rajchrtova beamed as she was pre- sented with the trophy.
had a difficult and in certain Petr Korda said. did not win a tournament in and some things probably made her humble and (she) put a lot of work into where she is right now. Without the work and commitment, she would not be here. So seeing that, very older sister, Jes- sica, is a six-time LPGA win- ner taking a break from golf after giving birth to her first child. Korda took home $1.2 mil- lion from a purse of $7.9 mil- lion, a significant increase from last purse of $5.2 million.
That brings her sea- son earnings to $2,424,216 and her career earnings to $11,361,489. Punahou alum Allisen Corpuz shot a final-round 77 and tied for 57th at 5-over 293. She took home $21,174.00 ASSOCIATED PRESS Nelly Korda posed with the trophy after winning the Chevron Championship at The Club at Carlton Woods in The Woodlands, Texas, on Sunday. The 25-year-old ties Nancy Lopez and Annika Sorenstam as the only players to win five consecutive LPGA events Scheffler leads by 5 as play suspended HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. Masters champion Scot- tie Scheffler holed a difficult pitch for eagle on his sec- ond hole Sunday and turned the RBC Heritage into another rout.
A storm system with heavy rain stopped play for 2 1 2 hours, forcing a Monday finish. Scheffler was 20 under and has a five-shot lead with three holes remaining when the final round resumes today. He was on the verge of winning for the fourth time in five tournaments, the exception a runner-up fin- ish in the Houston Open. He was trying to become the first player since Bern- hard Langer in 1985 to win the week after slipping on the Masters green jacket. U.S.
Open champion Wyndham Clark made a furious charge early in the round at 8 under through 11 holes, only to lose ground with a double bogey in the trees. He posted a 6-under 65 and finished at 15-under 269. is trying to chase Scottie and making it really tough because he keeps U.S. Open champion Wyndham Clark said after giving it his best effort. Horschel captures win in Dominican Republic PUNTA CANA, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC Billy Horschel went to the Dominican Republic for the first time in search of momentum and came away with a PGA Tour victory he sorely needed Sunday in the Corales Punta- cana Championship.
Horschel ran off four straight birdies on the front nine to get in the mix, began to pull away with an eagle on the par-5 12th hole and closed with a 9-under 63 for a two-shot victory over Wesley Bryan. Horschel, who started the final round three shots behind, all but sealed it with an 18-foot birdie putt on the 16th hole. Horschel finished at 23-under 265 and earned $720,000 for his eighth PGA Tour victory, and his first in nearly two years. Broadhurst wins Champions title IRVING, TEXAS Paul Broadhurst closed with a 5-un- der 66, playing bogey-free over the final nine holes to hang on for a one-shot victory over David Toms in the Invited Celebrity Classic for his sixth PGA Tour Cham- pions title. The tournament was reduced to 36 holes because of heavy rain that washed out Saturday.
Toms shot a 65. Broadhurst, who finished at 11-under 131, had not won on the PGA Tour Champions since 2018, the year he won three times and his second senior major. The victory moves the Englishman to No. 2 in the Charles Schwab Cup behind Steven Alker, who did not play. Y.E.
Yang (69) and Thomas Bjorn (70) tied for third. Associated Press.
