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HEADLINES: Elk Lake, Blue Ridge Start Fast In Lackawanna League Softball Elk Lake and Blue Ridge got off to the expected fast starts in softball, combining to win seven games while allowing just two runs. Defending champion Elk Lake ran its Lackawanna League Division 3 winning streak to 21 games with a 4-0 start that included the 400th win of coach Tony Blaisure’s career. Columbia recruit Brooke Darling did not allow an earned run as Elk Lake beat Montrose, 1-0; Forest City, 10-1; Western Wayne, 10-0; and Lackawanna Trail, 3-1. Lackawanna Trail was also unbeaten before Elk Lake took over sole possession of first place with the Saturday win. Bloomsburg recruit Gabby Baltzley was 3-for-3 with three runs and four RBI against Western Wayne. Blue Ridge started 3-0 with three straight shutouts, including 15-0 wins over Forest City and Western Wayne that the Lady Raiders closed out early. Courtney Ucci pitched two of the games, including a 6-0 victory over Mountain View. Gabby Wolfe had the other pitching win while leading the offense for the week. Wolfe went 7-for-11 with six runs, eight RBI, a double, three triples and two homers. WEEK IN REVIEW Elk Lake and Blue Ridge combined for the six county high school teams to make it through the week with perfect league records. Elk Lake started 3-0 to share the boys’ and girls’ leads in Division 3 of the Lackawanna Track Conference. Blue Ridge is tied with Elk Lake in boys’ track and alone in the Lackawanna Division 3 baseball lead, also at 3-0. Elk Lake is tied with Mid Valley in girls’ track. In professional hockey, the Binghamton Senators and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins each got themselves into holes in the first weekend of the Calder Cup playoffs. The Senators were down 2-1 to the Manchester Monarchs after splitting a pair of overtime games. The East Division champion Penguins, coming off the second-best record in American Hockey League history, dropped the first two games to the Norfolk Admirals. Manchester defeated Binghamton, 2-1, Thursday, but the Senators came back for a 4-3 overtime, road win Saturday. The series moved to Binghamton Sunday where Manchester won, 5-4, in overtime. Norfolk went to Wilkes-Barre and shut down the Penguins Friday and Saturday for 2-1 and 2-0 victories. Jeff Zatkoff made 34 saves for Manchester in the opener and lost his shutout when Ryan Potulny scored with 39 seconds left. Binghamton recovered from a two-goal, third-period deficit and Derek Grant scored 4:03 into overtime for the Game Two win. Bud Holloway’s hat trick, including the game-winner 1:30 into overtime, helped the Monarchs overcome a 3-0 Binghamton lead after one period. Mattias Ritola scored the first goal and assisted on the second for Norfolk Friday. Dustin Tokarski made 32 saves in the opener and followed with 27 saves in the Game Two shutout. In professional baseball, the four-time defending International League North Division champion Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees lost their home opener, 4-0, to the Buffalo Bisons Wednesday. COLLEGE CORNER Kaitchen Dearborn finished fifth in the javelin with a throw of 148-11 while representing Penn State at the Florida Relays. Dearborn, a freshman from Blue Ridge, had the second-best indoor pentathlon score by a Penn State woman during the indoor track and field season. Dearborn placed 12th out of 16 athletes in the pentathlon at the Penn State National Invitational. She was third-best in the shot put in the competition, which also includes the 60-meter hurdles, 800, high jump and long jump. THE WEEK AHEAD The Binghamton Senators, who were home Tuesday night in Game Four, host Game Five of the best-of-seven series with Manchester Wednesday. Games Six and Seven, if necessary, are Friday and Saturday in Manchester. The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins headed to Norfolk where they played Game Three Tuesday. They are scheduled to play there again Wednesday and, if necessary, Friday. If the Penguins can extend the series, they will return home for games Saturday and Monday. TOM ROBINSON writes a weekly local sports column for the Susquehanna County Transcript. He can be reached online at RobbyTR@aol.com.
NASCAR Racing TALLADEGA, Ala. - Jimmie Johnson, pushed by Teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. drove low as the field neared the finish line to edge out Clint Bowyer, by two-thousandths of a second, in Sunday’s Aaron’s 499 Cup race. “I thought we were in trouble,” said Johnson. “Junior and I got disconnected with two to go. I talked with him on the radio and finally we got back together. “He helped me win it. He made the decision that my car was the fastest to lead with and told me to stay in front of him.”
Jimmie Johnson, a close winner at Talladega. Bowyer came oh so close, but had to settle for second. “We did everything we could do,” said Bowyer. “It was just circumstances. I saw them coming. If I had tried to block them it would have been hell.” Jeff Gordon finished third. Johnson handed Earnhardt, who finished fourth, the checkered flag after his win. “Well, I was more concerned about pushing him,” said Earnhardt. “We couldn’t stay together when I was leading, so as a teammate, I felt like it was better for me to push him. “I told him to not to let off, let’s give it all we’ve got.” Kevin Harvick, Carl Edwards, Greg Biffle, Mark Martin, David Gilliland, and Joey Logano were the remaining top-10 finishers. The first 90 laps were run with just one caution flag for Brian Vickers’ spin on lap 28. But the first big crash erupted on lap 90 when a huge puff of smoke erupted from David Ragan’s car and then Kurt Busch tapped teammate Brad Keselowski, sending Keselowski spinning in a big pack of traffic and slamming into Marcos Ambrose. Kurt Busch caused two different cars to spin out. Kyle Busch spun out during lap 142. As he slid down the track he collected the No. 17 Ford driven by Matt Kenseth. “I’m not sure what happened,” said Kenseth. “The 18-car came down on us and hit us in the side. That ended our day.” Top-12 Chase contenders after 8 of 36: 1. Edwards-295, 2. Johnson-290, 3. Earnhardt-276, 4. Harvick-268, 5. Kurt Busch-267, 6. Kyle Busch-257, 7. Newman-253, 8. Kenseth-252, 9. Montoya-246, 10. Bowyer-245, 11. Menard-242, 12. Stewart-240. LOGANO PUSHES BUSCH ACROSS STRIPE In a wild ending that had Mike Wallace’s Chevrolet spinning upside down and landing on its roof, Kyle Busch won Saturday’s Aaron’s 312 Nationwide Series race at Talladega Superspeedway when a caution flag on Lap 124 froze the field. Busch got the win on the second attempt at a green-white-checkered-flag finish that took the race seven laps past its scheduled distance at the 2.66-mile track. Busch’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, Joey Logano, had just pushed Busch to the lead when Wallace’s wreck brought out the record 11th caution of the race. “I got hit like three times on the left side and I thought it was killed. I said it was killed,” Busch remarked. “These guys did a great job putting it back together. The car doesn’t look the best, but it was certainly the best right there at the end, especially with the guy that was pushing me. Logano was credited with second place, followed by Joe Nemechek, Brad Keselowski and polesitter Elliott Sadler. Trevor Bayne, Justin Allgaier, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Reed Sorenson, and Aric Almirola were the remaining top-10 finishers. Top-10 leaders after 7 of 34: 1. Leffler-233, 2. Allgaier-231, 3. Sadler-228, 4. Stenhouse-225, 5. Sorenson-224, 6. Almirola-222, 7. Bayne-221, 8. Scott-206, 9. K. Wallace-184, 10. Nemechek-169. A huge 21-car chain-reaction crash on the backstretch after a Lap 88 restart thinned the field and collected several of the strongest cars, among them the No. 18 of Busch, the No. 1 of Jamie McMurray and the No. 66 of Steve Wallace. Contact between Busch and Clint Bowyer started a spin that collected Michael Waltrip and sent half the field sliding and spinning out of control. Waltrip blamed Sadler and McMurray who were separated on the track but were trying to hook up together in a two-car draft. “It happened on the radio before the restart,” Waltrip said. “The 2 (Sadler) decided that he would manipulate the restart so that the 1 could get behind him, and they could work together like they had before. “It’s the way you race, but the 1 and the 2 messing around got me crashed.” McMurray agreed that he and Sadler were trying to get back together. “I really don’t know what happened,” McMurray said. “I was obviously trying to get back to Eliiott - we worked together really well all day. Elliott was trying to get away from the 99 (Waltrip) so that I could get hooked up with him.” DALE JR SPEAKS OUT ON TALLADEGA RACING Dale Earnhardt Jr. loves Talladega Superspeedway, but he hates the current two-car drafting. “Y'all don't look at it and think it's strange?” he asked. “I'm hoping this kind of racing goes away fast so we don't have to talk about this no more. This is a mess. This is a bunch of crap. “I think everybody thinks it's cool now because it's new and it's neat. Everybody's getting a big kick out of it. But over the long haul, man, it's not the best. It's not as good as 40 dudes in one pack, racing like hell, trying to get to the front. It's nowhere near as good as that. “Give me that any day over this. Over the long haul, people will realize that. Once the newness of this wears off, how interesting this is and how unique it is, I think people will start to see.” Two-car drafting has been used at Talladega since it was repaved, but not to the extent it has been used this year. However, the tandem racing proved to be the way to race in February’s Daytona 500, and in Saturday’s Nationwide race. “Look at the guys who's won here in the last couple of trips,” Earnhardt continued. “They're good. They're talented. They won because they're talented. Nine times out of 10, that's going to be the case. Trevor Bayne won the Daytona 500. He's got enough talent to do it. He was smart and used his head and did what he needed to do. “Anybody who wins, you've got to do something right to make it happen. It's not just a buffoon riding around there. You can't discredit what anybody's ever done to win a race, no matter what track it is or where it's at. “I think NASCAR's doing what they think is right, and I don't want to say what they're doing is wrong, because I don't know. I don't know whether I'm right or wrong. I just know what I prefer and what I like. It's my opinion. I'm entitled to one. Everybody's got one. I don't know what's right or wrong.” Yesterday’s Moments: Construction began on Talladega Superspeedway (it was then known as the Alabama International Motor Speedway) on May 23, 1968. Weekend Racing: It is the Easter Weekend. NASCAR does not race on Easter Sunday. There will be Nationwide and Truck racing at Nashville on Friday and Saturday. The Cup teams are off until April 30. Fri., Apr. 22, Camping World Truck race, 5 of 24, Starting time: 8 p.m.; TV: Speed. Sat., Apr. 23, Nationwide Series race 8 of 34, Starting time: 3 p.m.; TV: ESPN. All times are Eastern. Racing Trivia Question: Where is Trevor Bayne’s hometown? Last Week’s Question: Which Cup team does Martin Truex drive for? He drives the No. 56 Toyota for Michael Waltrip Racing. You may contact the Racing Reporter at hodges@race500.com.
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