Rich Thompson put together three straight two-hit games, stealing at least one base in each, from Thursday through Saturday for the International League’s Durham Bulls.
Thompson, a Montrose graduate who will be 34 next week, is playing on the Class AAA level for the 11th straight season. He has also appeared in the major leagues twice, with Kansas City in 2004, and last year when he got his first big league hit for the Tampa Bay Rays.
The leadoff-hitting center fielder was batting just .150 through five games.
Beginning with home games against Norfolk, Thompson went 2-for-5 in consecutive games, scoring a run in each and combining to steal three bases. He went 2-for-5 again, with another run and stolen base, when the Bulls headed to Charlotte.
The hot streak ended Sunday during a 5-2, 10-inning loss in Charlotte. Thompson did, however, manage to drive in his third run of the season in the loss.
Thompson has scored seven runs and stolen four bases in the first nine games while hitting .231. He has a double and three walks while striking out five times.
During his minor league career, Thompson is a .281 hitter with 484 stolen bases and 885 runs scored in 1461 games.
The James Madison University graduate has two hits and seven stolen bases in 29 career Major League games.
WEEK IN REVIEW
The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins clinched their 11th straight Calder Cup playoff appearance Saturday with a 3-0 win over the host St. John’s Ice Caps.
The 11 consecutive playoff berths is the longest active streak in the American Hockey League.
Jeff Zatkoff made 17 saves for his second straight shutout and fifth of the season.
Chad Kolarik’s hat trick Sunday, included the overtime game-winner, as the Penguins completed a sweep of the series in Newfoundland with a 5-4 victory.
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton has won seven straight overall and five straight on the road.
In professional baseball, the Binghamton Mets lost their Eastern League home opener, 3-1, to the New Hampshire Fisher Cats.
New Hampshire used two late home runs for the win.
The Mets finished the second week with a 6-4 record.
In high school sports, four Montrose teams finished the week with unbeaten league records.
The Meteors lead Division 4 of the Lackawanna Track Conference in both boys’ track and girls’ track with 3-0 records.
Blue Ridge is in second place in each with 2-0 records.
Montrose is 1-0 in softball, behind Lackawanna Trail at 2-0.
Forest City and Lackawanna Trail are 2-0 in baseball while Montrose and Blue Ridge are 1-0.
COLLEGE CORNER
Julia Koloski has the best University of Pittsburgh performance in the women’s long jump this season.
The junior from Montrose finished seventh out of 48 entries in the event at the Charlotte 49er Classic with a jump of 18-1 ¾.
Koloski was also part of the third-best, 400-meter relay of the season when she helped the team to a 3:48.74 finish at the same event.
During the indoor season, Koloski had a fourth-place finish in the long jump at the Kent State Golden Flash Gala while also finishing 10th in the trip jump.
THE WEEK AHEAD
The four teams that entered the week unbeaten in Lackawanna League Division 4 baseball will get together Thursday.
Montrose is at Forest City and Blue Ridge is at Lackawanna Trail.
In professional hockey, the American Hockey League regular season comes to an end Sunday.
TOM ROBINSON writes a weekly local sports column for the Susquehanna County Transcript. He can be reached online at RobbyTR@aol.com or followed on Twitter at @tomjrobinson.
ROWDY KYLE BUSCH OWNS TEXAS
FT. WORTH, TEX.---Kyle Busch is on a roll.
Rowdy" Kyle Busch wins both Texas races. Furnished by Toyota Motorsports
He won both the Nationwide and Cup races at Texas Motor Speedway this past weekend.
Busch started from the pole position in Saturday night’s Cup race and remained in the top-three for most of the race. As the laps wound down, Busch was in second place and steadily chasing down leader Martin Truex Jr., when the caution flag waved at lap 315 of the 334-lap race. With just 19 laps remaining, all the leaders decided to bring their cars down pit road. A quick, four-tire pit stop by his pit crew put Busch back in the top spot for the final restart of the night, and he never looked back, taking the checkered flag.
“It’s good, really good,” said Busch, “We’ve had a good start to the season. It feels amazing to keep this roll going. It’s so much fun to race with this group. We had a talk over the winter, Dave (Rogers, crew chief) and I had a talk a few weeks ago, and things have kind of jelled – we’ve been doing really, really good.”
Martin Truex Jr. finished .508 of a second behind Busch in the runner-up spot. His No. 56 Toyota failed the height-stick test and was deemed too low in the front. The car will be taken to NASCAR's research-and-development center in Concord, N.C. for further examination.
“We came in with the lead,” Truex said. “I still feel like we should have been able to beat him out. I don't know what happened there, but it wasn't even close. I was three (car-lengths) behind, so it wasn't all pit position, it was other things on our end.”
Carl Edwards, Greg Biffle and Joey Logano rounded out the top-five. Jimmie Johnson, Aric Almirola, Brian Vickers, Brad Keselowski and Newman comprised the remainder of the top-10.
Edwards looked like he was headed for a long night early in the race. First, his engine began sputtering and then his seat belts came unhooked under caution and he couldn’t get them re-attached until after the restart. Incredibly, Edwards managed to hook his belts into place after taking the green flag and while racing at about 200 mph. Despite all that, Edwards rallied for an impressive third-place finish.
Trouble started early for the Penske Racing Fords of reigning series champion Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano. NASCAR confiscated the rear-end housings of both cars, forcing the teams to make a change before the race.
Keselowski made it to the grid in time for the start, but Logano’s car was late presenting itself on pit road and had to start from the rear.
“It is just something that is not in the spirit of the rules,” NASCAR vice president of competition told the Sporting News in explaining the violation. If penalties are forthcoming, they will be announced next week.”
Keselowski remains second in the Cup standings, but he may be in trouble again for lambasting NASCAR with his post-race comments.
“I don’t have a lot of good things to say right now,” Keselowski said. “The things that I’ve seen over the last seven days have me questioning everything I believe in and I’m not happy about it. I don’t have anything positive to say.
“There’s so much stuff going on, you guys have no idea — you have no (expletive) idea what’s going on. I can tell you there is no team in this garage with the integrity of the 2 team.
“The way we’ve been treated over the last seven days is absolute shameful. I feel like we’ve been targeted over the last seven days more than I’ve ever seen a team targeted in my life. My guys keep their heads on straight and they showcased why they’re a winning team and a championship team.
“We’re not going to take it. We’re not going to be treated this way.”
Good luck Brad. Just remember that Tony Stewart found out several years ago, that, “It’s NASCAR’s way or the highway.”
Two weeks after leading the standings, Dale Earnhardt’s team seems to have reversed direction. He was running third when his car lost power, Earnhardt went to pit road instead of switching to the backup battery. He was nabbed for speeding on the pit stop and had to serve a pass-thru penalty. Then, crew chief Steve Letarte had him stop for four tires during the penalty stop, which is against the rules and cost them another pass-thru penalty. Earnhardt wound up three laps down and finished 29th on a day when he had a car that seemed capable of challenging for the win.
Kurt Busch, who started on the outside pole, had fuel pressure problems. He was able to run with the leaders, but lost 17 laps in the pits due to repairs.
“We need to get these problems rectified sooner than later,” stated Busch, who also saw a strong run stymied due to a parts failure last week in Martinsville. “I feel confident that we’ll get this accomplished and have another fast Furniture Row Chevrolet SS in Kansas next week."
After seven of 36 races, Busch is 24th in points.
Danica Patrick continues to struggle. She started 40th and finished 28th, three laps down.
Top-10 leaders after 7 of 36: 1. Johnson-269, 2. Keselowski-260, 3. Kyle Busch-251, 4. Biffle-239, 5. Edwards-234, 6. Earnhardt-234, 7. Kahne-232, 8. Bowyer-208, 9. Logano-207, 10. Menard-206.
Kyle Busch is on a winning streak in the Nationwide series. He won last weekend’s race at Texas for his fourth win in six races this season, becoming the first driver in series history to win four of the first six. Brad Keselowski had a straightforward assessment of Busch’s dominance at Texas.
“If you put an elite driver in an elite car, you should get elite results,” Keselowski said. The victory was Busch's record sixth at Texas and his record 55th in the Nationwide Series. Brad Keselowski ran second, 2.272 seconds behind the winner. Austin Dillon was third, followed by Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kevin Harvick, Matt Kenseth, Regan Smith, Kasey Kahne, Brian Vickers, and Justin Allgaier.
Top-10 points leaders after 6 of 33: 1. Hornish-221, 2. Smith-219, 3. A. Dillon-213, 4. Allgaier-212, 5. Scott-212, 6. Kligerman-186, 7. Sadler-185, 8. Bowman-183, 9. Vickers-182, 10. Bayne-181.
KYLE LARSON WINS AT THE “ROCK”
Kyle Larson held off a hard-charging Joey Logano to win Sunday’s Truck race at Rockingham, NC. Brendan Gaughan was third, followed by Johnny Sauter, Chase Elliott, Matt Crafton, Jeb Burton, Ryan Blaney, Erik Jones, and Miguel Paludo.
Weekend Racing: The trucks and Sprint Cup teams are at the 1-5-mile Kansas Speedway. The Nationwide Series has an off weekend.
Sat., Apr. 20, Camping World Trucks, race 4 of 22; Starting time: 2 pm ET; TV:SPEED.
Sun., Apr. 21, Sprint Cup Series, race 8 of 36; Starting time: 1 pm ET; TV: FOX.
Racing Trivia Question: Where is the hometown of Kurt and Kyle Busch?
Last Week’s Question: Bobby Isaac is a former Sprint Cup champion that raced from 1964-1977. What year did he win the championship? Answer. It was 1970.
You may contact the Racing Reporter at hodges@race500.com.
