Presented by BLAZ’N DIAGNOSTICS.
Wednesday, June 18, 2014.
I’m going on a rare extended vacation today, and the Boise Hawks start their first road trip of the season today. I was thinking Kyle Schwarber wouldn’t be with the team when I got back, but he didn’t even make it out of town last night. Schwarber socked two more home runs yesterday in Boise’s 12-3 rout of Tri-City, and as the Hawks bus was pulling out of the parking lot to head to Eugene, Schwarber was pulled off, as he had been promoted to long-season Kane County, the Cubs’ long-season Class A team. The fourth overall pick in this month’s MLB Draft is now hit .600 for the Hawks (12-for-20) with four homers and 10 runs batted in—all that in five games. Now, where will Schwarber play in the field in Kane County? He caught the first two games in Boise, was the designated hitter in the third, and played leftfield in his last two outings.
Schwarber had company on the long ball trail, as the Hawks hit a total of five homers, the most by a Northwest League team since 2009 and the most by Boise in its Cubs era. Jeffrey Baez led off for the Hawks with a dinger over the centerfield wall, and Justin Marra and Danny Canela also added homers. All five round-trippers were solo shots. Overshadowed by the barrage was Hawks starter Trevor Graham, who struck out seven over five innings to earn his first victory. Boise’s win was its fourth in five tries during the season-opening homestand, the team’s best start since 2003. The Schwarber-less Hawks make their 2014 road debut when they open a three-game series in Eugene tonight against the Emeralds.
Five years ago the Boise State-Ole Miss matchup would have been near the top of the list. But at least it’s still honorable mention. SI.com’s Stewart Mandel has posted his “Ten most anticipated nonconference games entering the 2014 season,” and the Chick-fil-A Kickoff August 28 is the first one bubbling under. Only one of the 10 games listed by Mandel doesn’t involve two Power 5 conference heavyweights: Penn State versus UCF in Dublin, Ireland, on August 30. Countdown, by the way, is 71 days until the Broncos meet the Rebels in the Georgia Dome.
It’s at least encouraging to see San Jose State’s Jared Leaf thinking this way. Leaf, who had been projected to start at linebacker for the Spartans this season, was severely burned during an apartment fire two months ago but says he would like to play football again. He spoke publicly Monday for the first time since running through what he called a “wall of fire” to escape his apartment. Leaf says his skin is too sensitive to consider a return to the gridiron right now, but he’s feeling “exponentially better” every day.
Graham DeLaet tries to hit the reset button today when he tees off at the Travelers Championship in Cromwell, CT. The former Boise State star carded a pair of 75s at the U.S. Open last week and missed the cut, although he said his second round wasn’t all that discouraging. "I'm not even really disappointed because I felt I was in total control of my game all day," DeLaet told Canada’s CTV News. "Three balls in that natural rough and twice I couldn't get a club on it and I made a triple and a double and the other time I went to move some debris and my ball moved and that cost me a stroke. Other than that I played well all day." He does feel the need to get over the hump in majors, though. "I feel like my game should be suited for tough golf courses," he said. "But my record hasn't shown that quite yet. Now I've got my feet wet in all four (majors) and I'm looking forward to the next one."
Fellow former Bronco Troy Merritt, a week removed from the biggest payday of his career, is set to play four PGA Tour events in a row beginning this week at the Travelers. Merritt pocketed $626,400 with his second-place finish at the FedEx St. Jude’s Classic a couple weeks back. Elsewhere, Boise State’s Ty Travis qualified for the U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship when he bested the qualifying field Monday at Silver Sage in Mountain Home. The former Eagle Mustang will play in the national tournament July 14-19 at Sand Creek Station Golf Course in Newton, KS.
With today’s opening shot of the Air Capital Classic in Wichita, the PGA Tour will initiate its celebration of the four Web.com Tour tournaments that turn 25 this year. One of them is the Albertsons Boise Open, which is four weeks away at Hillcrest Country Club. The other enduring events that debuted in 1990 with the launch of what was then the Ben Hogan Tour are in Knoxville and Springfield, MO. Of the four tournaments, the Albertsons Boise Open is the only one that’s had the same executive director since its inception, Jeff Sanders.
Fresno State basketball coach Rodney Terry, whose team may have turned the corner last season, has received a contract extension through 2018-19. Terry's Bulldogs held their own in the Mountain West, improving to a 9-9 record in conference that included a split with Boise State (the win was a 76-56 blowout at the Save Mart Center, the Broncos' worst loss of the season). Fresno State was 21-18, its first 20- win season in seven years, thanks to a run to the championship series of the College Basketball Invitational.
Wyoming’s Larry Shyatt has landed a five-year extension on his contract, also through the 2018-19 season. Shyatt began his head coaching career with the Cowboys in 1997-98 but left after a 19-9 season to go to Clemson. He returned to Laramie in 2011 following seven years as an assistant at Florida and is 59-41 in the three seasons since, with two 20-win campaigns. Wyo was on track for a third last season but struggled to an 18-15 finish after star forward Larry Nance Jr. went down with a torn ACL. Nance is said to be on track to return this fall.
The Idaho Steelheads’ big brothers, the Texas Stars, won the AHL’s Calder Cup championship last night, topping the St. John’s IceCaps four games to one. Former Steelhead Justin Dowling assisted on the Stars’ game-tying goal with 6½ minutes left in the third period, forcing overtime. Texas went on to win 4-3 to claim the title at the highest level of minor-league hockey. Hubert Labrie, Taylor Vause and Josh Robinson—all of whom competed for the Steelheads this season—were also part of the Texas title team.
Back to baseball: Former Boise Hawk Tony Campana is back in the majors with Arizona Diamondbacks after being called up again last Friday. Campana has split time between the D-Backs and the Triple-A Reno Aces this season, and Dan Hinxman of the Reno Gazette-Journal profiled him Monday. What I didn’t know about the 5-8, 165-pound sparkplug was that he’s a cancer survivor. When Campana was seven, he had a tumor removed from his chest the size of a grapefruit (it had been pressing against his heart). He was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma and underwent chemotherapy for eight months. Campana was declared cancer-free at the age of 17—now he’s in his fourth big league season.
This Day In Sports…brought to you by HANDYMAN CONNECTION…trusted home improvements.
June 18, 2010: After five seasons, 217 wins, two Kelly Cup Finals appearances and one ECHL championship, Derek Laxdal resigns as head coach of the Idaho Steelheads to take the reins of the Western Hockey League’s Edmonton Oil Kings. Laxdal notched 40-win seasons in each of his five years in Boise. Laxdal’s team had a league-best record of 48-17-7 during his final campaign, earning him ECHL Coach of the Year honors.
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment Sunday nights at 10:30PM on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra and anchors five sports segments each weekday on 93.1 The Ticket. He also served as color commentator on KTVB’s telecasts of Boise State football for 14 seasons.)
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