Archive for May, 2012

Bruce Zoldan and his comrades at Team Valor are in the big race again with Went The Day Well.  The Team Valor entry will start from the #13 position and Johnny Velazquez riding the 20-1 longshot with the local ties.  Last year, Team Valor pulled the upset at the 137th Kentucky Derby when Animal Kingdom crossed the finish line first.

Bodemeister has been tapped the 4-1 favorite to win the first leg of this year’s Triple Crown.  Union Rags can almost be considered a co-favorite at 9-2.  With a field of 20 horses, the gamblers must remember that unless a favorite can go wire-to-wire, it is easy to get boxed in with such a crowded track.  That is why I do not like to bet the chalk in these big races.  They are all good horses and their times are not that different.  The possibility of rain is in the forecast, and on a sloppy track, a mule can beat a gazelle, you just never know what might happen.

Here is the entire field, with jockey and odds in the order of starting gate position:

1.  Daddy Long Legs (O’Donahue)               30-1

2.  Optimizer  (Court)                                  50-1

3.  Take Charge Indy (Borel)                        15-1

4.  Union Rags (Leparoux)                            9-2

5.  Dullahan (Desormeaux)                           8-1

6.  Bodemeister (Smith)                                4-1

7.  Rousing Sermon (Lezcano)                    50-1

8.  Creative Cause (Rosario)                        12-1

9.  Trinniberg (Martinez)                             50-1

10.  Daddy Nose Best (Gomez)                    15-1

11.  Alpha (Maragh)                                    15-1

12.  Prospective (Conteras)                         30-1

13.  Went The Day Well (Velazquez)            20-1

14.  Hansen (Dominguez)                           10-1

15.  Gemologist (Castellano)                        6-1

16.  El Padrino (Bejarano)                           20-1

17.  Done Talking (Russell)                        50-1

18.  Sabercat (Nakatani)                             30-1

19.  I’ll Have Another (Gutierrez)                12-1

20.  Liaison (Garcia)                                   50-1

The best way for me to deal with such a big field is to eliminate the horses I do not like.  Starting with I’ll Have Another, who would bet a horse with a drinking problem?    Hanson was my least favorite 90’s band – whack the 14 for association by name, sort of.  Take Charge Indy sounds like it should be in a NASCAR race, not the Derby.  Liaison, Gemologist, and Sabercat were all named from someones thesaurus, so I eliminate them.

Earlier, I made it clear that in a crowded field, I dislike the favorites, so Bodemeister and Union Rags can’t be in my picks.

My pick to win the race is Dullahan.  I like Desormeaux on the horse, he is a good jockey with a good record.  I think Went The Day Well and Daddy Nose Best will finish two and three, either way.

So your bet should read….  5 over the 13 and 10 in boxed exacta and trifecta wagers.  See you at the window!

Despite future YSU Hall-of-Famer, Haley Thomas, ending her home career as a Lady Penguin with a home run, very little went right for the Youngstown State softball team on Thursday.  The Penguins dropped a pair of games to Robert Morris, 8-0, and 12-4.

With the two losses, YSU fell to 27-18-1 on the season.  Robert Morris improved to 33-20, as both teams prepare for tournament play.

Senior Jordan Ingalls, junior Caroline Krombach, Thomas, and sophomore Courtney Ewing each collected two hits for the Penguins. Thomas also drove in two runs.

Youngstown State was hurt by two errors in Robert Morris’ eight-run sixth inning that expanded a 4-3 lead to a 12-3 advantage.  After the Colonials scored two unearned runs in the top of the first, Samantha Snodgrass singled in Ingalls to cut the deficit to 2-1.

In the bottom of the fourth, Thomas singled home Ewing to get the Guins within 3-2, but the Colonials answered with a run the top of the fifth to take a 4-2 lead.

Kristen Philen got YSU back to 4-3 with a double to center field that plated Snodgrass.

In the opener, Youngstown State was limited to just four hits – a double by Thomas and singles by Snodgrass, Philen and Ewing.

The Penguins close out the regular season with a three-game series against Green Bay, May 5-6, in Green Bay, Wis.

 

Youngstown State’s Jeremy Banks and Blake Aquadro have been named the Horizon League Baseball Players of the Week for the period of April 23-29, the conference office announced on Monday.

Banks earned Batter-of-the-Week accolades for the third time this season while Aquadro picked up Pitcher-of-the-Week honors for the first time in his career. Both players played a big part in YSU’s first-ever series sweep of UIC over the weekend.

Banks batted .636 with seven hits in 11 at bats in three games for YSU, reaching base at least twice in each game. He had three RBIs in YSU’s 11-3 win on Friday and added three more in YSU’s 9-0 win in the series finale. Banks was 4-for-4 in the finale and recorded his 200th career hit with an eighth-inning single. Despite missing 14 games with an injury, Banks ranks among the top five in the Horizon League in doubles and RBIs and is sixth in home runs. His .400 batting average, .657 slugging percentage and .492 on-base percentage are tops among all league players with more than 100 at bats.

Aquadro pitched the Penguins’ first nine-inning complete-game shutout since 2004 against UIC on Sunday. The junior southpaw scattered eight hits and struck out three while throwing 144 pitches. Only one of the Flames’ hits went for extra bases.

Youngstown State will try to remain hot when it plays Pittsburgh on Wednesday at 3 p.m. at Eastwood Field.