Sunday, JanuaRy 25, 2009 • Muskegon Chronicle Sports 3B

By Mike Mattsonmmattson@muskegonchronicle.com

Competitive travel-league baseballwill continue this summer with therebirth of the Muskegon ChannelCats.

The ChannelCats will field two teams(18U, 17U) and likely a third (14U), saidChannelCats founder and operator LenPiasecki.

The ChannelCats ceased operationsin 2005 and the void was filled by LineDrives, Muskegon Regulators and Mus-kegon Riptide.

Piasecki said the ChannelCats willpartner with Extra Innings, a new indoortraining facility owned by Pete Gawkows-ki and soon to open on Norton PinesDrive in Spring Lake. Extra Innings willprovide a place for players to train in theoff-season, especially during the coldwinter months.

“Once Extra Innings opens, it will bethe nucleus for travel baseball,” Piasecki

said. “I think it will drive travel baseball.It will be a good partnership for the facil-ity and the travel organization.”

Piasecki will be assisted by Bob Cava-naugh, general manager of baseballoperations and founder of the Riptide.

Cavanaugh said the ChannelCats willcontinue to provide an outlet for seri-ous baseball players in the Muskegonarea. He noted that 10 players off lastsummer’s Riptide team are on collegebaseball rosters.

“In travel baseball, you play againstthe best competition the state has tooffer,” Cavanaugh said. “Our goal is toplay the best competition in the state,and when we go national tournaments, toplay the best at the national level. Any-time we can have travel baseball andplay in a more competitive arena, we candevelop kids faster. It’s a chance for guysto improve their skills who want to goplay at the next level.”

The top team is the 18U squad, whichwill be coached by Mona Shores graduatesBrandon Bard and Pete Gawkowski Jr.

Currently on the core roster are GrandHaven’s Jordan Anderson and AndyDeal, Mona Shores Sam Sherburn andJake Waalkes, Reeths-Puffer’s RyanSomerville, Oakridge’s Kyle Pascavis andJamie Potts, Whitehall’s Jared Conkle,Shelby’s Dimitri Innis, Orchard View’sHayden Moses, Muskegon Catholic’s BenPeters and Reeths-Puffer’s Ian Engel,who is playing at Jackson CommunityCollege this spring.

Other roster spots will be filled by thestart of the season.

The ChannelCats will play about 35-to-45 games in a 45-day period in June andJuly. The team will play 20 games in theGrand Rapids Elite Travel League, par-ticipate in four state tournaments andenter one national tournament at sea-son’s end.

Bard, who played at Muskegon Com-munity College and Grand Valley State, isanxious to get started.

The ChannelCats will play againstestablished summer teams like Diamonds,Kalamazoo Maroons, Elite, Midland Ber-ryhill and others.

“Pete and I will do our best to teachthem the fundamentals of baseball,” saidBard, who is planning for a roster of 15players. “We’ll work with them at ExtraInnings. We want to help kids get to thenext level.”

The 17U team will be coached by DonGiddings.

Piasecki said the ChannelCats’ goalis to sponsor teams in the various agegroups starting at 13. He also is lookingfor volunteers to help the organization.

For more information, go to www.channelcats.com or contact Piaseckivia e-mail at len@channelcats.com or byphone (231) 750-0331.

Travel baseball returns toWest Michigan with ChannelCats

The topteam is the18U squad,which will becoached byMona ShoresgraduatesBrandon Bardand PeteGawkowski Jr.

Photo • Associated Press

Mason Raymond, a forward for the Vancouver Canucks, waitsto take a shot as nashville goalkeeper Pekka Rinne looks on.Rinne’s Team Rookies won 9-5.

By Sean FarrellAssociated Press

MONTREAL — Some feud.Russian superstars Alex-

ander Ovechkin and EvgeniMalkin teamed up to thedelight of the Bell Centrecrowd and both were winnersin the NHL’s All-Star Super-Skills competition Saturday.

Ovechkin successfullydefended his breakawaychallenge title as the eve-ning’s six events were con-ducted independently ofone another, unlike previousyears that featured an over-all title contested by the twoconferences.

The high-scoring Washing-ton left wing played to thecrowd — with a huge assistfrom Pittsburgh’s Malkin— and garnered 42.8 percentof the fan voting via text mes-sages.

Malkin claimed the shoot-ing accuracy title, hittingthree of four targets in a play-off with Ottawa’s Dany Heat-ley after both nailed all fourtargets in four shots in theopening round.

Boston captain Zdeno Cha-ra broke Al Iafrate’s 16-year-old hardest shot record witha blistering 105.4 mph slapshot on the final attempt ofthe event.

Phoenix’s Shane Doanscored on four of six penaltyshot attempts to outlast Bos-ton’s Marc Savard in the elim-ination shootout finale thatfeatured all 36 skaters takingturns against goalies Nik-las Backstrom of Minnesota,Henrik Lundqvist of the NewYork Rangers, Anaheim’sJean-Sebastien Giguere andBoston’s Tim Thomas.

Montreal’s Carey Price andVancouver’s Roberto Luongo,who both recently returned

from injuries, did not takepart in the elimination shoot-out.

Nashville defensemanShea Weber drove a 103.4mph shot that looked as if itmight hold up after Charahit 103.3 mph on his firstattempt.

The 6-foot-9 Bruins defen-seman drew an ovation fromthe crowd of 21,273 after hebroke Iafrate’s record of 105.2set at the Montreal Forum in1993.

Ovechkin scored pointsfrom the get-go as the lastof the six contestants in thebreakaway competition, wav-ing his hand at the crowd todraw the fans’ support.

In a nod to his supposedfeud with Malkin, Ovech-kin skated over to his Eastteammates before his finalattempt.

Malkin helped him puton an outback hat — with aCanadian flag stuck to thebrim — and white-framedwraparound sunglassesbefore pouring a sports drinkdown Ovechkin’s throat.

Ovechkin, a right-handedshot, took Malkin’s left-hand-ed stick before driving inwhile stickhandling the puckwith both sticks.

Ovechkin tossed his ownstick into the right cornerbefore taking a left-handedshot, which was stoppedbefore he slapped it homewith a second effort.

He then skated over to theleft side boards and tossedthe hat and the sunglassesinto the crowd.

Boston rookie BlakeWheeler was awarded theYoungStars game MVP afterscoring four goals to lead therookies to a 9-5 victory overthe sophomores.

NHL All-Stars shine atSuperSkills competition

Coach the lone representative for Red WingsMike Babcock always visits his alma mater, McGill university, when

he’s in Montreal. The detroit Red Wings coachplayed in an alumni game at McGill, then helpedhead coach Martin Raymond at a Redmen practiceFriday. “My groin is killing me,” Babcock saidSaturday. But the McGill captain from the 1980sis most conspicuous this week for being the lonemember of the Stanley Cup champion Red Wings toattend the nHL all-Star Game. His team elected tokeep star defenseman nicklas Lidstrom and forwardPavel datsyuk out even though they were voted

onto the Western Conference team for Sunday’s game at the BellCentre. The league reacted by enforcing a new rule, borrowed fromthe nBa, that will bar Lidstrom and datsyuk from playing in theWings’ next regular-season game Tuesday in Columbus. Babcockwill act as an assistant to Todd McLellan of the conference-leadingSan Jose Sharks.

— Associated Press

Babcock

Conor Fredricks madesure Grand Haven’s perfectrecord in the O-K Tier 3 so far

this seasonwould notcome close tobeing threat-

ened Saturday.Fredricks posted a three-

goal hat trick to lead a ple-thera of Bucs goal scorers ina 9-1 home rout of Grand Rap-ids Northview at The Edge inHolland.

Brendan Grevel scoredtwo goals and Will Verguinnotched a goal and two assistsas Grand Haven improved to 8-0 in the league and 9-5 overall.

Ben Ryzenga, Josh Kooiand Jake Kramer each lit thelamp once and Tyler Ruscogot in on the scoring with twoassists for the Bucs.

Haven netminder ScottBerry allowed just the onegoal while recording 16 savesto get the win.

Detroit Country Day 3, Reeths-Puffer 2— at Oak Park, Reeths-Puffer tallied bothof its goals late in the third period and cameclose in the final minute with a pair of shotsthat rang the goal post. despite the slow startfor Reeths-Puffer (4-8-2-1), the Rockets sent12 shots in the first period but only five wereon net. Jared Taylor and Ryan Griffin eachscored for Reeths-Puffer. Jared alderinkposted two assists and Joey Sterritt addedone assist for the Rockets. Country day hada 18-15 edge in shots with Carl Wobser post-ing 15 saves for Reeths-Puffer.

Hat tricksparks GH

P R E PH O C K E Y

By John PyneAssociated Press

MELBOURNE, Austra-lia — Top-seeded JelenaJankovic was knocked out inthe fourth round of the Aus-tralian Open, and will have tosearch elsewhere for her firstGrand Slam title.

Frenchwoman MarionBartoli, the 2007 Wimbledonfinalist, broke Jankovic’sserve twice in the first set enroute to a 6-1, 6-4 win Sundayand a place in the quarterfi-nals.

“I tried to not think aboutit for the whole match,” Bar-toli said of Jankovic’s No. 1ranking. “This is my first timeplaying in Rod Laver Arena. Ithink I just played amazinglytoday and I’m so glad to puton a good performance.”

The 16th-seeded Bartolihad not been past the secondround in seven previous tripsto Melbourne Park.

Critics questioned whetherJankovic could convert hernumeric ranking into a victo-ry in the championship matchat a major. She was a semifi-nalist at the Australian Openand French Open last yearbefore losing the U.S. Openfinal to Serena Williams.

When Bartoli turned upthe pressure Sunday, Jankov-ic tightened up again.

Bartoli was the aggressor,repeatedly sending Jankovicserves back faster than theycame over and standing twosteps inside the baseline forsecond serves.

Bartoli hits two-fisted,flat and hard from bothsides, and she peppered thelines and corners. Jankovic,repeatedly covering her faceor looking to her mother

for support and guidance,seemed shellshocked afterfalling behind 5-0 in the firstset despite shouts of “Let’s goJJ!” from the crowd.

Jankovic fended off two setpoints while serving at 1-5,but Bartoli easily held in thenext game, finishing off theset with a deft drop shot thatcaught Jankovic behind thebaseline.

Increasingly tentative andbewildered, Jankovic twicelost points early in the sec-ond set by stopping play onBartoli shots that she thoughtwere long but replays showedcaught the line. She used upher last challenge of the setin the sixth game.

Bartoli broke to pull ahead5-4 in a game that went todeuce six times, with Jankov-ic netting a backhand onbreakpoint.

Last Saturday night, men’sNo. 1 Rafael Nadal ripped 53winners in a 6-4, 6-2, 6-2 vic-tory against Tommy Haas.

Nadal kept his unforcederrors to a frugal eight — andto just one in the 43-minutesecond set.

“I played one of my bestmatches here at the Austra-lian Open,” said Nadal

No. 1 Jankovic out at Aussie Open

Photo • Associated Press

Jelena Jankovic reacts afterlosing her match to MarionBartoli on Saturday.

White leads South to 35-18 Senior Bowl winalabama native Pat White passed for 95 yards and a touchdown and directed two scoring drives tolead the South to a 35-18 win over the north in the Senior Bowl Saturday night. The West Virginiaquarterback grew up in daphne, just outside Mobile, ala. If there were doubts about the strength ofWhite’s arm, he tried to erase them in the third quarter when he stretched the South’s lead with animpressive 39-yard scoring toss to Mississippi’s Mike Wallace in the corner of the end zone.

— Associated Press

AssociAted Press

ANN ARBOR — Matt Rustand Brandon Burlon each

had a goal andan assist to liftMichigan to a5-3 win overMichigan Stateon Saturdaynight.

Travis Turn-bull, Carl Hage-lin and ChrisSummers alsoscored for theW o l v e r i n e s(18-8-0, 12-6-0CCHA), whobeat MSU forthe fifth time

this season. Aaron Palushajhad three assists and BryanHogan made 18 saves.

Matt Schepke, AndrewRowe and Adam Hendersonscored for the Spartans (7-17-3, 4-12-2), who lost 6-2 to Michi-gan on Friday night at JoeLouis Arena in Detroit. DrewPalmisano stopped 46 shots.

The Wolverines led 3-0 afterthe first period but the Spar-tans scored twice in the sec-ond. Michigan put the gameaway when Hagelin and Sum-mers sandwiched third-periodscores around Henderson’sfirst career goal.

Weekendsweep forU-M hockey

Rowe: MSuforwardscored hisfifth goal ofthe seasonin the loss.

AssociAted Press

ASPEN, Colo. — Snowboarder ShaunWhite didn’t let the heavy, wetsnow slow him down in theslopestyle event, winning hisWinter X record eighth goldmedal Saturday.

White turned in a flowing runfree of errors, which was in starkcontrast to his performance theday before when he barely madeit through qualifying.

“He’s a robot,” said ScottyLago, who finished second. “He does thisstuff all of the time.”

His record eighth title broke a tie with

freeskier Tanner Hall. White now has 13 over-all medals at Winter X.

Soon after the competition ended, Whitehad to bolt back up the mountain to take partin qualifying for the superpipe. The finals ofthat event are today.

White utilized all parts of the slopestylecourse, even clearing a 75-foot lip on thecross-over canyon feature. He was the onlyboarder to attempt the switch from one tableto the other.

SnoCross — at aspen, race favorite Tuckert Hibbert won theSnoCross event at Buttermilk Mountain — his third straight X-Games gold in the competition. Ravenna’s Zach Pattyn was thrownfrom his sled on the sixth of eight laps in Friday night’s second quali-fying race and didn not compete in the finals.

Another X-Games gold forWhite

White

Spring Lake girls top WMCat Spring Lake, the Lakers limitedWestern Michigan Christian tofour points in the third quarterin its 53-35 win. Tiffany Holmesled Spring Lake with 13 pointsand four assists, Morgan Keatingadded 12 points and annieSteinlage had seven steals.

— From local reports

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