Westplex Today Sports Page:   September 3, 2008

The Cardinals are back in the win column after beating Arizona 8-2 last night in the second of a three-game set in Phoenix .  Redbirds third baseman Troy Glaus, catcher Yadier Molina and utility man Felipe Lopez all went deep in helping their club snap a string of four straight losses.  Cards starter Adam Wainwright was a one-man wrecking crew, after he allowed just one run in 5 1/3 innings of work and picked up his eighth victory, and he doubled home two runs with his bat.  The Cardinals and Diamondbacks wrap up the series this afternoon.  First pitch is 2:40 .   KWRE will begin its broadcast at 1:57 with pre-game activities.

Cardinals outfielder Joe Mather will miss the rest of the year due to a broken bone in his left wrist.  The rookie suffered the injury while checking his swing in the third inning of an 8-6 setback to the D'backs on Monday at Chase Field.  Mather will undergo surgery to remove the hook of the hamate bone near his hand.  The 6-foot-4 slugger finishes the season with a .241 batting average, eight home runs and 18 RBI in 54 games.

The Cubs lost their fourth straight game last night, a 9-7 11-inning defeat to the Houston Astros at Wrigley Field.  Kerry Wood served up a two-run home run to Geoff Blum in the 11th to fall to 4-3 on the season.  Starter Carlos Zambrano gave up three earned runs on five hits before leaving the game in the fifth inning with arm soreness.  He will be reevaluated today.  Jim Edmonds, Alfonso Soriano, Mark DeRosa and Geovany Soto each clubbed solo home runs for the Cubs, who saw their streak of 11 straight series victories come to an end.  The Cubs will try to avoid being swept by Houston tonight.   Fortunately for them, they still lead Milwaukee by 4 ½ games in the National League Central.

Don’t look now, but the Astros have crept into the National League wildcard race.   They are 7 ½ games behind Milwaukee , after winning seven games in a row.

The Brewers rallied late to force extra innings, but couldn’t get the job done, falling 6-5 to the Mets Tuesday night at Miller Park . Endy Chavez’s 10th-inning sac fly scored Daniel Murphy to break the tie. The Brewers put two on in the ninth, but Rickie Weeks struck out to end the game. The two teams wrap up a three game set this afternoon. Dave Bush will pitch for Milwaukee .

The Rams return to the practice field this afternoon in anticipation of their season opener in Philadelphia on Sunday.  Kickoff is scheduled for noon .  The Rams must cut 13 more players to trim the roster down to 53 by Saturday.  The Rams are coming off a disappointing 3-13 campaign in 2007.

A pair of University of Missouri football standouts are enjoying honors from the Big 12 Conference.  Tigers return man Jeremy Maclin was named the league's special teams Player of the Week yesterday while pass rusher Stryker Sulak earned the honor on defense.  Maclin ran a kickoff back 99 yards in Mizzou's 52-42 win over Illinois in St. Louis last Saturday, and he had over 200 all-purpose yards before suffering an ankle injury.  Sulak recorded eight tackles including three sacks in the same contest.  Sixth-ranked Missouri faces SEMO this weekend at Faurot Field.

Missouri sits behind a top-five in both the AP and the USA Today polls that look like this:   USC, Georgia , Ohio State , Oklahoma , and Florida .   Georgia must feel like it was robbed in broad daylight, because its pre-season #1 ranking was taken away even though it won 45-21 over Georgia Southern to start the season.   USC trounced Virginia 52-7, so that must’ve been more impressive than Georgia ’s victory.

After losing 52-42 to Missouri , Illinois is still hanging on at the bottom of the top-25 polls.   The Fighting Illini are 24^th in the AP poll, and 25^th in the USA Today poll.

The Missouri Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association has released its statewide high school football polls for this week.   Among Westplex teams, Zumwalt West moves up a spot to #4 in the Class 6 poll, and Union slides up two spots to #4 in the Class 4 poll.   However, Borgia and Hermann suffered upset losses to St. Clair and Hermann in the first week of play, and dropped out of the Class 3 and Class 2 polls.

Two Westplex quarterbacks who made impressive debuts as varsity starters have been selected as this week’s Westplex Today Athletes of the Week.   Jake Miller of Warrenton had two short touchdown runs and completed 12 out of 20 passes for 150 yards.   Most importantly, Miller threw a 40-yard touchdown pass to A.J. Wallace with 25 seconds left in regulation, to secure a 19-15 victory over Affton.   Justin Hinni of Washington completed 19 out of 27 passes for 317 yards and 3 touchdowns, and he also ran for 149 yards on 15 carries.   Hinni helped break open a close game, by accounting for 3 touchdowns within a span of seven minutes in the 3^rd quarter as Washington pulled away for a 56-14 victory over Zumwalt North.

Those two quarterbacks will face each other this Saturday at Lindenwood University in St. Charles , to close out the GAC Gridiron Classic.   Warrenton plays Washington at 4:00 Saturday, and KWRE will have the action for you at 3:45 .   KFAV will broadcast the first game of the Gridiron Classic Friday night, as Wentzville Holt and Troy take their Battle of Highway 61 to Lindenwood at 5:00 .   KFAV’s “Countdown to Kickoff Show” begins at 4:45 Friday afternoon.

The BMW Championship golf tournament gets underway tomorrow morning at Bellerive Country Club.  Sixty-nine players will participate in the FedEx Cup event that runs through Sunday.  The winner will take home 1.26-million-dollars.  St. Louis native Jay Williamson is in the field that includes PGA stars Phil Mickelson and Sergio Garcia among others.   If you plan on watching that tournament in person, leave your cell phone in your vehicle because Bellerive officials have banned cell phones from the golf course.   Courtesy phone call locations have been established at two spots on the Bellerive grounds, if attendees need to call someone.

U.S. Ryder Cup team captain Paul Azinger has selected the final members of his squad.  Azinger announced Steve Stricker, Hunter Mahan, J.B. Holmes and Chad Campbell will represent the U.S. at the competition against the Europeans.  Phil Mickelson, Stewart Cink, Kenny Perry, Jim Furyk, Anthony Kim, Justin Leonard, Ben Curtis, and Boo Weekley all automatically were selected to the team.  World number-one golfer Tiger Woods also was an automatic selection, but he will not participate as he continues to recover from surgery.  This year's Ryder Cup will be played September 19th-21st at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville , Kentucky .  The Europeans have won the last three competitions.  The European team will include the likes of Padraig Harrington, Sergio Garcia and Justin Rose.

Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic survived five-set matches, while Andy Roddick advanced in straight sets Tuesday at the U.S. Open.  The second-seeded Federer, seeking his fifth straight U.S. Open crown, outlasted Igor Andreev 6-7 (5-7), 7-6 (7-5), 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 to reach the men's quarterfinals.  Djokovic pulled out a 4-6, 6-2, 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 victory over 15th-seeded Tommy Robredo in his fourth-round match to move on.  The eighth-seeded Roddick rolled into the quarters with a 6-2, 6-4, 6-1 win over 11th-seeded Fernando Gonzalez.  Fifth-seeded Nikolay Davydenko fell to Gilles Muller in four sets, losing a fourth-set tiebreak 12-10.  Top-seeded Rafael Nadal, who survived a four-set struggle in the previous round against unranked Sam Querrey, returns to the court this evening to battle another unseeded American: Mardy Fish.

On the women's side, second-seeded Jelena Jankovic and fifth-seeded Elena Dementieva both won quarterfinal matches in straight sets Tuesday.  Fourth-seeded Serena Williams will take on seventh-seeded sister Venus in tonight's quarterfinal action, while sixth-seeded Dinara Safina battles 16th-seeded Flavia Pennetta this afternoon.