Oregon State Draws Final Blood Of 2011-2012 Civil War Series
The Civil War is one of the most historic rivalries in college athletics. It pits the Oregon State Beavers against the Oregon Ducks in multiple sports including basketball, football, baseball, volleyball, softball, and golf, to name a few.
This year, like most years, the Beavers and Ducks had many classic match-ups against one another, none more perhaps than the battle that took place yesterday morning at Emerald Valley Golf Course in Creswell, Oregon.
Two days ago Emerald Valley held the Northwest Sectional U.S. Open Qualifier in which two golfer would earn a spot in next week’s U.S. Open at The Olympic Club in San Francisco. The qualifier included many amateur and professional golfers from all over the west United States and Canada. Two round were to be played, 36 holes, over the course of the day. The Oregon weather did everything in it’s power to make this impossible though, as the final group finished up their final round in darkness around 9 p.m. that night.
When all the scores were tallied and posted Casey Martin, former controversial PGA Tour player and University of Oregon head golf coach, had won the event by one stroke with a total score of 138 (-4). The problem was the two players had tied for the second spot in the U.S. Open and a playoff was going to be needed to determine who would get the final available spot. Those two players were Dan Miernicki, who just recently finished a decorated golfing career at the U of O, and Nick Sherwood, an Oregon State University Junior.
With the conditions too dark to have a playoff, the two competitors were asked to come back the next morning for a Sudden Death Playoff at 8 a.m.
The next morning the Civil War began with both players parring the 10th hole and moving to the par-3 11th at Emerald Valley. Miernicki missed the green with his tee shot while Sherwood hit his to around 60 feet. Miernicki chipped to a foot for a tap-in par. Sherwood left his putt 12 feet short and was faced with a do-or-die putt.
He made it!
On to the par-4 12th where Miernicki pushed his drive right and was blocked out by trees. Sherwood put his drive in the right center of the fairway and was the first to play from about 190 yards away from the pin. He hit his approach inside of 30 feet and Miernicki was forced to chip into the fairway. Miernicki then missed the green with his third and then chipped to a couple feet. Nick then hit his putt four feet by the hole. Miernicki made his 4-footer for bogey and Sherwood then had a 4-footer for the win.
He made it again!
Just like that the little known golfer from Albany, Oregon, who decided to stay close to home and play golf for Oregon State took down, not only a top-10 ranked amateur in the world, but an Oregon Duck. He is now on his way to the U.S. Open where he will play with the best players in the world, and he did it all by drawing the final blood in this year’s series of Civil Wars.
Pat Casey Becomes Winningest Coach in OSU Baseball History
Oregon State head baseball coach Pat Casey became the winningest coach in program history this past Friday night when his Beavers beat rival Oregon in game 1 of the three-game Civil War series. The win was the 614th of Casey’s decorated career as head coach of the Beavers, which includes two national championships. Moving to 614 wins allowed Coach Casey to surpass Jack Riley at the top of the wins list. Theis season marks the 18th for Casey as head coach of Oregon State. Over those 18 years he has averaged 34 wins per season. He also moved to 13th on the wins list in Pac-12 history.
Sports Action 5-27-12
On this week’s edition of Sports Action Mr. Motomochi and myself will be discussing the NBA Playoffs again as well as talking about the Lakers and what they need to do this off-season in order to get back to the top of the NBA. We will also debate about where the Orlando Magic go after firing head coach Stan Van Gundy and GM Otis Smith.
We will then shift our focus to the Oregon State Baseball team, talking about the Civil War with rival Oregon and previewing the college baseball post-season. We might even have time to make predictions and give our thoughts on the expectations for the Beavers in the post-season.
Finally we will start our discussion of “Best Athletes”. We will begin with our definitions of the word “athlete” then dive into which sport produces the best athletes. Then we will give our top-8 athletes in the sports RIGHT NOW, and preview a bracket of the best athletes that we will breakdown the following week.
Tune into 88.7 KBVR this Sunday from 8pm-10pm to hear all of this and more from Jonnie and myself. You can also stream the show live at kbvr.com/listen.
Another Michael Jordan? Don’t Bet On It
I recently took to my Twitter account, @RealKigerPlews learn about it, to post about an interview that Jonnie Motomochi and myself were doing with an Oregon State baseball player when I saw a picture that really caught my eye (see below).
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| Courtesy of @KobeLogic |
The picture sums up just how great Michael Jordan really was, and how less and less recognition he is getting for it.
All I hear from people now-a-days is who most closely resemble Jordan, Kobe or LeBron. Now to be fair LeBron and Kobe are two of the greatest players that the game has ever seen, but they are no Jordan.
Jordan is the undisputed king of basketball, but to understand just how great, and why Kobe, LeBron and all others aren’t even in the same class as him you need to dig a little deeper.
Jordan won 6 NBA titles, the 10th most of all-time by a player, Bill Russell has 11. Jordan won 5 MVP awards during his career, second to only Kareem Abdul-Jabar’s 6. He is one of only four players in the history of the NBA to win both the MVP and Defensive Player of the Year Award during their career. MJ is also the only player in NBA history to win NBA Finals MVP six times!
This is just a small sample, but it accurately shows just how special Jordan was and how he will, in all likely hood, never be surpassed as the greatest player in NBA history.
Sports Action: 5-13-2012
This week “Sports Action” returns with a slate of topics to throw around. We will be talking about the Junior Seau suicide and what it means for the NFL‘s problems with bounties and player safety, the NBA playoffs, recapping The Players, and doing a rundown of OSU athletics. Plus in the always popular Finishing Strong segment I will explain how fashion can, or cannot, help your golf game. Tune into 88.7 KBVR at 8 p.m. PT on Sunday or stream live on KBVR.com.
Pac-12 Men’s Golf Championships Arrive
The sun has finally graced us with it’s presence, the smell of spring is in the air, and all other 11 Pac-12 schools have arrived in Corvallis for the inaugural Pac-12 Men’s Golf Championships which will be held locally at Trysting Tree Golf Course this year.
Sitting here this morning I can tell you that the practice rounds for the teams have gotten under way and we are less than 24 hours away from the first tee shot being hit and the tournament beginning.
The favorites to take the team crown this year have to be Oregon, UCLA, Washington, Stanford, Cal, and USC. Oregon comes in to the championships with the most momentum having won their previous tournament, and six on the year.
The Ducks are led by Eugene Wong and Dan Miernicki, the 5th and 18th ranked players in the nation, and have to be two of the favorites for individual champion. Others who will be in the hunt for the title, accompanied by their ranking, could include Patrick Rodgers of Stanford, 3rd, Chris Williams of Washington, 7th, Patrick Cantlay of UCLA, 10th, and Steve Lim of USC, 17th. Other players who could be in the mix include Andrew Yun of Stanford, Cheng-Tsung Pan of Washington, Max Homa of Cal, Alex Moore of Oregon State and Martin Trainer, last year’s champion, of USC.
The tournament runs from Friday April 27 through Sunday the 29th with the first two rounds being played on Friday. Come out, support your teams (especially Beaver Nation), and watch the future stars in the game of golf.
Sunday night on “Sports Action” Jonnie and I will be reviewing the Pac-12 Championships and talking about what we learned throughout the weekend. DON’T MISS IT!
Sports Action Blog
Hello sports fans! Welcome to the “Sports Action” blog. Sports Action is a student-run sports talk show based out of Oregon State University on 88.7 KBVR. OSU student-athlete Jonnie Motomochi and myself started the show this this term and we go on the air every Sunday from 8-10pm.
Jonnie specializes in hockey, golf, baseball, and basketball while I specialize in golf, basketball, and football. Together we form a deadly combination of sports knowledge and entertaining banter.
This blog will serve as another way for Jonnie and I to connect with our fans and listeners and get feedback on our show every week. There will be trivia questions, interesting facts, and follow ups on show topics. Follow us on Twitter by clicking on our links above.
Get ready because this…..is…..SPORTS ACTION!
Sports Action Blog 