Quick Hitters
The Gila Ridge boys golf team won a three-way match Tuesday against Cibola and Valley Vista at Desert Hills.
The Hawks posted a team total of 161, followed by Cibola at 196 and Valley Vista at 239.
Gila Ridge’s David Ramirez fired a 2-under 34 to take home medalist honors.
“David came out and was on his game today, every facet of the game was working,” coach James Kuzniak said. “He was consistently hitting fairways and greens while putting as good as I have seen him.”
The Hawks’ Joab Beck and Cibola’s Hunter Nelson tied for second at 41.
Kings win opener
The Kofa boys golf team opened its season Tuesday against Tolleson and La Joya at Tolleson, and won the three-way match by finishing 86-over as a team.
Luis Rodriguez (52) and Oscar Garcia (58) were the top golfers for the Kings.
Nationals trade Murphy to Cubs, Adams to Cards
WASHINGTON — Essentially throwing in the towel on a disappointing season, the Washington Nationals traded second baseman Daniel Murphy to the Chicago Cubs and first baseman Matt Adams to the St. Louis Cardinals on Tuesday.
Despite a roster that boasts such stars as Max Scherzer and Bryce Harper, Washington went into a three-game series at home against Philadelphia with a losing record of 62-63, 7½ games behind the NL East-leading Atlanta Braves.
General manager Mike Rizzo and ownership gambled at the July trade deadline, standing pat and expressing faith in the roster as constituted. The Nationals trounced the New York Mets 25-4 that night, but are 9-10 since, including a 2-5 road trip through Chicago and St. Louis that featured a 4-3 loss at Wrigley Field on a two-out, walk-off grand slam.
“We felt that coming off that road trip and into this most recent homestand was a time that was a litmus test for us ... and we felt that the timing was right to make the vital decisions that we had to make,” Rizzo said.
The deals came three weeks after the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline, and the Nationals aren’t getting much in return.
For Murphy, who was hitting .300 since his return from knee surgery, the Cubs are swapping Class A infielder Andruw Monasterio and a player to be named or cash. For Adams, the Cardinals are sending $50,000 to Washington.
Coaching changes have never prevented the Arizona Western women’s soccer program from maintaining its level of success in recent years, and the hope for the Matadors this year is that will once again be the case.
AWC is coming off its best-ever season — a 15-win campaign in 2017 that featured the program’s firstever postseason victory and a run to the NJCAA Region I championship — but enters 2018 with another new coach, Nicole Acosta, the Matadors’ fourth in six years.
“Obviously coming into it I didn’t really know what to expect,” Acosta said. “There’s girls from all over, like Ghana, Netherlands, all that. They look good.
PHOENIX — Angels pitcher Cam Bedrosian threw wildly after fielding a sacrifice bunt attempt in the bottom of the ninth inning, allowing Jon Jay to score and the Arizona Diamondbacks to beat Los Angeles 5-4 on Tuesday night.
Jay was hit by a pitch to start the inning, then moved to second on John Ryan Murphy’s sacrifice attempt that turned into a hit. A.J. Pollock then laid down another sacrifice try, and Bedrosian (5-3) attempted to force out Jay at third.
The ball soared past third baseman Taylor Ward, and Jay got up and sprinted home.
Diamondbacks closer Brad Boxberger (2-4) pitched a scoreless ninth.
David Peralta drove in three runs and came a triple short of the cycle for We did pretty good in our scrimmage (last week against Yuma Spartans-FC), and I’m hoping for a successful season.”
Though reigning Arizona Community College Athletic Conference Player of the Year Cinthya Samaniego is no longer around, as well as All-ACCAC Second-Teamer Karla Navarro, the Matadors do have plenty back from last year’s squad.
Most notable among them are sophomore forward Christiana Boateng and sophomore midfielder Karen Melendrez, who were both All-ACCAC First Team selections as fresh- Arizona.
The Angels rallied from a pair of two-run deficits to tie it, scoring twice in the seventh inning on pinchhitter Jefry Marte’s home run and David Fletcher’s two-out triple. Fletcher had three hits and two RBIs.
Both teams’ starting pitchers lasted six innings but got no-decisions. Felix Pena struck out a careerhigh 12 but allowed four runs and seven hits for Los Angeles, while Arizona’s Patrick Corbin gave up two runs and five hits and struck out eight.
Peralta hit his seventh home run in 12 games, a two-run shot into the Diamondbacks’ bullpen in left field with one out in the first inning. The Diamondbacks lead the majors with 109 first-inning runs.
The Angels tied it in the third on run-scoring singles for Fletcher and Andrelton Simmons after Kole Calhoun led off with a double.
But the Diamondbacks got to Pena again in the third, stringing together