Journal Gazette from Mattoon, Illinois • Page 11

Mattoon (111.) Journal Gazette Friday, August 9, 1993 Perry leads in PGA B2 Mistakes hurting Rams B3 Records B4 L) ffaill inn iimimie I mp I II i. win I I Strawberry stays hot against Sox NEW YORK (AP) Darryl Strawberry says he's fmally adjusted to major-league pitching. No kidding. Strawberry hit two more home runs, giving him five in his last three games Thursday to lead the New York Yankees to an 8-4 victory ower the Chicago White Sox. Strawberry, who hit three home runs in a 9-2 win Tuesday night, hit a three-run homer to cap a four-run third and added a solo homer in the fifth, his eighth since joining the Yankees on July 7, "Once I get into the groove of hitting homers, it seems to come to me.

I'm not trying to hit homers," said Strawberry, who has raised his average to .258 and now has 21 RBIs in 26 games. Strawberry didn't get a chance at another three-homer game, leaving after six innings with sore shins. I took him out because his shins were barking. That the only reason I took him out," New York manager Joe Torre said. "I think it all comes frbm running, stealing bases and running hard," Strawberry said.

The slugger entered the series with Chicago in an 0-for-10 slump and had more steals (five) than homers (three). But some hitting advice from coach Chris Chambliss has helped Strawberry recapture the form that made him one of baseball's most feared hitters. "He's daring people to get him out," Torre said. With the Yankees already leading 3-0 in the fourth, Luis Andujar (0-2) walked Bernie Williams and Strawberry hit his next pitch into the lower deck in right. Bob Wickman (4-1), the second of five Yankees' pitchers, picked up the win.

ST. LOUIS (AP) Pinch-hitter Dave McCarty hit a two-run homer off Dennis Eckersley in the 10th inning Thursday night, lifting the San Francisco Giants over the St. Louis Cardinals 5-3. The Giants stopped their seven-game road losing streak. They won outside the state of California for the first time since June 5 in Cincinnati, a span totaling 23 games.

Rick Wilkins, who had a two-run double in the eighth, opened the 10th with a single off Rick Honeycutt (2-1). After a sacrifice, McCarty connected for his second pinch-hit homer of the season. Jim Poole (1-0) pitched 1 1-3 innings for his first NL win. Rod Beck worked the 10th for his 22nd save. Willie McGee recorded his career hit, and Cardinals teammate Gary Gaetti had three hits, including his first NL After Wilkins' double made it 3-1, the Cardinals tied it with two runs in the eighth off Tim Scott.

Ron Gant hit his 22nd homer with two outs, Brian Jordan tripled and Gaetti singled. Giants starter Shawn Estes gave up one run and six hits in seven innings. Cardinals starter Alan Benes, who lasted past the sixth inning for the first time since June 15, gave up one run on six hits and four walks in seven innings. Glenallen Hill started the Giants eighth with a double down the left-field line off reliever Mark Petkovsek. After an inten-tional walk to Barry Bonds, Wilkins doubled to right-center.

St. Louis scored in the fourth when Gaetti tripled and John Mabry singled. The Giants tied it in the sixth when Bonds, hitting .410 in his last 13 games, led off with a single, stole second base and scored on Rich Aurilia's single. AP Photo Willie McGee (51 of the Cardinals waves his batting helmet to fans after getting his 2,000 career base hit. Inope M1 tolMnii! ff 0 'Vflhr? Brian Nielsen Duck's future Kevin Duckworth's agent Herb Rudoy said not to count the former Eastern basketball star's NBA career over yet.

Photo by Doug Lawhead Linemen from Eastern's football team are shown during drills at Charleston Thursday. The Panthers' season starts Aug. 29 at Western Michigan. I working with two NBA Eastern footibaQD Few will gee wMi Clark 95 vs. EIU 95nBOord 7-4 By BRIAN NIELSEN StaffWriter CHARLESTON So what was Lemont Clark supposed to say we're going to lose? Predict a record, Lemont.

"Fifteen and oh, that's the record I want," said Eastern's of 6-27 22-30 17-20 Date (Urns) Aug. 29 (6:30 p.m.) Sept 7 (7 p.m.) Sept. 14 (7 p.m.) Sept. 28 (2 p.m.) Oct. 12 (1:30 p.m.) Oct.

19 (1:30 p.m.) Oct. 26(1 p.m.) Nov. 2 (1:30 p.m.) Nov. 9 (noon) Nov. 16 (2 p.m.) Opponent at Western Michigan PITTSBURG STATE INDIANA STATE at Tennessee-Martin WESTERN ILLINOIS MURRAY STATE at Tennessee Tech at Austin Peay at Southeast Missouri at Middle Tennessee EASTERN KENTUCKY 12-1 7-4 5-6 4- 7 11-1 3-8 3-8 5- 7-4 9-3 I did not know as much as a Jacksonville Jaguars public relations worker thought I did earlier this week.

With John Jurko vie Coming to St. Louis for the Jaguars' NFL preseason game against the Rams tonight, I wanted to talk to the former Eastern tackle for a preview of this homecoming of sort. Jurko's voice mail was full, not accepting any more messages. The Jaguars' PR man said the defensive tackle would not be available for interviews Thursday when the team came to St. Louis for a workout.

Then Wednesday afternoon the Associated Press story moved across the wire about "Jurkovic during his days with the Green Bay Packers supply-ing pain pills to quarterback iBrent Favre, who later was shown to have an addiction to the painkiller drug. Most likely, the Jaguars trying to shield Jurkovic from questions about the controversy revealed this week in the book "Return to Glory." Hey, all I wanted to do was 'talk football. Now Jurkovic will have to be answering non-football ques-; tions for a while or avoiding the press all together. He, seldom has been one to dodge the media or not talk openly. That is why his name surf-faced.

"Return to Glory" author fKevin Isaacson said Jurkovic was the only one to go on record admitting he handed pain pills i to Favre. i That is not surprising. Ask f'Jurko a question, you usually get an answer. He admits now that he of i course regrets what he thought was a harmless enough deed of giving pain pills to a hurting teammate. I.

I would assume he will not do that again. Let's just hope this incident does not stop him from being his refreshingly open and talk-i aive self. Football heard of It? Apparently the Jaguars still have some time before they are a household name in Florida. Getting a phone number of Jacksonville's second-year NFL franchise was not easy. When using directory assis-: tance to call the aguars, an op-t erator, after nearly a minute of searching, said she could not find an auto dealer under that name.

13-31 18-34 Nov. 23 (1:30 p.m.) '-denotes Ohio Valley Conference games. Indiana State is designated as a conference game for the 1 996 season only. fensive guard, who at 6-foot-3, 325 pounds, is not going to hear a lot of arguments. To go 15-0, the Panthers would have to win the NCAA Division I-AA football championship, not to mention go unscathed teams interested in signing him and one team in Europe," Rudoy said.

"We're just sort of biding his time. I would say there's a good chance he'll be back." A Western Conference All-Star in 1989 and '91 and starter in two NBA Finals for Portland, Duckworth has not had as good of a time lately with the Washington Bullets and Milwaukee Bucks, who released the center after the past season. "I expect something sometime probably in early September," Rudoy said. "There are a lot of teams signing free agents and losing free agents." Taylor try out Eastern's other pro basketball player of the 1990s, guard Jay Taylor, played for the Sacramento Kings in a Mountain Rocky Review summer league recently. Released by the Continental Basketball Association's Quad City Thunder the past spring, the 28-year-old Taylor averaged 7.3 points, 1.2 rebounds and 1.7 assists in 16.0 minutes for six games.

He shot .515 from the field. "I don't know whether he'll be invited back for preseason camp," Troy Hanson of the Kings media relations office said. "It's a little too early to say right now." EIU fans' first hope has to be Taylor's life off the court is in order. Troubled throughout a career that included a 1989 stint with the New Jersey Nets before bouncing around other leagues, Taylor showed signs of straightening things out battling alcoholism the past year before having another off-the-court incident this spring. If he beats that, his basketball talent could be enough to give him some NBA years in I him yet.

Clark with others. Clark likes that challenge. "Oh, yeah," Clark said. "We definitely are out to show that even without Willie we can win. We have more running backs coming and more speed.

"I'm confident we're going to win. We've got some real good players. We're deep at running back and fullback. The only thing is which quarterback is going to step up." While junior Mike Simpson and redshirt freshman Seth Willingham duel this preseason for the starting quarterback job, Clark said he has no preference. "I just leave that up to the coaches," Clark said.

"Whoever starts, I'm going to block for him." With either, quarterback, Clark wants to make a good showing for himself. A Chicago Westinghouse High School product, Clark was a junior college All-American at Rock Valley before transferring to Eastern. He became an immediate starter last year as a junior, earning Gateway All-Newcomer team honors as a member of the conference's co-champions. Now the goals become bigger. "I want to make first-team all-conference," Clark said.

"I want to move on to the next level. Coach Barone told me I'm getting a few looks. Hopefully next fall 111 be playing on Sundays. I'll have to have a great season." Blocking for a 15-0 team could be categorized as a great season. Improbable.

But who wants to argue with the guy? 73-52 in 1995. The comparison includes five duplicate opponents the three OVC teams plus former Gateway foes Indiana State and Western Illinois who had a 24-31 record last year. The six new opponents went 49-21. While entering this new schedule without several stars from a 10-2 NCAA I-AA playoff season, Eastern has a veteran offensive line averaging 6-foot-4, 312 pounds for the starting front five. "We have four returning starters," Clark said of his contingent.

"We've got high expecta-tions. (Line) coach (Clancy) Barone has high expectations. Our goal is to go out and demolish every team we play." Last year's line paved the way for the 230.8-yard-per game rushing offense that led the Gateway and ranked 20th in NCAA Division I-AA. That was with Gateway career rushing leader Willie High running the ball. With High gone, the linemen are out to show they can succeed though Clark and his EIU teammates' exposure to Ohio Valley football last year was in wins over Austin Peay, Tennessee-Martin and Southeast Missouri, which combined for a 13-20 record, 1 1-13 in league play.

Actually, in a scheduling quirk for this year only, Eastern has seen another OVC opponent, although not an OVC member. Because prior commitments do not allow the OVC's Tennessee State to play the Panthers this year, EIU's home game against former Gateway rival Indiana State has been des-ignated to count in the OVC standings. Call that a transition period for the Panthers in their conference switch, still playing Indiana State in a conference game for one more year. Still to be seen is whether they get a rude awakening against nationally ranked Murray State, Eastern Kentucky and Middle Tennessee of the OVC. Teams from EIU's regular season schedule last year totaled a 58-64 record.

This year's foes combined for through their first Ohio Valley Conference season. Clark knows that. He and the other big offensive linemen do not need to be bothered with little details. He does not need to know everything about teams from the OVC, most of whom will be new opponents as Eastern makes its move from the Gateway Conference. Several OVC coaches and sports information directors had to have voted for Clark sight unseen for him to be Eastern's lone representative on the preseason all-conference first team.

"I feel real good about that," Clark said. "There should have been more from our offensive line on that team, but they aren't going to be wrong about me." Confidence is there even.