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Oregon edges out Arizona to win Pac-12 tournament title

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Oregon edges out Arizona to win Pac-12 tournament title


This hasn’t happened since 1954.

Oregon baseball won its first conference championship, regular season or tournament, with a 5-4 win over Arizona at Scottsdale Stadium in front of a partisan Wildcat crowd.

Matt Dallas managed to get the last six outs to seal the deal and clinch the conference’s automatic berth into the NCAA tournament. Oregon’s seed and regional location will be announced on Monday.

But the Ducks certainly made things interesting in the top of the ninth. Arizona was able to get its top hitter, Chase Davis, up to the plate with two outs and a runner on. Dallas was able to get Davis to pop out to Bryce Boettcher in left to end the game and send the Duck bench out onto the field for a dogpile on the mound.

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This was a close game throughout and relatively low-scoring as this tournament and the stadium is made for an offensive showcase. The Oregon pitching staff was up to the task.

Starting Turner Spoljarik was coming off a disastrous outing on Thursday against Stanford where he lasted just one inning. But the good Spoljarik, the one that was the Pitcher of the Week in the last series against Utah, showed himself right in time.

The freshman went six innings, giving up three runs on seven hits and striking out three. The Duck defense also turned three double plays behind Spoljarik to erase potential big innings.

Austin Anderson came on in the seventh inning and found himself in a world of hurt as Arizona was able to load the bases with two out. With the potential tying and go-ahead runs on base, Anderson whiffed Kiko Romero with a changeup in the dirt.

After the Wildcats dented the scoreboard first with a run in the third, Oregon evened the score in the bottom half thanks to Colby Shade’s run-scoring single. Oregon took a 3-1 lead in the fourth on Gavin Grant’s single to right and Rikuu Nishida’s infield chopper.

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Arizona wasn’t going to go quietly, however. It scored a run in the fifth and then tied the game in the sixth on Romero’s inside-the-park-homer to dead center.

As they seemingly have all season, the Duck immediately responded. This time it came as a monster homer to right-center off of the bat of Jacob Walsh. Oregon gained some insurance in the seventh on Tanner Smith’s single to center which was just enough to score Drew Cowley from second.

Tony Bullard made it 5-4 in the eighth with a homer, but it was just a solo shot because the Ducks turned a key double play just before the home run.

Now the Ducks fly home to Eugene with a trophy in hand to await their NCAA tournament fate. The Field of 64 will be announced on Monday at 9 am PST on ESPN2.

According to projections from D1Baseball.com, the Ducks could be sent to Gainesville, Flor. where the No. 2 Gators will host.

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But that was before Oregon was crowned Pac-12 champs.



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Trio of former Arizona men’s basketball players hoping to lead home countries into Paris Olympics

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Trio of former Arizona men’s basketball players hoping to lead home countries into Paris Olympics


Steve Kerr is the head coach of Team USA’s men’s basketball team for the 2024 Summer Olympics next month in Paris, and he won’t be the only UA alum vying for gold in the sport.

Ex-Wildcats Josh Green (Australia) and Dusan Ristic (Serbia) are competing for spots with their countries’ respective national teams, who have already qualified for the Olympics, while three other former UA standouts are set to compete with their home nations in qualifying tournaments this week.

Deandre Ayton is trying to lead Bahamas to its first Olympics, while Nico Mannion (Italy) and Azuolas Tubelis (Lithuania) are looking to get their countries their 14th and eighth Olympic bid, respectively.

Ayton, the former No. 1 NBA Draft pick who was Pac-12 Player and Freshman of the year in 2018 with the Wildcats, is coming off his sixth NBA season and first with the Portland Trail Blazers. Bahamas is playing in the qualifying tourney in Valencia, Spain, facing Poland on Wednesday and Finland on Thursday in group play.

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Mannion, a 2nd-round pick of Golden State in 2020, appeared in 30 games with the Warriors as a rookie after his one season at the UA. The 23-year-old then went overseas, playing for Virtus Bologna in the Italian League for two seasons before spending 2023-24 with teams in Spain and Italy.

Italy was fifth in the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and has won silver twice, in Athens (2004) and Moscow (1980). It is playing in the qualifying tourney in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where it will face Bahrain on Tuesday and Puerto Rico on Thursday.

Tubelis, who played for the Wildcats from 2020-23, just completed his first professional season by being named MVP of the Lithuanian Basketball League with Neptunas Klaipeda. Lithuania is looking to get back to the Olympics for the first time since 2016 in Brazil, where it placed seventh.

Lithuania, which is in the Puerto Rico qualifying tourney and faces Mexico on Tuesday and Ivory Coast on Wednesday, won three consecutive bronze medals in 1992 (Barcelona), 1996 (Atlanta) and 2000 (Sydney).

The winner of each of four qualifying tournaments will join the eight teams already assured a spot in Paris for the Olympic competition.

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Green is one of 22 players on Australia’s Olympic training roster, which will be cut down in the next few weeks. He was part of the squad in Tokyo that won bronze, which qualified Green for the UA’s Ring of Honor.

A 1st-round pick of the Dallas Mavericks in 2021, Green started 33 games this past season with Dallas and played in all 22 games during the Mavs’ run to the NBA Finals.

Ristic, who is one of 16 players fighting for a spot on the Serbian National team, has played the past six seasons in Europe since winning a school-record 118 games with Arizona from 2014-18. This past season he split time between a pair of Spanish pro clubs, and recently got married.

Serbia, in the Olympics for only the second time, took silver in 2016.



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Fantasy football outlook: Arizona Cardinals WR preview

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Fantasy football outlook: Arizona Cardinals WR preview


Few teams have experienced the turnover among its receivers as the Cardinals. In the last two years, they’ve parted ways with DeAndre Hopkins, Zach Ertz, Brown and Moore. There are more questions than answers as to how the pecking order will play out behind Harrison.

Harrison is likely to land at the back end of the WR1 fantasy picks in a 12-team league – anyone who gets him as a WR2 will be lighting up a draft night victory cigar. He’s that good.

As for the rest of this crew? The incumbent No. 1 receiver coming in is tight end Trey McBride. In the eight games Murray played when he came back last season, he completed 53 passes to McBride. He became Arizona’s version of Travis Kelce and, when a tight end has been a team’s leading receiver, that has historically been problematic for wide receivers other than the lead dog.

Wilson is worthy of WR5/No. 6 consideration, because he’s clearly the WR2 option in an offense with a dynamic quarterback. Wilson will be taken late enough that he won’t be counted on as a must-start but instead a role player with upside to grow. Dortch is merely a deep best-ball flier because of his history with Murray.

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Jones and Pascal don’t have any fantasy value, barring injuries to those in front of them.



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AriZona Iced Tea remains committed to 99-cent price

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AriZona Iced Tea remains committed to 99-cent price


(KTLA) — AriZona Iced Tea will keep its 99-cent price tag for the “foreseeable future,” Don Vultaggio, brand chairman and founder, said in a recent interview with “Today.”

“We’re successful, we’re debt free, we own everything,” he said. “Why have people who are having a hard time paying their rent pay more for their drink?” Vultaggio said during the interview.

Vultaggio described keeping the prices of the popular drink low as his way of giving back.

He isn’t alone in this way of thinking either.

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Gary Millerchip, Costco’s CFO and executive vice president, announced in May that the $1.50 hot dog combo will be safe from price increases.

Lynsi Snyder, the president of the beloved In-N-Out Burger chain, also said she fought to keep prices down in California after the state’s new fast-food minimum wage law took effect on April 1, raising the base rate from $16 to $20 per hour.

“I was sitting in VP meetings going toe-to-toe saying, ‘We can’t raise the prices that much, we can’t,’” Snyder told “Today” during another interview.

Snyder added that she felt “an obligation to look out for our customers” and said that, unlike competitors, In-N-Out wasn’t quick to raise prices.

However, some companies, especially in California, have decided to raise prices or lay off staff as business costs continue to increase.

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As for Vultaggio, he didn’t dismiss the possibility of a price increase one day, but as for now, the 99-cent price is here to stay.

“I don’t know about never, [but] not in the foreseeable future,” Vultaggio told Today. “We’re going to fight as hard as we can for consumers, because consumers are my friends.”



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