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12B ♦ THURSDAY, AUGUST 31, 2006 Braves overcome Bonds' homers By R. TRA VIS HANEY Morris News Service ATLANTA - Those who came to Turner Field on Tuesday to see Barry Bonds homer and the Atlanta Braves win, in no particu lar order, left the stadium exceedingly pleased. The aging San Francisco slugger hit a pair of home runs on a night that featured seven between the teams, but Atlanta still managed to reach the double-digit run plateau for the third con secutive game to cruise past the Giants 13-8 in front of 23,756 fans. “The ball was flying,” Braves manager Bobby Cox said. “For all the skeptics that don’t think he’s as dan gerous as he used to be, (Bonds) did that tonight.” Bonds’ last multi-homer game was two years ago to the day at the same venue just across the street from where Hank Aaron hit 715. Bonds is now 28 shy of Aaron’s mark of 755 career homers. But the Braves wound up stealing Bonds’der Tuesday. Four-run innings in the third and fourth, punctu ated by back-to-back homers from Chipper and Andruw Jones in the latter frame, were the momentum-shift ers against San Francisco Toombs contends at senior tourney Special to the Journal Tom Toombs of Perry shot an 82 following the first round of play Tuesday at the 20th annual Georgia Senior Championship, which runs through today at Cherokee Town and Country Club in Atlanta. Toombs ended up 10 strokes over par and 13 back of Brian Johnston of Duluth. Johnston fired a 3-under Busch Series moves closer to wrapping up date in Canada By DON COBLE Morris News Service Although the Nextel Cup Series schedule was released last week, the Busch Series schedule is still a month away from being released. But it’s clearly taking shape. When Norman Legault, race promoter at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, announced it was not invit ing the CART Champ Car World Series back next year, it meant NASCAR will be road-racing north of the bor der next year. The government allows only two races a year in the park on Notre Dame Island. Formula One certainly isn’t leaving, so CART is the odd racing series out. The Busch Series expand ed to Mexico City in 2005 and it was received as an overwhelming success. That immediately sparked inter est in moving the sport to Canada. To make room for the expansion, NASCAR either GSU's Smiley fights for a different position By DONALD HEA TH Morris News Service A year ago, Darius Smiley fought for Georgia Southern’s starting quarter back job. This season, Smiley is in another fight, albeit away from the quarterback lime light. He’s adjusting, he said, to wide receiver, a posi tion he last played in Little League. “My routes are getting better and I’m working on my blocking, so it’s coming around pretty good,” said Smiley, a senior. Smiley’s quarterbacking days ended when the Eagles’ new coach Brian VanGorder changed the offense from a triple option to multiple sets, ace Jason Schmidt. Suddenly and improbably for Atlanta, there is life. The wild card door is swinging wide open. The Braves (62-68) could trail by as few as 3 1/2 games,' 4 1/2 at the most, depending on late West Coast results involving Cincinnati and San Diego. “It really feels like we shouldn’t be here right now,” said Adam Laßoche, who hit a solo homer in the fifth, his 27th of the year. “You’d think with some of the bad baseball we’ve played, we’d be further out than this. “It’s still not Position A, where we’d like to be. But at least we’re giving ourselves a chance with a month to The win gives the Braves three in a row at home for the first time since May 15-18. And they continued the string against a San Francisco team that entered having won 11 of its past 14 games. And they’ve put up 10, 13 and 13 runs in consecutive games, looking more and more reminiscent of their historical mid-July offensive explosion. “It’s relaxed confidence that, right now, we know we’re going to score runs and get to guys,” Laßoche par 69, including a 30 on his back nine, to take the first round lead. He holds a two-stroke lead over three players who were the only other ones to shoot under par in the first round - Bill Blalock of Atlanta, Joe Brogdon Jr. of Macon and Larry Clark of Kennesaw. Another five players cur rently sit tied for fifth, three strokes back at even-par 72, including Ken Benson will move to 36 regular sea son events or eliminate a current race - most likely the poorly-attended race last month at Martinsville, Va. CART has races at Toronto and Edmonton, and series president Steve Johnson said he wants to keep three races there. His organization immediately will start look ing for another place to race - most likely in Quebec. DONT TOUCH THAT DIM: Race fans at the Bristol Motor Speedway consider last Saturday night’s Sharpie 500 a roaring success. In fact, they consider the night race one of the most-popular of the season. Television viewers, how ever, continued to see it dif ferently. Night races continue to be ratings losers for NASCAR. Night races, including last Saturday’s Sharpie 500, have produced six of the top -11 worst ratings of the year - not counting races post poned a day by weather. bumping both Jayson Foster and Smiley to receiver. Foster played receiver for GSU as a freshman. Smiley has only known quarterback and a little slotback while in Statesboro. To make matters a more daunting, Smiley finds him self up against Michigan State transfer Irving Campbell. But Smiley, who is running with the second teamers, has been contributing. He caught a pass in the Blue- White spring game and has three catches for 49 yards in the two preseason scrim mages. Smiley said he doesn’t look back at his quarterbacking days with regret. For four years, he worked said of an offense that’s among the NL leaders in virtually every category. “We feel that through the whole lineup.” They scored 10 or more runs in five consecutive games from July 14-18, becoming the first team to do that since the 1930 New York Yankees led by Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. That stretch was in the middle of a seven-game win ning streak, and the club has talked about the need for a similar streak to begin an earnest ascent up the tall wild card ladder. The Braves have finally figured out how to do: Beat the cover off the ball again. And the ball sure seemed to be carrying Tuesday through the soupy Southern air. Chipper’s three-run shot was his third homer in as many games and 21st of the year. After going l-for-27 last week and admitting discom fort at the plate, Andruw now has three homers in two games. In addition to the solo shot, the center fielder tacked on his 32nd of the season with a two-run blast in the eighth. “The Jones boys are hit ting, you’re going to have a chance to win,” Cox said. “A lot.” of Alpharetta, Bill Mullen of Kennesaw, Ron Savastano of Roswell, Mike Sprouts of Greensboro and Michael Smith of Cumming. Four players - Jimmy Jackson of Macon, Bill Leonard of Kennesaw, Jim Thompson of Atlanta and Joe Whisenant of Douglasville - round out the top 10 at 73. Bill Barbour of Byron was also among the 144 listed to compete, but his name did not turn up in the results. The worst-rated race of the year of those not delayed by a day was the night race last May at the Richmond (Va.) International Raceway. That race drew a 3.5 rat ing. The races at Atlanta (2.2) and Talladega, Ala. (2.5) were lower, but both were run on Monday morn ings. DODGE GETS NOSE JOB: The Dodge Charger finally will get a new nose in 2007. The manufacturer tried to get a revision of its front bumper earlier this year, but the changes constituted a change in the template, NASCAR said. Dodge offi cials said their current bum per doesn’t provide enough downforce for the front tires, especially in traffic. The new nose is expected to have a sleeker look, espe cially around the headlight wells. The change can’t come quick enough for Dodge. It currently doesn’t have any teams ranked in the top 10. his way up to backup behind Foster. Smiley’s fourth down touchdown pass in the final minute of regula tion against Northeastern keyed an Eagle overtime win. “Me and a bunch of the seniors got together hnd said, ‘Hey, we have a new coach and we’re going to be asked to do different things, but this is our last chance to get a (national champion ship) ring,” Smiley said. “We’re going to strive to be the best.” RUSSELL INTRODUCED: Former Eagles coach Erk Russell spoke to the team briefly during Saturday’s workout and will talk to the team again in a more formal set ting, VanGorder said. SPORTS OPENER From page iB the win. Jones said he’s not looking at revenge for the last two years as a big motivator knowing his team played well in both games and just came up short. Instead, he wants his players to realize that this week will be like all others this season with a tough schedule ahead of them. “I’m more concerned about turnovers and pen alties,” said Jones. “I just hope we play well. We may have some, but hopefully HORNETS From page iB “We hit the ball on the nose, but they were in the right place at the right WARNER ROBINS SUPPLY OF PERRY (concrete MIX at I 80 lb ' b 39 mm 4366 a mwnisMßi dseinaaras BeafiDfealsl VISIT OUR RENTAL CENTER • Mowers • Augers • Chain saws • Trenchers • And Much More F NAIL POWER “ | CONSTRUCTION ADHESIVE I REST E 1 28 OZ. i 52.59 aJ 101608 tHiecMiiKpuiWfewi" fLINZER 4-PACK Ipaint roller cover 1 semi-smooth 3/8” NAP *55.39 mmf 81687 a "VERMONT AMERICAN 7j ’’24-TOOTH CARBIDE FRAMING BLADE MODEL , _/ I 1 I 1 | #25491 REG. /. each a 55.99 1 107875 fPAINT TRAY | LINER | 1 -j l H 612 BALL STREET, PERRY, GA (Turn at New Perry Hotel & go three blocks) 478-987-i334 Visit our website at www.WRSUPPLY.com Open Mon. - Fri. 7 30 - 5 30 and Sat. 8-2 they’ll have more.” According to Johnson, he had several holes to plug in to his wing-T backfield. He lost the quarterback who broke open last year’s game in Perry with a long touch down run along with his fullback and one of his run ning backs. Danny White, who gained 900 yards last year, is back as is most of the Trojan offensive line. Johnson said his new starting quarterback, two year backup C.J. Baxley, won’t be as fast, but has done a fine job playing his role on the team. “With Westfield it’s time. They made some great defensive plays.” The Hornet batters struck out four times in the second game after fanning just once in the first. Culverhouse, who saw Westfield get four I' BROWN JERSEY l GLOVES IjHh g ,$139 - ”** i PORTER . r I CEILING WHITE PAINT REG. sll. 9 g I'AINTS 7t/c «vut out evenqcUuff i SHEET ROCIO | JOINT COMPOUND sapai hliVI si rI^C4GE^ 1 PAINT ROLLER FRAME LJf® ?$2.69 1Q2937„ r^TTT^TTTn (BIUtWISiMSM; jur Prices Are Good Fori f “8 Days” This Week. * Sale Ends Thurs. Sept. 7 THE HOUSTON DAILY JOURNAL always a good game,” said Johnson. “It’s well-played. The kids play hard. Ronnie Jones always does a good job with his wing-T. I don’t know what defense he’ll run, but you do what is needed based on your per sonnel.” John Milledge got in a lot of scrimmage time dur ing the preseason with the likes of Stratford, First Presbyterian, Trinity and Augusta Christian. Johnson does seem to have a feel for what the Hornets will be like as he cited Madruga as a top player at fullback and linebacker. hits on Maddox, said the Vikings had good speed in the outfield and made most of those defensive gems on the fence. 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