The Lowell Spinners will be in junior welterweight Micky Ward'scorner Saturday night. When he fights Arturo Gatti in HBO's MainEvent at Mohegan Sun, Ward will wear specially designed trunksfeaturing the Spinners logo on the left side and 'Lowell Spinners' onthe back. Replicas of the trunks will be made for sale to fans, withWard and the Spinners donating proceeds to Kids in DisabilitiesSports. 'Ward is the type of boxer in the ring and outside the ringthe Spinners love to be associated with,' said Spinners generalmanager Shawn Smith. 'The fact he is from Lowell makes it that muchbetter.'
Checking in on some NorthWest athletes at Bentley:
Senior rightfielder Steve Vickers of Andover was ranked 17th indoubles in the most recent NCAA statistics with 13 in 30 games for a0.43 average.
Freshman Kurt Flionis of Woburn had rounds of 80-78-79-237 tofinish seventh in the recent NCAA Division 2 Regionals at RiverGreens Golf Club in West Lafayette, Ohio. That lifted Bentley to afourth-place finish among 36 teams.
Senior All-America midfielder Scott Yavarow of Billerica toppedthe 200-point plateau in a recent lacrosse game against St.Michael's. He's the third player in school history to reach themilestone.
Winchester's Alison Popp wrapped up a fine tennis career at Loyola(Baltimore) College. She ranked in the top 10 in both singles anddoubles victories. Popp, a former Globe All-Scholastic, had careerrecords of 53-15 in singles and 38-12 in doubles. Loyola, which haswon 80 of 93 regular season matches in the past four years, recentlywon its fourth straight Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. Popp wasnamed to the 2002 MAAC All-Academic team.
If you thought there was no difference in run production betweenwood and aluminum bats, try digesting these figures. On a recentafternoon in the Greater Boston League, which uses wood and numbersArlington and Medford among its members, 10 runs were scored in twogames. On the same afternoon in the Cape Ann League, which usesaluminum and has North Reading and North Andover as members, 61 runswere scored in two games.
Sophomore Jess Trombly of Nashua won both the 100-meter hurdlesand the long jump and placed third in the 400 to help Tufts finishsecond in the women's New England Small College Athletic ConferenceTrack & Field Championships at Bates. Also pitching in was juniorcocaptain Myriam Claudio of Woburn, who was second in the 100 meters.
Michael Daley of Woburn, Jeffrey Douglas of Chelmsford, PeterDoyle and Michael Shannon, both of Belmont Hill, John Kazanovicz ofReading, Matthew McPherson of Burlington, and T. J. Porter ofLexington are among 22 of the best and brightest players who will behonored by the Eastern Massachusetts Chapter of the National FootballFoundation and Hall of Fame at its annual Scholar-Athlete Awarddinner tomorrow at Lantana's in Randolph.
What to watch
Today: Merrimack College in North Andover plays in and hosts theNCAA Regional Softball Tournament, which wraps up at noon. The winnerearns a trip to the Division 2 World Series in Salem, Va.
John Vellante can be reached at JohnPVel@aol.com.
