COLUMBIA The stage seemed to be set for a dramatic come-from-behind victory for the Missouri women’s basketball team. The Tigers (9-5, 0-1) outplayed No.3-ranked Texas A&M (13-1, 1-0) for the majority of Saturday night’s game at Mizzou Arena. But in the end, a sluggish second half start that allowed the Aggies to open up a 17-point lead proved to be too much for Missouri to overcome.

“I was very disappointed in our last two minutes of our first half,Football shirts, and then obviously we didn’t start the second half off very well,” Missouri coach Cindy Stein said. “I just felt like if we could have taken away three or four minutes it could have been a different ballgame.”

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The Tigers and Aggies traded leads seven times in the first half, but consecutive turnovers by junior Marissa Scott and sophomore Shakara Jones enabled Texas A&M to end the period on a 6-0 run and carry a 27-23 lead into halftime. Missouri wouldn’t get that close again until the 3:24 mark of the second half.

Missouri’s slow start in second halves has been a developing trend over the last couple of home games. The Tigers got off to quick starts against Southeast Missouri State and Chicago State before losing their intensity level. But the difference in the level of competition the Tigers were facing was apparent on Saturday. Rather than coasting to 20-point victories as they did in their previous two home games the Tigers fell behind by 17 points and were forced to play catch-up the rest of the night.

“I think we probably have to get a little more bounce into them,” Stein said. “Whether it’s your warm-up when you come out of the half or maybe it’s three-hour practices so they endure that.”

Stein added that she didn’t think her team’s second-half woes were necessarily an indication of a poor effort, but she said it is something that the coaching staff must take responsibility for.

“We probably have to get them out here (on the court) a little earlier,Lazio shirt,” Stein said. “I kept them in the locker room for quite a bit, so we probably got to get them out of here. It’s probably my fault.”

Stein said the intensity that her team starts games with makes it difficult for them to sustain the effort for the game’s entirety.

“It’s hard to sustain that intensity, but you’re going to have to do it to win games in the Big 12,Newcastle United shirt,” Stein said. “I think that we had a little drop-off where our kids questioned whether we could do it or not, and then basically we subbed. And we got a little more bounce and got a little bit more life and we went on a roll.”

The Tigers didn’t lack opportunities to get back into the game. They pulled within four points on three separate occasions in the final 3:24. But Scott, senior Alyssa Hollins and junior Jessra Johnson each missed three-point attempts that prevented the Tigers from getting any closer.

The Tigers’ effort was not lost on the home crowd. As the Missouri players walked off the court, the announced crowd of 1,763 gave the Tigers a standing ovation. Jones said she had mixed emotions as she listened to the applause after suffering a defeat.

“We’re disappointed because we wanted the W,” Jones said. “But we also can’t hang our heads because we played good and we fought to the end, and that’s what we want.”

But Stein made it abundantly clear that there were no feelings of contentment in her locker room after the game. As pleased as she was with her team’s effort, she pointed out that there are still plenty of things it has to improve at if it wants to win games in the Big 12.

“That was nice of them (the fans), obviously,” Stein said. “But we’re not content. And I can tell you when I walked into our locker room,Atletico Madrid shirt, our players aren’t content. We want to feel good about our effort, but we want to have that fire in our bellies still about getting a win.”

The Tigers’ next game is against Kansas at 7 p.m. Wednesday in Allen Fieldhouse.

Missouri men’s basketball coach Mike Anderson landed one of the nation’s top point guards when he announced Friday that Second Team Junior College All-American Stefhon Hannah (Chicago, Ill./Hyde Park High School/Chipola Community College) has signed a national letter of intent to play for the Tigers next season.

A 6-foot-1, 175-pound guard originally from Chicago’s Hyde Park High School, Hannah started each of the past two campaigns at Chipola where he led the Indians to a two-year record of 60-7, including a No. 4 finish at the 2005 National Junior College Athletics Association National Tournament in Hutchinson, Kan.,Dortmund shirt, and a No. 1 ranking for a majority of the 2005-06 season.

“I am very excited that Stefhon Hannah is joining our program at Missouri, and he is very excited to be coming here,” Anderson said in a release. “The signing of Stefhon is an outstanding way to close out the recruiting period and it gives us added quality and depth in the backcourt. He is a tremendous leader and winner and he does the things that make his teammates around him better. Stefhon is a tenacious player and a very gifted offensive performer. He scored at a high level at both the high school and junior college ranks, and he gives us an experienced player for our roster.”

Hannah joins Jonathan “J.T.” Tiller (Marietta, Ga.), and transfers DeMarre Carroll (Birmingham, Ala./Vanderbilt) and Darryl Butterfield (Miami, Fla./Mineral Area College) as Mizzou signees during the past week. They will combine with Keon Lawrence (Newark, N.J.) and Vaidatos Volkus (Klaipeda, Lithuania), who both signed in November during the early period – as Anderson’s first class at Mizzou.

ROCK BRIDGE BOYS’ TENNIS: The Bruins swept past Joplin and Kickapoo Saturday in the state team sectionals in Springfield and will advance to their fifth consecutive state semifinal Thursday.

Rock Bridge will meet 10-time defending state champion Rockhurst in the semifinal at 9 a.m. Thursday.

The Bruins got two wins from Daniel Lopez, Ryan Olson, Sefan Nosic, Scott Hawf and Jay Kinderknecht to push past Joplin 5-0 and Kickapoo 5-1.

The Bruins remain unbeaten on the year at 22-0.

MU BASEBALL: The Tigers won their second game in as many days over No. 3 Texas, with an 8-5 victory on Saturday afternoon at Taylor Stadium. Senior Zane Taylor led the Tigers with his fifth three-hit game of the season, finishing 3-for-4 with a pair of RBI in the game.

Sophomore Jacob Priday hit his team-leading 11th home run of the season in the bottom of the first inning to give MU the early 1-0 lead. Priday added an RBI single in the seventh inning, finishing 2-for-4 with two RBI and a pair of runs scored.

Junior Hunter Mense, had his first of two hits on the day in the third inning,Lazio shirt, with a solo home run over the right field wall. It was his second homer of the year and capped off a three-run third inning for the Tigers.

Freshman Rick Zagone recorded the win,South Africa football shirt, allowing four runs on eight hits in 6 2/3 innings of work. He moves to 5-3 on the season. Junior Nathan Culp pitched the final two innings and allowed one run despite not giving up a hit. He struck out three and picked up the first save of his career.

The win,Villareal shirt, coupled with Texas Tech’s loss to Oklahoma State on Saturday, guarantees the Tigers at least a seventh-place finish in the Big 12 Conference with the final game of the regular season today.

The Tigers will take the field at Taylor Stadium for the last time in 2006 at Noon today to close out the series with Texas.

HICKMAN TRACK & FIELD: The Kewpies qualified for the state championships in six events Saturday at the Class 4 sectional in Rolla.

Junior Asia Walker won the girls’ triple jump (38 3/4), placed second in the girls’ long jump (18-6 1/4) and ran on Hickman’s second place girls’ 4 X 400 relay team (4:00). Ciara Tatum, Emily Young and Jabarbara Jennings joined her in the relay, while Tatum placed third in the girls’ 400 (59.0). Sam Masters was second in the boys 1600 (4:23) and joined David Garmon, Zach Chapman and Josh Mantooth on the Kewpies second place 4 X 800 relay team (4:23).

HICKMAN LACROSSE: The Kewpies dropped a 17-3 decision to Rockhurst in the state quarterfinals Saturday. Rockhurst is the No. 1-ranked team in Missouri and the No. 2-ranked team in the country. Zach Nikin scored two goals for the Kewpies. Kendall Eckles had one.

BOXING: Eight boxers from the region will be fighting for the championship in today’s second day of the Show-Me State Games Boxing Classic at the Holiday Inn Expo Center in Columbia. Justin Jones of the Columbia Boxing Club (119), Jonah Brown of the Moberly Boxing Club (132), Germion Forrest of Columbia (129), Ted Glasgow of Columbia (152), Noah Kidd of the Jefferson City Boxing Club (70), Darrian Dowdy of Jefferson City (95), Carlos Smith of Moberly (132) and Joe Knorr of Columbia (201) will fight today. Boxing begins at 2 p.m.

COLUMBIA — It’s a good sign of the state of the program when coach Ben Loeb doesn’t remember the last time his Rock Bridge boys tennis team didn’t win districts.

The Bruins clinched the Class 2,Wales football shirt, District 5 tournament Saturday at Rock Bridge before it was postponed. The semifinals for singles and doubles were all taking place at the same time and the Bruins were represented on every court.

“Mathematically,Santos shirt, we’ve won the district tournament,” Loeb said. “It’s just a matter of how many we get in the state tournament.”

Loeb called the semifinals “the money round” because the winners in that round qualify for the individual portion of the state tournament. Rock Bridge has been to six straight final fours in the state tournament and Loeb couldn’t remember the last time the Bruins didn’t win the district tournament.

“It feels good to win (districts) again,” Loeb said. “But it will feel better to get more guys into state.”

Senior Aron Franck was the top seed in the singles draw and made it to the semifinals without much effort in his first two matches. Franck was just about to start his semifinal match when lightning forced the players off the courts,Fulham shirt, and then rain caused the tournament to be postponed. It will be completed 4 p.m. Monday at Rock Bridge.

“I kind of wanted to play the match,” Franck said. “I didn’t want to go indoors because the court speed is quicker.”

The other three semifinals had been under way for a few minutes.

“It’s not something players like,Lazio shirt,” Loeb said of pausing matches. “You get in a flow of playing. When you get an interruption, it disrupts that.”

Rock Bridge’s No. 2 doubles team of freshman Aaron Skinner and sophomore Blake Buchert was trailing 4-2 to the Helias team of Michael Leroy and Tony Stevenson when they had to stop play. Loeb said the next game was going to be crucial and the match had the makings of being a classic.

Senior Arthur Jago and the team of senior Jay Kinderknecht and junior Eemaun Latifi were the other Bruins (21-0) in the semifinals.

Roy Oswalt pitched a five-hitter and Carlos Lee and Lance Berkman hit home runs to lift the host Houston Astros to their first victory of the season 5-1 over the St. Louis Cardinals.

The win helped the Astros avoid their worst start since going 0-9 to open the 1983 season.

Oswalt (1-0) struck out four and allowed one run to earn his 99th career win. It was the 12th complete game of his career and first since July 5, 2006.

Lee, who signed to a six-year, $100 million contract in the offseason to boost an offense that ranked last in the National League in 2006, hit his first home run in the sixth inning.

Cardinals right-hander Anthony Reyes (0-1) allowed five hits and three runs in five innings.

TIGERS 6, ROYALS 5: Gary Sheffield, Ivan Rodriguez and Curtis Granderson hit home runs to help visiting Detroit beat Kansas City.

Sheffield, who had just one single in his first three games with the Tigers, homered to left with two outs in the first. Rodriguez homered into the Tigers�� bullpen to leadoff the fourth,Fulham shirt, putting the Tigers up 4-3. Granderson hit a home run to leadoff the fifth.

All the Tigers�� home runs were off Gil Meche (1-1). Meche gave up six runs and eight hits in seven innings, while striking out four and walking two.

Mike Maroth (1-0) picked up the victory, allowing four runs and six hits in five innings. Todd Jones pitched the ninth for his second save of the season.

Reggie Sanders went 3-for-4, including a two-run home run in the third, and scored three runs.

WILD 5, BLUES 1: The Minnesota Wild cruised in their final tuneup before the playoffs, getting 24 saves from Niklas Backstrom in a home victory over St. Louis.

Wyatt Smith had two goals,Valencia shirt, and Pierre-Marc Bouchard, Branko Radivojevic and Wes Walz also scored for the Wild, who will meet Anaheim in the first round of the playoffs.

Backstrom was coming off consecutive shutouts of Edmonton, but the Blues broke Minnesota��s franchise-record scoreless streak at 169 minutes,

20 seconds when Peter Sejna beat the Finnish goalie between the pads with a shallow angle shot in the second period.

MU SOFTBALL: The Tigers stretched their win streak to seven games by beating Oklahoma State 6-1 Saturday in Stillwater,Lazio shirt, Okla.

Kathy Masterson led Missouri (29-17, 5-0) with three hits and one RBI. Amanda Renth, Micaela Minner, Jen Bruck and Julie Silver each had one RBI to lead the Tigers balanced attack. Bruck struck out eight batters in five innings.

HICKMAN LACROSSE: The Kewpies lost two matches Saturday in St. Louis,Glasgow Rangers shirt, falling to Parkway Central 16-2 and Clayton 7-5.

Nick Stohlgren scored three goals for Hickman (5-3) against Clayton and one against Parkway Central, while Mason Poage scored once in each match.

When the Hickman baseball team takes the field a familiar name appears on the lineup at catcher: Steponovich. Only now, Bart Steponovich has taken the place of his older brother, Nick Steponovich.

Bart Steponovich squatted behind the plate at practice Monday, holding his catcher’s mitt out as a target for his pitchers. Most of the pitches would hit the glove with a smack. Other times, the glove snaked out, left and right, catching errant throws that missed the strike zone. Every so often, a wild pitch would force him to try and block the ball with his body.

When Bart Steponovich showed up to baseball tryouts at the beginning of the year, he knew the job was open after his brother graduated. After throwing out two runners in the first game, Bart Steponovich has shown that he has the potential to be the next good catcher in the Steponovich family. Playing hours of baseball with his brother has given him plenty of preparation.

“He is, in all aspects of the game, better off than I was, ever, at his age,” Nick Steponovich said. “…I played a couple of games as a sophomore, but I don’t think he was nearly as nervous as I was when I went into it. I think he’s accepted the role pretty well.”

Nick Steponovich, who is in his first season playing at Ohio State,Celtic shirt, committed a single error his junior season at Hickman. Then, his senior season, he didn’t commit any. He has tried to teach his younger brother about the importance of being good with a glove. Their father,Valencia shirt, Tony Steponovich, taught them the importance of good defense. Nick Steponovich said his father’s motto was “Nothing gets by.”

“Something he always taught me was in baseball,” Bart Steponovich said,Lazio shirt, “you can always control your defense,”

Hickman coach Dave Wilson said Bart Steponovich’s defensive skill is important to the team.

“You’ve got to have a really good defensive catcher to win ball games,” Wilson said. “He’s come in and given us a presence back there, thrown people out. He can pick people off because he’s got a really quick release.”

The brothers lifted weights, threw and batted over the summer. They worked on their swings in the batting cages, but they also threw long toss, and Nick Steponovich said his brother’s arm has improved.

Nick Steponovich said the important thing for his brother to focus on is making accurate throws and working on verbal communication during games, but he said he sees some good range in his younger brother’s arm.

“It’s hard for me to compare him to me, but I have to say that his arm strength is at least as good, probably better, than mine was at his age,” Nick Steponovich said.

Hickman pitching coach Bobby Chick said he thinks Bart Steponovich shows a lot of promise, partly because of his arm.

“I think Nick was an outstanding catcher, but I think Bart has a lot more potential,” Chick said. “As a sophomore, he’s already thrown out several kids running. He gives us the opportunity, if someone does get on base,Lyon shirt, to get another out by him throwing down to the base, whether it is second or third. It’s just a relief to know that we have somebody back there, especially as a sophomore, with the arm that he has.”

But defense and throwing are not the only way catchers figure into Hickman’s game.

Chick lets his catcher call the pitches for each game, unless he senses the batters are starting to catch on to the calls. Bart Steponovich has to read the batters the first time through the order. Chick said Bart Steponovich looks for where the hitters set up in relation to the plate and what type of pitches they seem to struggle with.

“You’re going to have to let your catchers become field generals,” Chick said. “He’s done an excellent job of learning the game, calling the game and working well with the pitchers.”

Catchers are the caretakers of the pitching staff, Wilson said, making sure the man on the mound remains calm and collected.

“The more that you catch guys,” Wilson said, “you get to learn their pitches and what works for them and what doesn’t. And (you learn) their moods, when they’re down and when they’re up.”

Hickman’s defense shined during their 8-6 win over Kirksville on Wednesday night.

Sophomore Thomas Brown had a hand in three double plays. Wilson emphasizes the double play as a way to change the momentum of the game.

“Double plays are a pitcher’s best friend,” Wilson said.

Brown said he’s never had a better game on defense. The Kewpies (6-5) emphasise the double play in practice, and the infielders work on it exclusively for about 15 minutes at practice nearly every day. That repetition made it easier for him to turn them.

“Sometimes, you don’t even remember what’s going on,” Brown said. “It just happens.”

Bart Steponovich had a few defensive bright spots of his own, blocking seven pitches in the dirt.

Although the Tigers stole three bases from the Kewpies, Wilson said his catcher played well. Wilson said Hickman’s pitchers didn’t bring the ball to home plate quickly enough to give Bart Steponovich a fair chance.

“He’s done an outstanding job for us,” he said.

COLUMBIA In preseason practices, the offense and defense compete in scrimmages to wear the black jerseys. But more and more Tigers are wearing a less-coveted jersey as preseason camp progresses.

On Friday, seven players wore the red jerseys of an injured player, keeping them off the practice field and making injuries an unwanted distraction at Devine Pavilion 13 days before the Tigers’ Sept. 4 game against Illinois.

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The injuries have hit in the wide receiver position the hardest. Jerrell Jackson, the team’s top receiver coming into 2010, broke a bone in his wrist on Aug. 11. The injury required surgery to insert a screw into the scaphoid bone, and the Houston native will likely be out for the majority of Missouri’s nonconference schedule.

Two of Jackson’s backups in his slot wide receiver position,Retro Football Shirts, redshirt freshman Kerwin Sticker and true freshman Jimmie Hunt, also wore red jerseys on Friday.

Missouri started practices this summer with bevy of young, talented, but ultimately untested wide receivers. But injuries to three of the four slot wide receivers is forcing competition and giving freshman an opportunity to earn playing time.

Since the injury to Jackson, freshman wide receiver Bud Sasser has impressed at both the outside and slot wide receiver positions, and redshirt freshman receiver L’Damian Washington has supplanted Rolandis Woodland as the Tigers’ primary big-play receiver.

“There’s a lot of competition. What they’re trying to do, they’re trying to work through this and fight through this whole thing,Lazio shirt,” Missouri coach Gary Pinkel said.

Now,Valencia shirt, Pinkel would certainly prefer to not have the injuries to talented players, but he sees the upside to the predicament.

“Can you raise yourself above where (you’re) one of the top-three (you’re) one of the top-six, to get yourself in at two-deep (on the depth chart),” Pinkel said. “That competition is really good. We have two freshmen (Sasser and Washington) who are doing really well, and we’ll see how that comes out.”

Another position of depth for the Tigers has been hit hard by injuries as well. The Tigers started the preseason with five ready-to-start linebackers, but a season-ending knee injury to outside linebacker Donovan Bonner and a pesky hamstring injury to middle linebacker Will Ebner has stretched the linebacking core thin.

While the Tigers’ wide receivers have more opportunities to play, the linebackers are struggling to fill the voids left by Bonner and Ebner.

“We need Ebner back,” Pinkel said. “He’s an emotional leader. He’s a guy who makes hits, creates plays. All the things that he creates out therethat cranks up enthusiasm.”

But football is a violent game, and injuries are as much a part of a season as touchdowns and turnovers. Pinkel refuses to compare the injuries in 2010 to any other season he’s been in charge at Missouri.

“Honestly, one thing I have never, ever done is get caught up in injuries,” Pinkel said. “I just don’t do it.

“Nobody cares. Bottom line, they’re not going to asterisk a game or season.”

“‘Well, if Blaine wouldn’t have gotten hurt last year, we could have won two more games,’” Pinkel said sarcastically. “Bottom line, you got to play through it. No excuses.”

KANSAS CITY The scene Wednesday featuring guard Michael Dixon Jr. was all too familiar.

With 18.1 seconds remaining and the Missouri men’s basketball team holding an 86-84 lead over Texas Tech in its first game of the Big 12 Tournament at the Sprint Center,Inter Milan shirt, Dixon was fouled and sent to the free-throw line.

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Dixon looked up at the basket. It was before this same basket, in this same building, at the same end of the court, that Dixon had a chance to secure a victory over Georgetown three months ago. In that game, he failed.

But standing at the free-throw line in Wednesday nights game,Manchester City shirt, he made the first free throw to give Missouri a 3-point cushion.

Then, after Texas Tech guard John Roberson missed a hurried layup, the ball bounced around between players. Missouris Marcus Denmon came up with it. He ran in circles, and for nearly 10 seconds, no Texas Tech player could catch him.

Finally,South Africa football shirt, Texas Tech forward Mike Singletary fouled Denmon and sent him to the line, where Denmon made one more free throw to seal Missouris 88-84 victory.

The sixth-seeded Tigers advance to play third-seeded Texas A&M in Thursday’s second round.

Denmon led the Tigers with 20 points, five assists and five steals. Dixon had 17 points; guard Kim English scored 15.

Missouri players said before the game that they were worried the Texas Tech players would come out with extra motivation because their coach, Pat Knight, was fired on Monday after three unsuccessful seasons with the Red Raiders.

Within the game’s first 10 minutes,Lazio shirt, Texas Tech gained a seven-point lead and began making highlight reel-worthy plays including alley-oop dunks.

After Texas Techs fast start, Missouri came back, and it appeared the Tigers would take over when they began the second half with an 8-0 run. However, Texas Tech never went away and was able to keep the game close until the final moments.

COLUMBIA Two MU wrestlers were arrested early Saturday morning in downtown Columbia, according to the Columbia police department.

Nick Marable,Celtic shirt, 21, was seen fighting around 1:45 Saturday morning with 23-year-old Craig Koehmstedt of Columbia,Kaizer Chiefs shirt, according to police reports. Both were arrested on suspicion of peace disturbance. Police say neither were seriously injured.

Fellow wrestler Andrew Wood, 21,Lazio shirt, was arrested and charged with suspicion of disorderly conduct. He is a sophomore from Hannibal.

Marable, a junior from Collierville,Sunderland shirt, Tenn., enters the wrestling season ranked No. 1 in the nation in the 165-pound weight class. He won the Big 12 championship and finished third at the 2008 NCAA championship in the 165-pound weight class earlier this year.

The wrestling season begins with an intrasquad match this weekend.

Aside from charting Missouri’s seven home runs,Inter Milan shirt, there was little suspense surrounding its two blowout wins Wednesday afternoon.

The Tigers swept Iowa State in a doubleheader at University Field. They won 9-1 in Game 1 and 11-1 in Game 2. Both games ended in five innings because of the eight-run rule.

The marketing staff’s search for a contestant to sing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” during the fifth-inning stretch of Game 2 was an exciting subplot.

Marketing associate Stephanie Menio wanted Chris Bruck, father of Missouri pitcher Jen Bruck, for the job.

Although he did well singing during the Tiger Classic March 19, he didn’t feel up to the task Wednesday.

An elderly couple in attendance was slated to entertain the crowd instead, but they never got the chance.

Erin Kalka (2-3), who got the win in Game 1, struck out Iowa State’s Jessica Quade to end the game in the top half.

No stretch was needed.

Missouri returned to form after losing three games in a row, including a frustrating two-game sweep at the hands of visiting Oklahoma last weekend.

Coach Ty Singleton said the team embarrassed itself against the Sooners. In both games, the Tigers played solid for most of the game, but proved susceptible to the big inning.

On Wednesday,South Africa football shirt, right fielder Micaela Minner had an especially big afternoon, going a combined 2-for-3 with two home runs and two RBIs. Both her home runs came on the first pitch of her first at-bat of the game.

“I get in there, first pitch, I look for it every time,” Minner said.

She had struggled in her past four games and the No. 17 Tigers (29-6, 3-3 Big 12) went 1-3 in the span. They were still off to their best start, but this was their first slump of the year.

Some famous song’s lyrics came to Minner’s mind when Cyclones (12-20, 0-6 Big 12) pitching intentionally walked her twice during the Tigers’ 10-run fourth inning in Game 2.

“Intentionally getting walked is kinda like R-E-S-P-E-C-T …” Minner said. “I definitely felt comfortable today and felt … back in the zone.”

Senior shortstop Heather Kunkel, who hit three home runs in the doubleheader,Sunderland shirt, said focus was the key for MU.

“We just wanted it a lot more today,” Kunkel said. “We need to do a better job of coming out ready to play every day.”

ST. LOUIS The St. Louis Cardinals’ second base experiment made it to Opening Day, even if Skip Schumaker won’t be in the lineup.

The left-handed hitting Schumaker batted .168 against lefties last year and isn’t starting on Monday against the Pirates’ Paul Maholm, against whom he’s 0-for-3 with a strikeout. Brendan Ryan, a right-handed hitter who’s 1-for-7 against Maholm, instead gets the call at both leadoff and second base.

Still, the conversion will ease an overcrowded outfield heading into a four-game series starting Monday against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Even without Schumaker in the mix, there are four outfielders who’ll share playing time Ryan Ludwick, Rick Ankiel, Chris Duncan and Colby Rasmus. Schumaker, who batted .302 in his first full season,Retro Football Shirts, was force-fed the job during spring training and got more comfortable and less mechanical as time passed.

“We’ll just have to let the season happen and if he can handle the day-to-day job, that’s great for us,” general manager John Mozeliak said Sunday. “There’s no reason to think he can’t handle it.”

Rookie David Freese expected to be the top fill-in for injured Troy Glaus at third base also will start the season on the bench in manager Tony La Russa’s unusual opening-day lineup. Khalil Greene has 15 career at-bats at cleanup, but that’s where he’ll be in the opener coming off a .408 spring average that was among the NL leaders. Another rookie, Brian Barden, is set to start at third and bat eighth.

The lineup is conventional in one regard, with pitcher Adam Wainwright batting ninth. La Russa had the pitchers batting eighth in every game since the final 56 games of 2007, with the No. 9 hitter serving as a second leadoff man to get more runners on for Pujols.

Wainwright (11-3, 3.20) gets his second try at a first opening day start last year’s start was postponed by rain against Pirates left-hander Paul Maholm (9-9, 3.71).

“We’re far from perfect,” Mozeliak said. “But I still think we’re a pretty good club.”

The Pirates are another story. They enter the season trying to end a string of 16 consecutive losing seasons, tied for the longest such slump in major league history, and with a roster that’s not appreciably different from the 2008 team that finished last in the NL Central at 67-95 last year.

Pittsburgh was 17-15 this spring, a bigger deal because of the struggles.

“You’ve got to start somewhere,Lazio shirt,” manager John Russell said. “In the situation we’re in, a younger team and a team that has a lot of questions from the outside, it is better to win in spring training than lose.

“I wouldn’t say huge momentum, but it’s a nice feeling knowing that we’ve played well.”

Whether they’ll get to play Monday is perhaps the biggest question,Sevilla shirt, with a forecast calling for temperatures in the 30s with snow flurries and high winds. There’s already a contingency plan, a day-night doubleheader on Tuesday in case the opener is postponed.

La Russa wants to avoid that at all costs because the compressed early-season schedule brought on by the World Baseball Classic leaves the Cardinals without a day off until April 20. Typically, the day after opening day is an off-day, but not this year, meaning the Cardinals could need a fill-in starter as early as Saturday.

The weather was much nicer, in the 60s, for Sunday’s workout.

“All I know is it could be zero and we need to play,” La Russa said. “I think we’ll play.”

Pirates manager John Russell, whose team is opening on the road for the fourth straight season, is aboard with that sentiment.

“I remember as a player on opening day, no matter where you’re at you get butterflies,” Russell said. “It’s the one day you do not want to get rained out. We spent the good part of 6-7 weeks to get here and it’s time to go.”

A key to a better start for the Pirates, 10-16 at the end of April in 2008,Wales football shirt, is more contribution early from Adam La Roche. The streaky slugger opened 2008 with two hits followed by an 0-for-25 slump and batted .174 the opening month with one homer and five RBIs.

He finished with 25 homers, 85 RBIs and a .270 average.

“I feel like all I can do is put the work in and give 100 percent on the field,” La Roche said. “I don’t know why it takes a while to get loose.”