Rivercats pitcher Bruce Billings took the hill for his 24th start, hoping for his 8th win of the season. He was cheered on by 13,870 fans enjoying the annual Raley Field Fiesta.  But two fateful swings from a dynamic duo of Salt Lake Bees led him to his 6th loss instead. Leftfielder Ryan Langerhans and designated hitter Cory Aldridge hit back-to-back homers in the top of the 2nd inning to give Salt Lake a lead they would never give up. Besides Langerhans’ and Aldridge’s homers, shortstop Andrew Romine added to the Salt Lake fireworks with an RBI triple in the 1st. Third baseman Luis Jimeniz followed immediately afterwards by driving in the 2nd Bees’ run with a single. Trailing by 4-0, t

Dan Straily was sent down three days ago to make room for the long-awaited return of Brett Anderson. Straily did nothing wrong. In fact, he could be called back to the big club very soon. And after his strong start in Sacramento on Thursday, that call could be very soon indeed. Straily went five strong innings and helped the Sacramento River Cats win their fourth in a row by beating the Salt Lake Bees 6-3 at Raley Field on Thursday evening. “He threw the ball well,” said Cats manager Darren Bush. “He moved the ball around, changed speeds and was aggressive. He looked good!” The first couple of innings flew by for both teams. As for Straily, he even struck out the side in the second, d

The 2012 Niello Concours at Serrano will take place on October 7, 2012. Automobile enthusiasts throughout northern California and beyond look forward to this annual event. On Wednesday, August 21 the final Concours Raduno at Sienna, a prelude to the Niello Concours at Serrano, took place in El Dorado Hills. Sienna Restaurant located at 3909 Park Drive in El Dorado Hills hosted the event where vintage vehicles were showcased around the restaurant. The 2012 Niello Concours at Serrano will take place on October 7. This elegant event will feature the Marque of Pierce Arrow and will be celebrating 50 Years of the Cobra honoring Carroll Shelby. The gathering at Sienna included several Cobr

It’s all over mainstream media: Virginia Beach is making a pitch to steal Sacramento’s beloved Kings, and team owners, the Maloofs, are buying in – but a spokesman for the Maloofs said in an email yesterday not to believe all the hype. “The franchise is not going to discuss which cities have approached the organization and are not going to comment on every rumor,” Maloof spokesman Eric W. Rose said in the email. “The sole focus of everyone within the Sacramento Kings organization continues to be to put a winning team on the court as we look forward to what promises to be an exciting 2012-13 NBA season.” Wait. What? Notice that Rose makes no commitment with his statement beyond the curre

The Sacramento River Cats shut out the Las Vegas 51s on Monday night at Raley Field, defeating them 2-0. The victory gives Sacramento a 4.5 game lead over Vegas in the Pacific South Division. Sacramento scored its first run in the fourth inning when Brandon Hicks raced home on a wild pitch. Sacramento's second run came in the eighth inning when Jermaine Mitchell scored on a Grant Green single to center field. Sacramento replacement pitcher Jim Miller took the mound at the top of the ninth inning and closed out the Las Vegas visitors in order. Las Vegas stays in Sacramento for one more game on Tuesday evening. (Click on the photos above to see a larger version.) Additional game photos

The Sacramento River Cats came up short on Saturday night as they lost their second game in a row, falling to the Las Vegas 51s 10-4 at Raley Field. River Cats fans showed up heavily for “Star Wars Night,” with fans dressing up as various Star Wars characters. 14,818 fans showed up in total, making it the third most-attended River Cats game in franchise history. The loss is Sacramento’s fourth in their last five contests. Las Vegas got to River Cats starting pitcher Bruce Billings early, racking up six of their 10 runs during Billings’ 4.0 innings of work. Billings finished the night with four innings pitched, allowing six earned runs on seven hits and two walks, while striking out two.

There was double the action this past Saturday at The Rink, which hosted a doubleheader roller derby competition. Located off of Bradshaw, The Rink, formerly Kings Skate Country, hosted the Sac City Rollers versus the Santa Cruz Derby Girls. If you're not familiar with roller derby, the game consists of two 30-minute halves with five girls on each team on the floor at a time. The jammer is the only player who can score for the team, and gets a point for each time they pass a player from the opposing team (not including the first lap). What made these games exciting were the blockers, the players who help open the way for the jammers to break through and lap their opponents. Hard work w

Over 120 men braved the heat on Sunday to earn a spot on the Sacramento Mountain Lions football team. Some players drove from out of state to attend the tryouts at the Del Oro High School football field in Loomis.   As temperatures quickly climbed into the 90's by noon, the open tryouts were up to full speed on the field. Each candidate had two chances to post their best times in the 40 yard dash, then the tryouts split up into specific skill drills.   More photos from the tryouts can be viewed here.

The River Cats were sailing along on this eight-game homestand. As winners of the first five, things seemed to be on cruise control. But this is the Pacific Coast League, where anything can happen — and quite frequently does. The Nashville Sounds came to town for a four-game stop and, after losing the first contest, found their stride and took the next game from Sacramento. On Tuesday evening the Cats would lose their second game in a row to the Sounds 5-4 on a wild pitch by Merkin Valdez in the top of the ninth inning. On Wednesday afternoon, the River Cats were looking to end their small two-game losing streak, and did so when Daric Barton was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded in t

The Sacramento River Cats’ six-game winning streak came to an end Monday night as they fell to the Nashville Sounds 5-3 at Raley Field. Sacramento looked to be on their way to another win when they scored the first two runs of the game in the bottom of the second inning. With runners on second and third base and two outs, left fielder Shane Peterson hit one up the middle to give the Cats an early 2-0 lead. The lead wouldn’t hold up as the Sounds were able to get to River Cats starting pitcher Graham Godfrey in the fourth inning. The Sounds were able to put up two runs in the fourth to tie the game at 2-2. Sacramento was opportunistic in the sixth inning, capitalizing on a couple of walk

Former Sacramento King Donte Greene is set to hold the second annual Goon Squad Classic on Aug. 10 at Cosumnes River College in Sacramento, Calif. Although it appears that Greene will not be playing for the Kings again, Greene wanted to give the fans another chance to attend his charity basketball game, the Goon Squad Classic. The game started last season during the NBA’s holdout, prompting Greene to want to give basketball to the Sacramento region, and benefit numerous charities with the money raised. “It was in high demand,” Greene said. “I got a great response from the fans, and they wanted me to do another game, and we planned it during the season to hold another one, thinking I will

The Sacramento Mountain Lions today officially announced that Raley Field in West Sacramento would be their new sports venue. Jeff Savage, General Manager of the Rivercats and Raley Field, welcomed the opportunity to host the local United Football League team in the popular stadium along the Sacramento River. Along with the expected stadium change, the local UFL team introduced Turk Schonert at their new head coach, replacing Dennis Green who led the Molos through their first 3 seasons. Schonert, most recently offensive coordinator for the UFL Las Vegas Locomotives, enters his 15th year of coaching professionally. Previously, he’s worn an NFL coach’s cap with Tampa Bay Buccaneers (4 sea

The Sacramento River Cats extended their winning streak to a season-high six games Sunday night, beating the Nashville Sounds 8-3. The victory puts Sacramento six and a half games ahead in the Pacific Southern Division standings. The Sounds came out swinging in the first inning, quickly racking up four hits and scoring three runs, including a solo blast over the right field fence by center fielder Caleb Gindl. After the first inning, however, Sacramento silenced the Sounds. The River Cats evened the score in the third inning. Two of the three runs were scored with two outs on the board when Grant Green smacked a line drive into left field, bringing in Daric Barton and Anthony Recker. Ba

With rumors swirling that Cats phenom pitcher Dan Straily would be called up to the big club at any moment, Tyson Ross got the call to replace Straily in the starting lineup for Thursday’s tilt against the Memphis Redbirds. With nearly the same type of clutch hitting as the night before, Ross’s fine performance and solid relief from James Timmons, Pedro Figueroa and Rich Thompson out of the bullpen, the Sacramento River Cats beat the visiting Redbirds 4-3 in front of 8,762 faithful in another exciting contest at Raley Field. Even though it was the late clutch hitting of the Cats that helped pull out the victory, Cats manager Darren Bush couldn’t let the performance of his starter go unno

To say the Oakland A’s have an eye for pitching talent and like to have lots of live arms is like telling a 35-year-old that Santa Claus doesn’t exist. Duh! Graham Godfrey is one of those live arms that for one reason or another hasn’t been able to find his mark when called up for duty. Godfrey thinks he may have found what ailed him over his last few starts, when his earned run average skyrocketed from 1.21 on June 15 to 3.29 prior to the game on Wednesday evening. “I’ve been battling an injury and you can kind of notice the dip in my numbers,” said Godfrey. “It was something I was trying to pitch through, but I just needed some time off. I was able to rehab it and get it strong again

A Kings move to Seattle less likely as NBA arena deal hits a snag: Things were looking good for Seattle’s bid to get a new basketball arena, Ryan Lillis reports in The Sacramento Bee today – until the city council balked at the plan for sharing tax revenue in the deal. All eyes were on Seattle recently as a potential relocation spot for the Sacramento Kings, but any move for the team hinged on a deal for an arena. As Sacramentans know well, arena deals can be a tough business, and can blow up. Welcome to the club, Seattle. “This doesn't appear to be a death blow for Seattle's arena plans,” Lillis writes. “But it's certainly worth noting that the political climate in the Emerald City seem

A female winner, a Kawasaki on top of the podium, and Barry Weiss from the pop culture television hit, “Storage Wars,” completed a night of surprises at the 47th running of the Sacramento Mile on Saturday night at the Cal Expo Fairgrounds. A packed house saw some exciting races - especially in the two main events - as both the 12-lap AMA Pro Singles main event and the 25-lap AMA Pro Grand National Championship Twins main event both came down to a drag race on the front stretch. In the Pro Singles races, Honda would be the dominate manufacture as Dominic Colindres and Shayna Texter won the heat races and Cole Crowley won the last chance qualifier. In the Pro Singles main event, Texter, a

The Sac Mile is back! The familiar catch phrase was reintroduced last year after a 12-year hiatus away from the Capital City area. And the fans showed up like the event had never left. It’s that time again this year, as the “big bikes on the big track” are back at Cal Expo for what looks like another exciting Sacramento Mile on Saturday, July 28. Long gone are the stars of the past like Bart Markel, Mert Lawwill, Hank Scott, Gene Romero, Jay Springsteen, Ricky Graham and Bubba Shobert. Even stars from the not-so-distant past have hung up the riding boots. Two of the sport’s most popular and famous riders — Chris Carr and Scott Parker — made their mark in SacTown. The two battled it o

Sacramento River Cats starting pitcher Daniel Straily continued his dominant year against the Pacific Coast League as he led the River Cats to a 6-0 victory against the Tucson Padres at Raley Field on Monday afternoon. Straily struck out another nine batters in six innings of work, giving him 171 strikeouts on the season. He allowed no runs on just three hits in his six innings of work en route to earning his fourth win for the River Cats. Unlike the Padres, Sacramento’s offense was able to figure out Tucson’s starting pitcher, Will Scott, early in the game. Jermaine Mitchell scored the first two runs of the game with a two RBI single in the second inning. Scott lasted just four innings

The WTT Western Conference third-place Springfield Lasers shocked the first-place Sacramento Capitals last night 23-16, going into the final week of regular season play. It seemed as though the afternoon’s heat and humidity just took all of the starch out of the Cap’s game, as Sacramento trailed Springfield, beginning to end. Even Sam Querrey, Sacramento’s star, succumbed to the barometric pressure, losing 4-5 to Amir Weintraub, currently ranked number 175th in the world.  Coco Vandeweghe was the Caps' only standout last night, narrowly beating Timea Babos, a rising star in the WTA and a hard-serving Hungarian, 5-4. The Capitals' next home match occurs July 24 against the Orange Count