Free agent watch

No Aggies were taken in the NFL Draft this weekend, but here's what we have confirmed today

--OT Elliot Vallejo signed with the Arizona Cardinals.
--WR Tony Kays signed with Cincinnati Bengals

We're still waiting for on S Jonathan Barsi and QB Jon Grant.

Blue Devils fall late

Elk Grove sent 12 batters to the plate in a nine-run seventh inning to beat Davis High 12-3 on Friday night. The outburst came after DHS rallied to tie the game in the bottom of the sixth.

With two runs already in and the bases loaded, Josh McMahon hit a triple to dead centerfield, which all but ended any chance the Blue Devils (16-5, 7-2 Delta Valley Conference) had to come back in the bottom of the seventh.

Thundering Herd (11-8, 6-3) starting pitcher Troy Watson kept the Blue Devil hitters off balance for six innings allowing only five hits and three runs. He worked out of a jam and minimized the damage in the bottom of the sixth in what was DHS’ best chance to put up a big inning.

Pinch hitter Kyle Williams was hit by a 0-2 pitch with the bases loaded in the bottom of the sixth to tie the game. But Watson got Jeff Boulware to ground out to end the threat and keep the game tied at 3.

--Conor Tekautz

Coming this afternoon

Baseball, football (both kinds), softball, Friday's gloriously gold-flagged Enterprise Sports has it all. Here's what you'll find when the paper rolls off our Downtown Davis presses and into the world

Club needs new members
Dave Nix has another Aggie trying to chase him down.
Nix, a standout outfielder for the UC Davis baseball team in the mid 1990s, is the only player in school history to hit better than .400. Catcher Tyler LaTorre made a bid to break into the .400 club last season, ultimately finishing at .363.
Now, 5-foot-11, 190-pound Daniel Descalso takes aim.

Anibaba earns U.S. team spot
It’s every soccer player’s dream is to represent their country in the World Cup. That may be in the cards for Davis High School star Jalil Anibaba one day. Recently, he has gotten closer than any other Blue Devil when he earned a spot on the United States Under-20 team.

New center learns from old one at spring practice
The torch is being passed at center, one of those tradition-within-a-tradition spots on the UC Davis football roster.

Blue Devils no-hit Vikings
Kim Rubey and Sam Gaynor combined to throw a no-hitter on Thursday as the Davis High softball team blew out Valley 10-0 in five innings in a mercy-rule win in Delta Valley Conference action.

Looking at the O-Line

We have kind of a neat story Friday about the passing of the torch at the center position on the UC Davis offensive line. To hear the Aggies talk, rising sophomore Tommy Hernandez looks like the real deal at center. His athleticism is one of the keys to the offense’s switch in blocking schemes and his coachability suggests he could have pretty solid career. Tim Keane, the starter in 2005 and 2006, is now the offensive line assistant, working coordinator Mike Moroski. Here's what UCD coach Bob Biggs said about Hernandez.

“He’s a very athletic center, and you have to be to run the kind of the scheme that we’re running. He seems to have a real command of the calls. What people don’t realize is that the center is like a quarterback, making all the adjustment calls. He’s much further ahead that we thought he might be.”

Schmatically, the offensive line is working this spring to add some outside zone blocking schemes to its playbook. These are similar to what the Denver Broncos and Boise State Broncos run and favor smaller, more athletic linemen. The next question is whether the Aggies will finally be able to run the ball consistently after about three years where that didn’t happen. Biggs said running backs Demario Warren and Joe Trombetta were having good springs, which suggests that they are meshing with this scheme. Of course it's too early to tell anything.

Some other notes that didn’t make Friday's notebook:
--Also along the offensive line, Biggs said the coaching staff was happy with how redshirt Mark Tos has responded to first-team reps. “We’re throwing him to the wolves here, and I think he’s responded pretty well,” the coach said.

--Asked about this spring’s quarterback derby Biggs said, “It’s a pretty good battle right now.” Biggs was happy with what he saw from both Matt Engle and Tim Plough at the weekend’s scrimmage, but is playing his cards close to the vest. He says everything is on schedule and that he expects to name a starter heading into fall camp.

Coming this afternoon

Here's what you can expect in this afternoon's B Section.

Stanford rolls out talent
Stanford crashed the party on Senior Day for the UC Davis lacrosse team. Daphne Patterson scored four goals to lead the Cardinal to an easy 17-4 win at still-being-finished Aggie Stadium.

Davis High School softball team takes care of business
Coming off of a game it felt it should have won, the Davis High School softball team was determined Tuesday to take care of business. Facing a Laguna Creek team that had just one victory on the season, the host Blue Devils did not let up until the 12-0 mercy-rule victory was complete after 4 1/2 innings.

Johnson sharp in rehab stint
WEST SACRAMENTO -- Dan Johnson plans to be patient as he works his way back into shape after a hip injury. But the injury situation up in Oakland could change things. Johnson homered and played the full game at first base as the River Cats beat Las Vegas.

Coming this afternoon

Here's a sneak peak at what's coming up today when the gloriously gold-flagged Enterprise Sports section hits the streets around lunch time.

Clock ticking for trio
Davis High girls soccer coach Allen Carlson says that it’s not very often that he has a solid player who can seemingly score whenever she wants to. So you can only imagine how lucky Carlson realizes he is to have three girls who fit that description in Julie Gallaudet, Mari Egan and Taylor Powell.

Coach mum on Kings’ future
SACRAMENTO -- Eric Musselman dodged questions about his future Wednesday, but after coaching the Kings' to their first losing season since 1997-98, his job security is tenuous.

DHS baseball routs Laguna Creek
The Davis High boys baseball team recorded its first walkoff win of the year on Wednesday.
The thing is, it wasn’t your typical walkoff. Brendan Gill doubled to right-center to score Sean Richards with two outs in the bottom of the sixth to give the Blue Devils a 12-2 win over Laguna Creek. Under Sac-Joaquin Section rules, the game is over if a team is winning by 10 or more runs after five innings of play are complete and the run scored by Richards gave DHS a 10-run lead.

Linebackers suddenly a strength for UCD
The questions posed to David Heckman have changed. That happens when your position group goes from biggest question to deepest on the team. And that's life in the Aggies linebacker corps.

Basketball update

To hear UC Davis' coaches talk Tuesday, they believe they picked up a steal in new signee Adam Malik. Detailing his virtues during an interview, Aggie coach Gary Stewart described just about every aspect of the game. My story in today's print edition includes a description of what the coach called "the greatest high school play I’ve ever seen.” Think Tayshaun Prince in the 2004 NBA Eastern Conference Finals. By some measures, Stewart said, he might have been one of the top-15 players in the entire state. Recruiting is a notoriously inexact science. But signing day is like draft day, everyone is allowed to be optimistic.

Meanwhile changes are afoot in the men's basketball offices. Stewart has seen the future of the Aggie program and it is Princeton, as in the Princeton offense. At it's core, that means UCD will run an offense with a passing center that everyone else will orbit. Lots of teams run modified versions of the set, including Georgetown (which has had some success with it). The Aggie women have run a version of the offense for the last three years and have recorded double-digit wins the last two seasons. Based on that model, this is an excellent time for the men to install it. Assistant Jennifer Gross brought the system from San Diego State and said it took about two years to learn the entire offense. The UCD women had no seniors in 2004-05. So after a year of taking their lumps, they turned around the following year and won 16 games. The UCD men have, in eligibility terms, no seniors this year. Stewart thinks this approach is the best for the long haul, based on the sort of player he can consistently attract.

Some other housekeeping:

--With the signing of Malik, UCD will have 12 players receiving scholarship money next year. That means it can add one more, either by putting a player from the current roster on scholarship or through another signing. Likely the choice would be the latter if there's one to be had. Stewart suggested Tuesday there were possibilities floating around, but he's limited in what he can say because the NCAA forbids coaches to talk about players until they officially sign. It should be noted that in the Aggies' case there is a distinction between having a money slot available and having a scholarship available. The program is funded at 83 percent next year.

--Stewart had hoped to have the schedule out this month, but that's probably not going to happen now. UCD has a contract to play in the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic, although it doesn't know where it is going yet. But there are variables in the non-conference schedule as other programs have sought to move contracted games for a variety of reasons, mostly all of them relating to television.

Picnic Day in the rain

Today's UC Davis-Cal State Fullerton baseball game on Saturday has been postponed by rain. The teams will play a doubleheader Sunday starting at 10 a.m. Both games will be scheduled for nine innings, but the second one likely will be curfewed because the Titans have a 7:30 p.m. flight back home.

Meanwhile, the Aggie football team practiced in the rain over at Aggie Stadium. I wasn't there, but reports are that the artificial turf held up especially well. UCD associate athletic director Bob Bullis said he didn't see any players slip. In fact, he said, the only thing that was really slick was the ball. It's probably good for UCD to see to see how the field works in bad weather. That could come in handy, say, during next year's playoffs.

If anyone was at the practice and had any observations on the stadium please feel free to post them here.

You know what they say about momentum

After scoring 34 runs and taking two of three against Pacific last weekend, the UC Davis baseball team was hoping to carry some of that momentum into this weekend’s series against Cal State Fullerton.

But then Titan starting pitcher Wes Roemer toed the rubber.

Roemer allowed seven hits and two runs over eight solid innings and his team gave him more than enough support offensively. The Titans took the opener 9-2 at Dobbins Stadium.

UCD starter Trevor Fox was inconsistent on the mound allowing seven runs and eight hits over five innings. Fox barely made it out of the fifth when he hit three Titan players and committed his second balk of the game.

Down 8-0 in the bottom of the sixth, the Aggies attempted to rally but, with two runs already in, Kyle Mihaylo grounded out with the bases loaded to end the threat. That was the only trouble Roemer got himself into.

Daniel Descalso had three hits -- the only Aggie batter with more than one hit -- including a double and an RBI.

--Conor Tekautz

Coming this afternoon

Here's what's in store in the Enterprise's pre-Picnic Day brilliant B Section, which hits streets around one this afternoon.

Durable duo keys Ags
The UC Davis softball team has its own version of a one-two punch in pitchers Lindsay Tognetti and Jessica Hancock. The two have combined to earn 23 of the Aggies’ 24 wins while each has an ERA under 3.

Turpin learns different throw
A three-year starter for the UCD women’s basketball team, Jackie Turpin made a smooth transition to track last year. Almost immediately she vaulted into the school’s all-time top-10 list in both discus and javelin.

Gloves can’t save Davis High softball
The Davis High School softball team flashed the leather Thursday afternoon, turning in a few “Sports Center” kind of plays. Unfortunately for the Blue Devils, they could not produce many highlights with the bat, dropping a 5-2 game to Elk Grove in the second Delta Valley Conference game of the year.