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Wichita State's must-win weekend is off to a good start, even without leading hitter Conor Gillaspie. The 14th-ranked Shockers took over first place in the Missouri Valley Conference with a 6-1 win over Northern Iowa on a cold and windy Friday at Eck Stadium.

Shocker hitters took advantage of the wind with home runs by Kenny Williams and Tyler Weber. WSU starter Rob Musgrave avoided any wind-aided trouble by keeping hitters off balance with a variety of speeds and locations. He struck out 12 in his first nine-inning complete-game of the season. Even when hitters put the ball in the air, they rarely hit it solid enough to take advantage of the jet stream blowing out to right.

"You can't go out a little bit nervous about the wind," Musgrave said. "Obviously, you've got work on getting out front and keeping the ball down."

WSU (34-11, 12-4 MVC) snapped a three-game losing streak. UNI (25-17, 11-6) fell to third place, behind Missouri State (31-14, 14-5).

"It was a very tough night to pitch," WSU coach Gene Stephenson said. "With the wind blowing the way it was, any ball hit up in the air on the right side has a chance of going out of the ballpark."

No easy outs.

Goddard baseball coach Tom Campa takes pride in that when he looks at his batting order. His Lions certainly gave their coach even more to be proud about on Friday as Goddard swept North 8-3 and 8-5 in a doubleheader at West Side Athletic Field.

"I'm very pleased with the outcome," Campa said. "We had to execute at the plate and we did."

In game two the Lions (16-3) had six players drive in runs. Five of the players knocked in runs in the third inning to give Goddard a 5-0 lead.

Geoff Hagle, batting in the ninth spot, got things started with an RBI double that was followed by consecutive RBI singles by Logan Watkins and Taylor Douglas. Nathan Rausch finished the scoring spree with an RBI double.

First Round

Best 2 of 3

Neosho Co. (22-28) at Seward. (37-16), 1 p.m.

Colby (24-26) vs. Kansas City (29-16) at St. Mary-Leavenworth, 3 p.m.

Independence (23-26) at Barton (24-19), 2 p.m.

Friday's box score

New look

Conor Gillaspie's sore lower back has been a nagging problem all season, but didn't keep him out of a game until Friday.

The Heights boys track team proved that you don't necessarily need to have several individual victories to win in the team standings.

Heights won three events in the boys division of the Derby Invitational, but had several strong performances to win the team title. The Falcons finished with 119 points, edging Newton, which took second place with 105 points.

"We really don't concern ourselves much with winning a lot of these meets," Heights coach Steve Crosley said. "It was good competition today. The kids came out and performed very, very well. We are just trying to get ready for the league meet next week."

Southeast gained a dominating win in the girls division, winning eight of the 17 events.

A key event was the 200-meter dash, in which the Buffaloes swept the three top spots. Aarian Tipton edged teammates Sylvia Alexander and Jasmine Fortner in a finish separated by less than a half-second.

Baseball

Maize 15, Derby 1

Maize 13, Derby 3

It was hard for Kapaun Mount Carmel not to get frustrated in the first half of its soccer game Friday at Heights field.

Blustery winds caused havoc with balls in the air and made it difficult to build an attack heading into the wind.

Throw in a nagging Heights defense that contained the potent attack from the Crusaders, and frustration began to set in.

But instead of letting the frustration become a distraction, the Crusaders released it on Heights the second half. After Caroline Kastor broke the scoreless tie early in the second half, Kapaun poured in four more goals with the wind at its back in a span of nine minutes for a 5-0 victory, setting up a showdown of undefeated teams Tuesday for the CL title against Northwest.

"After we got that first one, I think we played a little more relaxed," Kapaun coach Alan Shepherd said. "In the first half, we were a little frustrated with the wind. Heights did a great job defensively too. We were able to get some more shots off the second half and kind of open them up a little bit."

The Wichita Wingnuts lost 7-2 to the Lincoln Saltdogs in a six-inning, rain-shortened exhibition game Friday at Beatrice, Neb. It was the first game for the expansion Wingnuts, members of the American Association of Professional Baseball.

SOCCER

North boys coach D.J. Spaeth is retiring after 20 seasons. North athletic director Lance Deckinger said Heights coach Brent Lewis has been hired to replace her.

SOFTBALL

Brandi Leeker pitched a one-hitter and Annie Matthews and Stephanie Jaime homered as Friends won the KCAC Tournament with a 10-0 victory over Kansas Wesleyan on Friday in Salina.

Local favorite Denny Hamlin won his sixth career pole and second at Richmond in Friday's qualifying.

He's from Chesterfield, about a 15-minute drive from Richmond International Raceway.

Nationwide Series -- Hamlin used a late pit stop for tires to foil the strategy of fellow NASCAR stars Kevin Harvick and Carl Edwards, blowing by them to win the NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Richmond International Raceway on Friday night.

Harvick and Edwards dominated the race all night, but when the final caution flew with 22 laps to go, Hamlin gave up his fourth-place position to head to pit road for tires. When everyone behind him followed, leaving Harvick, Edwards and No. 3 Mike Bliss as the only cars still out on the track, Hamlin emerged still running fourth and with brand new traction.

Kyle Busch celebrated his 23rd birthday Friday in a race car, the one place NASCAR's hottest driver truly loves to be.

"I wouldn't have it any other way," Busch said during a break in his marathon day at Richmond International Raceway.

And why would he?

Busch can't seem to lose lately, in anything he drives. His monthlong winning streak reached a fifth consecutive week when he jumped into a late model car Thursday night and won Denny Hamlin's charity race at nearby Southside Speedway. Add that to three straight Nationwide Series wins and last week's Cup victory at Talladega Superspeedway, and Busch is on a roll not often seen in NASCAR.

"It makes you proud to have a teammate like him that's had that kind of success here the last five weeks," two-time series champion Tony Stewart said. "You can see the confidence it gives him, and I think that just helps the whole organization at the end of the day."

When it comes to picking a Kentucky Derby favorite, a lot of people simply play the name game. Be it cute, curious or catchy, that can be the deciding factor.

A look at how some of the 20 horses set to run today got their names, listed by post position:

1. Cool Coal Man. His sire was Mineshaft, but the owner "tried a million names and couldn't pull one," trainer Nick Zito said Friday. "I had it. I thought he was a cool horse."

2. Tale of Ekati. Owner Charles Fipke discovered a diamond mine in a remote Canadian area called Ekati.

5. Eight Belles. The only filly in the field gets her name from the summer home Eight Bells in Maine, where painter Andrew Wyeth lived. His family based it on the painting "Eight Bells" by Winslow Homer.

When the gates open this evening on the 134th running of the Kentucky Derby, five front-running horses, all stuck in outside posts, will angle sideways and race each other to the rail. Big Brown, the morning line favorite in the No. 20 post, must run the farthest and fastest of them all if he is to gain that all important position on the rail.

Late afternoon showers Friday made for a soggy Kentucky Oaks day, but the forecast calls for sun today and this all-important sprint in the beginning of the race should take place on a dry track.

"Everyone talks about the last quarter-mile of the Derby, but the race is really won in the first quarter-mile," said Big Brown's jockey, Kent Desormeaux, a two-time Derby winner. "There's dozens of snap decisions to make between the gate and the first turn. If I make a mistake on the run to the turn, my chances of winning end there."

This initial mad dash also will go a long way in determining the prospects of the four other need-the-lead horses inside Big Brown, as well as the pace for what then becomes a grueling quarter of a mile. Immediately inside Big Brown are Gayego, Recapturetheglory and Cowboy Cal, each of whom led virtually every step of the way to win the Arkansas and Illinois Derbys and Bluegrass Stakes.

Bob Black Jack, perhaps the fastest of them all, might have the first chance to hit the rail because he breaks from the No. 13 hole. Bob Black Jack holds the world record for six furlongs, and he barely got caught at the wire in the Santa Anita Derby by Colonel John.

Paula Creamer and Lorena Ochoa played together for the first 36 holes at the SemGroup Championship, battling a vicious wind that came from two directions and getting two very different results.

Creamer has made enough birdies that another sloppy finish Friday -- two bogeys on the final three holes -- still left her satisfied. She shot an even-par 71 and was the only one under par at Cedar Ridge in Broken Arrow, Okla., giving her a one-shot lead over Ji Young Oh (72).

Ochoa was six shots behind at 5 over after a 3-over 74, the first time since the 2006 Women's British Open that she has had two rounds over par in the same tournament. Even more troublesome was that Ochoa, going for her record-tying fifth consecutive LPGA Tour victory, finished the second round without a birdie.

It was the first time in more than two years Ochoa played a round without a birdie, and she has gone 26 holes without a birdie or an eagle at Cedar Ridge, surprising for a player who came into this tournament averaging 5.39 birdies a round.

Wachovia Championship -- Jason Bohn shot a 5-under 67 to take a two-shot lead in the PGA Tour's Wachovia Championship, while Phil Mickelson's double bogey on Quail Hollow Club's easiest hole began a horrible closing stretch that left him seven shots back at Charlotte, N.C.

The largest native-plant sale in the state will take place May 9 and 10 at Dyck Arboretum of the Plains in Hesston.

The annual FloraKansas celebration will also feature seminars, tours, arts and crafts, and food.

This year the arboretum is also offering a botanical getaway weekend in conjunction with the event.

FloraKansas will feature more than 300 varieties of hard-to-find native wildflowers, shrubs, trees and grasses. Members will get first pick May 8 and 9, and the public can shop from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. May 10, noon to 4 p.m. May 11 and 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. May 12. A complete list of plants can be found on the Web site www.dyckarboretum.org.

Other events on May 10: "Herbal Breakfast" by Kay Neff at 8:30 a.m.; "Planting a Monarch Waystation Garden" by Cristina Janney at 9:30 a.m.; "The Art of Nature" with sculptor and painter Janice Weibe Ollenberger at 10:30 a.m.; "What's in Bloom," a 45-minute tour of the grounds with Scott Vogt, at 10:45. Vogt will be available to answer questions and provide growing tips throughout the sale.

Bluffing is about telling a story of a hand that you don't really hold, so make sure that your betting is convincing.

Darrell Dicken didn't, and it cost him.

At the World Poker Tour's $15,000-buy-in Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic at Las Vegas' Bellagio in 2007, Dicken drew 7-5 offsuit in the hijack seat. With blinds at $100-$200, a tight player raised to $600 under the gun.

"I'm thinking he probably has two aces or two kings, and I knew if I flop big, I can bust him with 7-5 offsuit," said Dicken.

The big blind also called, so three players took a flop of J-J-Q.

Kelsey Grammer says anchorman Chuck Darling is "great fun to play, because he is bombastic and egocentric, yet there is a goodness to him.

"And he is probably a bit more like I am than Frasier."

That's Frasier Crane, of course, the pompous psychiatrist Grammer portrayed for nine years on "Cheers," then for another 11 seasons on the successful spinoff.

"Frasier was a tortured mass of emotional tics," said Grammer, who won four Emmy Awards for that role. He now stars in "Back to You," a Wednesday night comedy on Fox. "Chuck is a completely different guy, much more comfortable in his skin, who cares very little about anyone but himself. We're watching a man who should have grown up years ago."

Grammer, who also is an executive producer of NBC's "Medium," and appeared last year in the New York Philharmonic's concert version of "My Fair Lady," said he welcomed the chance to return to the sitcom format because, "I like to work. What else am I going to do?"