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When a team is making its first appearance at the National Baseball Congress World Series, the coaching staff hopes that someone will step up and set the tone.

There was no better player to do so for the Conejo (Calif.) Oaks than starting pitcher Scott Bachman.

Bachman went 8 1/3 innings, striking out eight and giving up one earned run as the Oaks defeated the Austin Gold Sox 6-2 at Lawrence-Dumont.

Bachman, a former Kansas State pitcher, is the only Conejo player with previous experience in the NBC World Series. Bachman played last year with the Junction City Generals.

"He's a good competitor," Conejo coach Jimmy Stueve said. "He had good command out there and started this tournament off great for us."

At a Nationwide Tour stop that yielded birdie after birdie, all Ryan Hietala needed to win Sunday afternoon was a par.

Hietala parred the first hole of a sudden-death playoff to edge David Branshaw for the Cox Classic title in Omaha, the final event leading up to this week's Preferred Health Systems Wichita Open.

Hietala, who lives in Boise, Idaho, fired a 2-under-par 69 in the final round to match the third-round leader Branshaw at 19-under 265 for 72 holes. The playoff victory gave Hietala the $126,000 champion's prize and his first win since the 2005 Louisiana Open.

"David played fantastic and to see his five-footer miss -- you never root against anybody -- but I can't believe it," Hietala told the PGA Tour's Web site.

"Hats off to my putter this week," added Hietala. "My putting was off the charts."

In their perfect offensive world, the Chiefs will feed the ball as often as they can to their three main weapons in Larry Johnson, Tony Gonzalez and Dwayne Bowe.

That won't leave many chances for the other wide receiver, so the expectations for him are minimal.

"He's got to be a threat so they can't just double-team (Bowe) and get away with it," said Eric Price, the Chiefs' wide receivers coach. "When he gets that one-on-one coverage, he has to win that play.

"It's kind of like being a backup quarterback. You never know when your number is going to be called, so you have to do everything right on every play. You might not get the ball for a few plays but then all of a sudden, the ball's coming your way and you've got to make the play."

The Chiefs have plenty of candidates for the job with Devard Darling, rookie Will Franklin and Jeff Webb leading the way. But even with such meager expectations, the Chiefs are unsure whether any of them can handle it.

Catchers and baseballs beware. The Royals, to this point one of the American League's most inept teams, are hitting everything in sight.

Baseballs get smacked with bats, advertisement boards get hit with home run balls, and bleach-blonde catchers get slugged with fists. Maybe this is a two-day fluke, where the previously nice and offensively challenged Royals roll out two wins, 23 runs, 38 hits and a few punches.

Or maybe this 14-3 demolition of the previously first-place White Sox at Kauffman Stadium on Sunday is another small step on the franchise's path back to relevance.

"I think everyone understands the offensive part of the game can go in cycles," manager Trey Hillman said. "The thing that's most encouraging to me is to go along with some of the key hits we've had, we're mixing in the slug hit with it."

The fight happened in the fifth inning, when Miguel Olivo took a third consecutive pitch high and tight -- the third one finally hit him. He tossed his helmet, ran toward pitcher D.J. Carrasco, and in the fracas connected a punch with the top of catcher A.J. Pierzynski's head.

Twins 6, Indians 2 -- Francisco Liriano threw six scoreless innings in his return to the Minnesota rotation, helping the Twins move into first in the AL Central.

• Denard Span and Brendan Harris homered for Minnesota.... Liriano missed all of last season after Tommy John surgery and went 0-3 with an 11.32 ERA in three starts before being sent down in April. He dominated at Triple-A Rochester, going 10-0 with a 2.67 ERA in his last 11 starts, and was openly frustrated as the Twins waited until Friday to call him up.

Rays 6, Tigers 5 (10) --Carl Crawford hit a tying RBI single in the 10th inning and Carlos Pena drew a game-ending, bases-loaded walk to give AL East-leading Tampa Bay a victory.

• Tampa Bay took advantage of Fernando Rodney's wildness to put together the winning rally. Eric Hinske led off with a walk, bringing Jason Bartlett to the plate. Bartlett squared to bunt and left when Rodney (0-3) plunked him on his right hand.

Yankees 14, Angels 9 -- Xavier Nady homered and had a career-high six RBIs, rallying New York past sloppy Los Angeles in a wild, back-and-forth game.

Where: Crestview Country Club, 1000 N. 127th St. East

When: Today-Sunday

Tickets: Practice rounds through Wednesday are free. Beginning Thursday, daily grounds passes are $10 and available at the gate (seniors 62 and older, children under 13 free).

Three-day grounds passes will be sold Thursday for $10 at Wichita-area Dairy Queen locations, with proceeds to the Children's Miracle Network.

Parking: $3 parking is located at the Warren Theatre East, 11611 E. 13th. Free shuttle transportation will be provided.

Goose Doughty Open

At McAdams Park

Finals

Open men's singles -- Nate Kirk def. David Arriola 6-3, 6-1.

Men's 50 singles -- David Holt def. Mike Winn 6-3, 6-3.

People who were addicted to playing Scrabulous on Facebook have migrated by the thousands to Wordscraper, a Scrabble-like game created by the two brothers who built Scrabulous, Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla. Last week the brothers removed Scrabulous from Facebook.com for North American users because of a lawsuit from Hasbro, which owns the North American rights to Scrabble.

Unfortunately for Hasbro, players are not flocking to Hasbro's official Scrabble game. Instead thousands are adding Wordscraper -- which has been available on Facebook since January but attracted little attention until Scrabulous shut down -- and heading to their old favorite, Scrabulous, on the game's independent Web site at www.scrabulous.com. Wordscraper had about 80,000 daily users on Facebook as of Sunday night, and Scrabulous.com had thousands of players online on Sunday.

Hasbro's official version of Scrabble on Facebook, meanwhile, has registered about 91,000 users, while a version from Mattel, which owns the rights to Scrabble outside of North America, has fewer than 15,000.

Unlike Scrabulous, which exactly mimics a Scrabble board, Wordscraper lets players pick a board size and put high-scoring spaces wherever they like -- meaning that they can, if they choose, create an exact replica of a Scrabble board.

Hasbro said through a public relations agency that it had no comment on Wordscraper. As for threats by Scrabulous fans to boycott Hasbro products, Gary Serby, a Hasbro spokesman, said by e-mail, "Hasbro does not think this will be an issue at all. Clearly, people are very passionate about the Scrabble brand."

Christina Applegate is undergoing treatment for breast cancer, but the disease was caught early and the actress is expected to fully recover, her publicist said.

The Emmy winner's cancer was detected through an MRI ordered by a doctor and is not life-threatening, publicist Ame Van Iden said.

Applegate is scheduled to appear on a one-hour television special, "Stand Up To Cancer," to be aired on ABC, CBS and NBC on Sept. 5 to raise funds for cancer research.

The 36-year-old actress has been nominated for an Emmy and a Golden Globe for the show "Samantha Who?" in which she plays a woman who wakes from a coma with no memory of who she is.

Applegate won an Emmy as outstanding guest actress in a comedy series in 2003 for her role as one of Jennifer Aniston's younger sisters in "Friends." She was nominated for a Tony in 2005 for the Broadway musical "Sweet Charity." Her films include "Don't Tell Mom, the Babysitter's Dead" and "Anchorman."

Even an army of the undead could not dislodge Batman from his box-office perch.

The Batman blockbuster "The Dark Knight" hauled in $43.8 million to rank as Hollywood's top movie for the third-straight weekend, fending off "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor," which opened a close second with $42.5 million.

"The Dark Knight" has soared to a $394.9 million haul in just 17 days, according to studio estimates Sunday. The Warner Bros. release should sail past the $400 million mark by Monday or Tuesday, said Dan Fellman, head of distribution for Warner.

Universal's third "Mummy" flick sends Brendan Fraser's adventurer and his wife to China, where they battle a resurrected ancient ruler and his undead minions.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Media By Numbers LLC. Final figures will be released Monday.

Give them credit for trying and, when it comes to ticking people off and earning notice, for succeeding.

In a sly series of new ads for its underwatched but overdiscussed teen series "Gossip Girl," the CW network, with an artful cynicism, turns outraged critiques of the show into selling points.

"A Nasty Piece of Work," says the New York Post, in very big letters, atop an image of two of the show's lithe young things smooching topless in a pool.

"Every Parent's Nightmare," opines the Boston Herald, again atop the sort of young-person necking session frequently found on the show, which looks at privileged Manhattan teens behaving as if trying to channel old "Dynasty" episodes.

The logic of these ads, running in print and online before the show's second season, which starts Sept. 1, is impeccable. The fusty old watchdog media, in shocked review text, tries to guard our youth from discovering that some fictional teens behave with less than full decorum.

WED. Senior Wednesday, outdoor sculpture talk, 10:30 a.m. Wed., Wichita Art Museum, 1400 W. Museum Blvd. Included with admission. Information, 316-268-4921.

"Salome," Wichita Creative Music Society's summer film series, 7:30 p.m. Wed., B-Side Gallery, 817 W. Douglas. Free.

THU.-SAT. "Married Alive!," musical-comedy, through Aug. 30, Cabaret Oldtown, 412 ½ E. Douglas. Shows 8 p.m. Thu.-Sat., doors open at 7. Tickets $18. Reservations, 316-265-4400.

"Wild Bill's Baffling Barroom Barter," melodrama, followed by the Country Western Musical Comedy Revue, through Sept. 13, Mosley Street Melodrama, 234 N. Mosley. Buffet 6:15 p.m. Thu.-Sat., curtain at 7:50; doors open at 6. Dinner/show $25 (discounts available), show only $15. Reservations, 316-263-0222.

THU.-SUN. "Caught in the Net," comedy, through Sept. 14, Crown Uptown Professional Dinner Theatre, 3207 E. Douglas. Buffet/show 6 p.m. Thu.-Sat., doors open at 5:45; buffet/show 4:15 p.m. Sun., doors open at 4. Matinee buffet/shows 11:30 a.m. Thu.; doors open at 11. Tickets $25.95-$32.95, includes lunch or dinner. Information, 316-681-1566.