I hope you didn't gamble on my hunch that Tiago would win the Kentucky Derby. The California-based colt finished seventh behind Street Sense. He finished strongly, though, and his trainer may enter him in the 1 ½-mile Belmont Stakes, the last leg of the Triple Crown.
 John Zant It took quite a come-from-behind effort - on a par with Street Sense's 19th-to-first run in the Derby - for Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser to win $100,000 at last weekend's Huntington Beach Open AVP tournament. The local volleyball pair struck it rich when Mike Lambert and Stein Metzger defeated Jake Gibb and Sean Rosenthal in the final.
Here was the scenario: The 100 grand awaited the team that had the highest point total in the "triple crown" of Miami, Dallas and Huntington Beach. Having won the first two tournaments, Rogers and Dalhausser could have sewn up the jackpot by reaching the final Sunday. But they were knocked off in the semifinal by Gibb and Rosenthal, who stood to claim the prize if they crowned their previous runner-up finishes with a title.
Lambert and Metzger had appeared to be going nowhere when they lost their opening match of the tournament to a pair of lowly qualifiers. Somehow, they managed to scrape out seven consecutive victories to earn their spot in the final. With Rogers and Dalhausser nervously awaiting the outcome, they swept to a 21-18, 21-17 victory over Gibb and Rosenthal, who fell a few points short of the bonus.
 Todd Rogers, the MVP of the 2006 AVP tour, is off to a strong start this year with partner Phil Dalhausser. Rogers, 33, was a volleyball star at San Marcos High and UCSB before hitting the beach. Holly Stein photo Beach volleyball players aren't used to hitting balls for that kind of dough, and Rogers is sure it affected them. He and Dalhausser had not lost a single match all season until Sunday's semifinal. "Basically, we choked," he said. "We felt the weight of $100,000 on our shoulders. We haven't been that nervous in a long time." They didn't exactly fold up though - the scores were 23-21, 17-21 and 15-12 - and Rogers said they almost closed out the first game but for a ball that got away from Dalhausser.
And it all ended well for the local residents - and won't that $50,000 each took home help them keep up the Solvang-Santa Barbara lifestyle - when the deadly weight was shifted to Gibb and Rosenthal.
The experience should serve them well later in the summer, Rogers said, when he and Dalhausser play in international tournaments with lots of euros and Olympic qualification points at stake.
+PLAYOFFS AT PERSHING: The City College baseball team achieved its goal - a No. 2 seed in the Southern California playoffs, ensuring home series in the first two rounds. The Vaqueros, with a 34-8 record - three more wins than any other team in the tournament - will take on L.A. Harbor in the best-of-three opening round at Pershing Park. The first game starts at 3 p.m. Friday, and the second at 11 a.m. Saturday, followed by game three, if necessary. . . . Meanwhile, the UCSB baseball team, coming off a pair of come-from-behind victories at Cal State Fullerton, will face Big West leader Long Beach State in a Friday-Saturday-Sunday series at Caesar Uyesaka Stadium.
+AUSSIE INFUSION: The graduation of 6-foot-8 Santiago Aguirre left a hole in the Westmont College basketball lineup. Warriors coach John Moore found just the guy to fill it on the other side of town. Tom Garlepp, a 6-8 Australian, is transferring from UCSB to Westmont. Garlepp saw little playing time in his sophomore year with the Gauchos, but Moore thinks he has a good chance to succeed in Westmont's program. He expressed gratitude to UCSB coach Bob Williams for steering Garlepp to Westmont when the big Aussie decided to make a move.
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