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State power suffering minor setbacks

State power suffering minor setbacks
Wheatley hits some minor bumps in the road. Vype

Originally appeared on Vype.com

Unfortunately, senior forward Ariana Taylor's date with history was postponed.

Miss Taylor plays basketball for Wheatley and the team was scheduled to play Worthing at Butler Stadium.

Coming into the game Taylor was just five points shy of reaching her 1,000-career point, but due to a forfeit by Worthing for an unknown reason, Taylor didn’t get the honor of reaching the career milestone.

“I’m good…a little mad cause I really wanted to play,” Taylor said. “But it’ll be alright.”

What also has been postponed is the Lady Wildcats hardware.

After Worthing’s forfeit, the Lady Wildcats were expecting to be presented with a District Championship trophy.

The only problem was that they were tied at the #1 seed with Jack Yates and because Jack Yates had a game, the Lady Wildcats had to wait to see if Jack Yates would lose their final game.

“If Yates loses their game we [Wheatley] will be the District Champions outright,” Dedreck Carr, Wheatley’s head coach said. “But if they win then we will be Co-District Champions.”

Ultimately, because of the uncertainty of whether Wheatley would be District Champs or Co-District Champs is why they didn’t receive the trophy after Worthing’s forfeit.

The rule to a forfeit is the coach from the winning team gets to choose which player he wants to give two points to.

Carr elected to give the two points to Taylor so now she’s only three points away from reaching 1,000 points.

Taylor’s next chance at reaching the 1,000 points will likely be in the first game of the playoffs.

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The Houston Astros have looked like one of baseball’s most dangerous teams in recent weeks, riding a hot streak fueled by dominant starting pitching and a red-hot offense that’s erupted for double-digit runs in four of their last eight games. But behind the current success, there are fair questions about whether this pace is truly sustainable as the grind of the season continues.

Yes, the Astros are winning — and winning big — but context matters. Many of their recent victories have come against struggling clubs like the White Sox and Athletics. Even matchups against the Twins and Guardians, while respectable, don’t exactly represent championship-caliber tests. That soft stretch of the schedule has certainly helped Houston pad its win column, but it may not be the best predictor of long-term performance. Houston will be tested in the upcoming series against the Phillies and Cubs.

On the pitching side, the numbers have been impressive, but how repeatable is it? With Lance McCullers Jr. sidelined for at least a couple of weeks, the Astros are relying on a patchwork rotation that includes unproven arms like Colton Gordon, Ryan Gusto, and Brandon Walter. While each has shown flashes, asking them to shoulder the load deep into the summer may be a tall order.

Offensively, Houston is firing on all cylinders. But scoring 10 or more runs every other game simply isn’t sustainable over a 162-game season. Regression is inevitable; the question is how the team responds when the bats cool down or the bullpen is asked to carry more weight.

Amid all this, rookie third baseman Cam Smith continues to shine. Just a few months into his major league career, Smith is producing at a level that suggests he’s not just a key piece of the future — he’s already one of the team’s most valuable players. His batting average sits just a point behind Jose Altuve’s, and his OPS is even higher. If the Astros were forced to choose two players to build around long-term, factoring in youth and contract status, the logical duo might be Smith and breakout pitcher Hunter Brown.

So what about the big picture? Is this team a true World Series contender?

Oddsmakers currently have Houston with the seventh-best odds to win it all, and only the Yankees and Tigers rank higher among American League teams. The core is still there, the experience is undeniable, and if the pitching continues to hold — especially with the anticipated return of Spencer Arrighetti and a healthy McCullers — the Astros have every reason to believe they’ll be in the mix deep into October.

But that’s a big “if.” The ceiling is still high, and with Cam Smith emerging as a star in real time, this team might just have another gear. Whether they can reach it when the competition stiffens, that remains to be seen.

There's so much more to cover! Don't miss the video below as we examine the topics above and much, much more!

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