Atlanta Daily World

One Homerun is All it Takes as Braves Succumb to Nationals' Zimmerman

The only home run of the evening and nearly perfect pitching from Jordan Zimmerman would be all the Nationals needed to take down Paul Maholm and the Atlanta Braves 2-0 Wednesday night, ending a five game winning streak against the division rival this season.

Wednesday night was Washington right hander Jordan Zimmermann's first season start against the Braves. With the injury struggles of star pitcher Stephen Strasburg minimizing Washington's production, Zimmermann (5-1) has become the most consistent starter in the Nationals' rotation.

"He's pretty good," Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said of Zimmerman. "He's a guy that commands his fast ball. He came after us so good, we couldn't get to him."

By the top of the seventh inning, the 22,460 in attendance at Turner Field only seemed interested in successfully completing the wave around the stadium, as the Braves had only managed to get two men on base by that point of the game.

The game, the third of a four game series, was locked at zero until the top of the fourth inning. Maholm walked Washington outfielder Bryce Harper on a full count, only to have the next batter, shortstop Ian Desmond, bat next and homer to centerfield on a 1-1 count.

Maholm has taken a precipitous drop since starting the season a perfect 3-0. The lefty has now dropped three in a row and is now at .500 (3-3) for the season.

"Obviously, my pitching wasn't terrible, but it wasn't what I wanted," Maholm told the Daily World. "I wasn't happy with walking Bryce because I think I had him 1-2, but it was only two hits and a home run. You get over it, take the positives and move on."

The Nationals (14-14) still are far from their 98-64 marker last year, which gave them the best record in baseball and the National League East division title.
Prior to the game, Atlanta was 5-0 against the Nationals this season, also posting a 9-0 record against them dating back to August. The Braves dropped to 17-10 with the loss.

Atlanta currently holds a 3 1/2-game lead over the Nationals for first place in the NL East divisional race.
The loss is only the third at Turner Field this season, with the last win coming Tuesday.

During Tuesday evening's 8-1 win, Braves pitcher Tim Hudson became the 110th pitcher in Major League Baseball history to reach 200 career wins. Hudson topped off the win with a third inning home run, the third of his career. Hudson is now one of three active pitchers with 200 wins or more, the New York Yankees' Andy Pettitte (248) and Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Roy Halladay (201).

With Hudson now in the 200 Win Club, all eyes will be focused on the Yankees' CC Sabathia, who currently has 195 wins.

The Braves enter May not quite as dominant as they were at the beginning of the season. After a 12-2 start, Atlanta slumped to 2-7 in mid-April before recovering to take the first two of the four game series against the Nationals.

Although Atlanta may be lacking firepower with the absence of Jason Heyward, who is still out after an appendectomy last week, the Braves are still strong with left fielder Justin Upton's current slugging streak.

Upton hit a major league-leading 12 homeruns in the month of April, the second most in MLB history during that span. But 11 of his homers have been solo shots with no man on base. Upton was 1-3 on Tuesday and failed to score a run.

"We just didn't get it going tonight," said Upton. "For the most part he was pounding us with that fast ball all night and we got beat by him."

Zimmerman ended the night eight strikeouts in eight innings as opposed to the struggling Maholm, who managed to throw four strikeouts in eight innings.

Braves closer Luis Avilan took over for Maholm to keep Atlanta in the game, but after two hours and 15 minutes, the save went to Nationals closer Rafael Soriano, his eighth of the season.

After the conclusion of the Braves series with the Nats, the team will play host to the New York Mets, May 3-5. This will be the second series of a 56 game stretch in 59 days for Atlanta, 34 games at home, 22 on the road.

Philips Arena Crowd Powers Hawks to Series-Tying Win

The four-game series between the Atlanta Hawks and the Indiana Pacers has been as disjointed and schizophrenic as any in the 2013 NBA playoffs. There has been one constant, though: the dominance of the home team.

In Monday night's 102-91 victory it was the Hawks' turn to get the home-court boost and they took advantage, riding the tidal wave of emotion from the Philips Arena crowd to a series-tying 'W.' After losing two games in Indiana in unimpressive fashion, the Hawks have tied the series 2-2.

"We're definitely feeding off the crowd," said Hawks coach Larry Drew. "That's why home court is so important. It's a great feeling when the crowd is behind you and into it. In the fourth [quarter] the crowd was really into it and our guys fed off it."

The crowd may truly have swung the game on a few occasions.

Before the start of the game, Philips Arena was around half full and by tip-off, the arena was still filled with open seats. The lack of fan support seemed to take the air out of the Hawks. They let the Pacers jump out to a 21-14 lead in the opening period before closing the gap and eventually taking the lead into the second, 22-21.

By the second quarter the full 18,241 had taken their seats and the Hawks kicked it into gear. Josh Smith, who got the start at small forward on the evening, seemed particularly motivated by the energy, leading the team with 10 points in the quarter on 4-6 shooting, and pulling in five of his 11 rebounds for the evening.

The Hawks cruised through the second stanza with 35 big points, almost double the Pacers output. Smith and the hot-shooting Kyle Korver scored as many points (19) as the entire Pacers team that period to take a 57-40 lead at halftime. Korver was red hot from beyond the arc and finished with 19 points and was 5-8 from three-point range for the game.

The third quarter again showed the impact of the fans, but on the other end. As the crowd slowly crept back into their seats, the Hawks quickly lost a grip on the lead.

A "hot seat" fan promotion inside Philips typified the Hawks' troubles. One fan was set to win $250 if a Hawk scored a three pointer within two minutes, starting at 7:13 in the quarter. Not only did the Hawks not hit a three-pointer, the team didn't even score a field goal until the 1:34 mark of the third.

Atlanta went 3-20 shooting in the quarter, 0-8 from beyond the arc and 8-16 on free throws. It was painful to watch.

"We were very, very stagnant in the third quarter," said Drew. "Didn't execute our offense and we became our worst enemy. I was happy to see that my guys maintained their composure, but it was nothing they were doing, it was all us."

The Pacers used the Hawks abysmal quarter to get right back into the game, wining the quarter 22-12 and knocking what had been a 17 point halftime lead down to a manageable 69-62.

While the run allowed the Pacers to get back into the ballgame, it proved not to be enough.

"The third [quarter] really should've been a 30-35 point quarter for us," said Pacers forward David West. "We gave them too many opportunities so we were fighting uphill, spending a lot of energy trying to get back in the game."

That uphill battle in the fourth quarter on Atlanta's home court proved to be too much for the Pacers. West and company were stymied by an impressive defensive run led by Smith, forward Al Horford and Korver, who picked up his first block of the postseason, and the team was able to turn offense into defense.

After letting Indiana get within 5, at 92-87, the Hawks got a 19-foot jump shot from Horford and a breakaway dunk on a fast break from Smith to put the game out of reach with 1:07 remaining.

After the thunderous jam that forced Pacers coach Frank Vogel to take a timeout, the College Park native remained on the court and urged the Atlanta faithful to get on their feet. They obliged him.

"I don't think they realize what they do for us," Horford said of the crowd. "Josh played big minutes for us and I can tell you that he was tired, but when the fans are supporting us it makes it easier for us to go through it. The home fans have been a big part of [the past two games]."

Smith had a career high with 29 points and added 4 assists and 3 steals to go along with his 11 rebounds.
The series continues with Game 5 Wednesday in Indiana. Game 6 will be back in Atlanta Friday.

3 Morehouse Basketball Players and Freshman Football Player Accused in Rape Cases

UPDATE:

Four Morehouse College athletes have been accused of sexual assault, according to arrest warrants obtained by WSB and information discovered by the Atlanta Daily World.

A source tells the Daily World that the reported incident happened in December before students left campus for winter break at a Morehouse residential living facility for the school's upperclassmen. The building has a total capacity of 372 students and a number of the accused athletes lived there.

The alleged victim is an 18-year-old female student at Spelman who says she was held against her will inside a room at the residential community on the night of the alleged incident. According to Morehouse College Police arrest warrants and incident reports, the three allegedly had non-consenting sex with the Spelman student who was under the influence of an unknown substance.

“She wasn’t able to communicate or answer questions,” said the source who told the Daily World that he spoke with her following the incident.

The four suspects are three juniors and a senior who have played on the College’s football and basketball teams. The basketball players named were Malcom Jamal Frank, a junior; Tevin Mgbo, also a junior; and senior Chukwudi Ndudikwa. The named football player was Lucien Kidd, who was previously identified as a freshman, but played for Morehouse his freshman year in 2010. All of them face rape charges, except for Mgbo.

In a statement issued Wednesday afternoon, school officials acknowledged that there were “two alleged assault incidents involving Morehouse students,” in March and that the school is working with the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office.

“After the information was brought to the attention of campus police, the suspects were identified and arrested,” according to the statement.

“While we cannot speak to specifics of these cases, our policies and procedures call for disciplinary actions against students who violate our code of conduct and the law, up to and including dismissal from the college,” read the statement from the Morehouse College Office of Communications.

None of the three basketball players logged significant minutes for the Maroon Tigers during the 2012-13 season, but all three saw playing time in the school's SIAC Championship game loss to Benedict College in March.

Kidd is listed on the football team's website only for his freshman year. He did not participate in any of the team’s games that season.

Website Jailbase.com reports that Mgbo was arrested on April 11, 2013 for aggravated sodomy, disorderly conduct and kidnapping. No report of the arrest was issued from the college in regard to his arrest or the arrest of any other Morehouse student athletes. The website reports that Mgbo is still in custody but lists his bond at $0.

Frank and Ndudikwa were each charged with sodomy and multiple counts of rape, according to police records.

At least two of the four accused are from Georgia. Mgbo graduated from Clarke Central High School in Athens, Frank graduated from Miller Grove High School in Decatur and Ndudikwa is a transfer from Georgia State University, according to the Maroon Tigers official website.

Atlanta Hawks Release Statement on Jason Collins

The following statements are from Atlanta Hawks Managing Partner/NBA Governor Bruce Levenson and President of Basketball Operations/General Manager Danny Ferry on behalf of the team:

"We have great respect for Jason and his message today. Creating an environment where we support, respect, and accept our players' individual rights is very important to us," said Hawks Managing Partner and NBA Governor Bruce Levenson. "Jason represented everything that we look for as a member of the Atlanta Hawks and we are proud he wore our jersey."

"Our focus will always be on bringing in players that can contribute to the greater good of the Atlanta Hawks and ensuring that we create the most accepting, respectful, and productive environment for players to succeed," said Hawks President of Basketball Operations and General Manager Danny Ferry.