Games for Jennie Finch and the U.S. softball team will be televised at 9 p.m. Tucson time on CNBC, except for the final, which will air in the early hours on USA.

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Mike Candrea's USA Olympic softball team completed its five-month, 60-game, Bound for Beijing Tour on Saturday night in Irvine, Calif. By the time the Olympics conclude, you may be as bleary-eyed as Candrea.

Because there is a 15-hour difference between Beijing and Tucson, and because softball is not priority programming, the Olympics gold medal game is scheduled to be broadcast by the USA network during a window starting at 2 a.m., Tucson time on Aug. 21.

Most of the other softball games involving Tucson's Tairia Mims Flowers, and ex-Arizona Wildcats Jennie Finch, Caitlin Lowe and Lovie Jung will begin at 9 p.m., in Tucson and be broadcast exclusively on CNBC.

Those who wish to watch Tucsonan Lacey Nymeyer swim for two gold medals will be early risers. NBC has made swimming a marquee sport and will televise live all 32 swimming finals between 8-11 a.m., in Tucson. Programming will be randomly repeated during the mostly taped prime-time telecasts from 5 to 8:30 p.m. in Tucson.

Unfortunately, Tucsonan Bernard Lagat will not get live coverage as he attempts to win the 1,500 and 5,000 track and field double gold medal. NBC will not broadcast any track and field events live, with the exception of the marathon.

Former Salpointe Catholic basketball/baseball player Zack Fregosi hit .333 as a senior catcher at Trinity University in San Antonio this season. He made the Southern Collegiate Athletic Association all-tournament team by hitting .400, and is on course to earn a degree in finance.

Fregosi's catching skills are such that Boston Red Sox right-hander Josh Beckett, who spends the off-season in the area, worked out with Trinity three years ago and soon made Fregosi his permanent off-season catcher. The two became such good friends that ESPN The Magazine did a feature story on their union last week.

"Beckett is a class act,'' said Zack's father, Ralph Fregosi, a UA College of Medicine professor in physiology and neurobiology. "I have several pictures of Josh signing autographs at Trinity's youth baseball camp, which Zack works in the summer.''

Beckett and Fregosi were together again over the All-Star break, working out in San Antonio. Fregosi hopes to be a student assistant coach/recruiting coordinator at Trinity next season.

The untimely shoulder injury to former Canyon del Oro High School and UA outfielder Shelley Duncan probably kept him off the USA Olympic baseball team. He was one of 60 players under consideration when injured in early July with the Yankees' Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Class AAA team. Tucsonan Casey Daigle, a Class AAA pitcher in the Minnesota Twins system, was also on the final list of 60 for the Olympics. The ex-Sidewinders and Diamondbacks right-hander would have been a remarkable story in Beijing, a husband-wife duo with softball's Jennie Finch. … Sad news: Former Sabino High School pitcher Jamie Vermilyea, who pitched in the major leagues for the Blue Jays last season, has been released by Toronto. Vermilyea, who lost velocity off his fastball after a shoulder injury, had a 7.55 ERA for Class AA New Hampshire until he was released last week. … One reason Arizona's 2001 Final Four center Loren Woods has bolted from the NBA's Houston Rockets and returned to Europe is that Woods balked when asked to play on Houston's summer league team with rookies and free agents. The Rockets owe him about $300,000 for 2008-09 anyway. … Brandon Jennings' EuroLeague season home games will be played in a 3,500-seat arena. Here's the type of competition he'll face: Ex-Wildcat guard Will Bynum last week signed as a free agent for Bologna in the same Italian league. Bynum first, however, will get a crack at making the Detroit Pistons in October.

Tucson's premier amateur golfer, David McDaniel, is surely a favorite entering the Arizona Amateur that begins Tuesday at Troon Country Club in Scottsdale. Tucsonans Tyler Neal and Eric Rustand could emerge as factors in the six-day event. McDaniel will then go to the U.S. Amateur after qualifying with back-to-back 66s — that's a total of 12 under par — in qualifying last week at Oro Valley Country Club. I seriously believe McDaniel has a chance to win the U.S. Amateur; his chronic back condition will benefit by the 16-day lag between the Arizona and U.S. amateurs. A year ago, he went straight from one event to the next without any break. … Back in Tucson after a terrific coaching career at New Mexico, former Tucson High School football/baseball standout Rich Alday is beginning a second career as a counselor in the Sunnyside School District. "I might even coach at the middle school," said Alday, who started the Pima College baseball team from scratch in 1973 and won 496 games there. He then coached 515 winning games at New Mexico over 18 seasons, and was twice the WAC coach of the year. … UA football coach Mike Stoops recruited Texas schoolboy defensive end Braylon Broughton in the winter of 2007 and raved about Broughton's potential. Unfortunately, he could not academically qualify at Arizona. Instead, he enrolled at TCU. At the Mountain West Conference media day last week, TCU coach Gary Patterson said Brayton "will be an impact player,'' and in fact was timed in 4.55 seconds over 40 yards. Oh, how the defensive line-challenged Wildcats could use Brayton.

Arizona's 2008-09 home basketball schedule, highlighted by Kansas' Dec. 23 appearance at McKale Center, did not get an in-demand opponent for the Preseason NIT. The four-team pod that will play in Tucson, along with the UA, includes Alabama-Birmingham, Santa Clara and Arkansas State, which all but guarantees the Wildcats a berth in the NIT's final foursome at Madison Square Garden. It is possible that none of the 16 teams in the NIT field will be ranked in the Top 25 preseason poll. The four hosts — Purdue, Boston College, Arizona and Oklahoma — are not expecting to field vintage clubs. … Sahuaro High School swimmer Caitlin Leverenz is ranked No. 1 in the 200 breast stroke entering the U.S. Open that begins Tuesday in Minneapolis. The Leverenz family received some other terrific news this month: Caitlin's older brother, Derek Leverenz, was selected as one of six Southern Arizonans as a National Merit Scholarship winner. The University High School grad said he will study physics at the UA. … Former UA assistant football coach Bob Bockrath, the No. 2 man in the Arizona athletic department during the Cedric Dempsey years, has retired as the dean of Yavapai College's PE department and director of athletics. Bocky initially arrived in Tucson as an assistant coach on Jim Young's staff in 1973 and had a wonderful career as an AD at Alabama, Texas Tech and Cal.

Former Sunnyside High School right-hander Luis Cota is finally back in baseball. After signing a $1.05 million bonus with Kansas City three years ago, Cota has been idle for almost two seasons with a shoulder injury. He returned to rookie-league Idaho Falls last month and was promoted to Class A Burlington (Iowa) last week. ... Luis' brother, ex-Sunnyside, Pima College and Sidewinders first baseman Jesus Cota, is playing for Saltillo in the Mexican League. Jesus is hitting .268 through 94 games. … Nine-time UA NCAA swimming champion Ryk Neethling left for South Korea last week as part of South Africa's Olympic team. Before he can attempt to win another gold medal in the 400-meter freestyle relay, Neethling was visited in Tucson by the casting director of the TV reality series "The Bachelor." Neethling declined a chance to appear on the September debut of the show, saying he will probably return to South Africa after the Olympics to look after his many business pursuits. … At the conclusion of the Arena Football League season, Tucsonan James MacPherson had thrown a mind-boggling 87 touchdown passes for the Grand Rapids Rampage. The former Mountain View High School QB, who turns 28 in September, completed 68 percent of his passes. It wouldn't be a shock if he, a la Kurt Warner, gets another crack at the NFL someday. … Saw an unfamiliar photo on the Internet of Josh Pastner wearing a Memphis Tigers T-shirt. How's life in Memphis? Pastner was the finisher as Memphis got a commitment from guard Nolan Dennis of the Dallas area, beating Texas and UCLA in the process. Dennis is ranked as high as No. 17 overall in the class of 2009 by some services.

In the end, UA senior Lara Jackson will not be going to the Beijing Olympics because the USA Swimming system failed her.

After finishing third in the 50 free-style, .06 of a second behind runner-up Jessica Hardy at the Olympic trials, Jackson learned late Wednesday that Hardy had tested positive for the banned substance Clenbuterol, which essentially improves lung capacity.

But the anti-doping agency used by USA Swimming dawdled; it did not process Hardy's July 4 test until July 21. By then, it was too late to move Jackson into Hardy's spot in China. If nothing else, USA Swimming should learn that a list of three or four alternates should be processed, especially when time between the trials and the Olympic processing deadline is so tight.

It is unfortunate and unfair that Jackson has to pay for the mistakes of others.