The Huskies gained some national attention last August when it was learned that trainers had decided to add chocolate milk as a regular part of the team's post-practice nutritional regimen. As the story linked notes, the Huskies required players to drink a small carton of fat-free chocolate milk following every practice.

UW sports performance coach Trent Greener said that he was satisfied enough with the results that the team will continue to drink chocolate milk this year, and in fact will extend its use past training camp and into the regular season.

"It looks like it can keep you hydrated a little bit better,'' Greener said last week.

Greener said it was hard to point to any one specific thing as a benefit of the use of chocolate milk last season just that he had a general idea that it seemed to work, a belief buoyed by previous studies.

Greener says chocolate milk is thought to be particularly effective in adding protein when players walk off the field right after completing a practice or work-out. He said chocolate milk appears to be more effective in some of its capabilities to replenish certain nutrients than sports drinks.

"We're going to make it a little bit bigger part of our program,'' Greener said.

UW quarterback Jake Locker played his final baseball game for the Bellingham Bells today and probably couldn't have asked for a better ending to his brief summer diversion.

Locker keyed a three-run rally in the bottom of the ninth that lifted the Bells to a 4-3 win, hitting a one-out double that put runners on second and third --- the other runner was cousin Brady Locker, in as a pinch-runner. Both then scored on a single that tied the game with two outs, and the winning run came home on a bases-loaded walk.

Locker went 3-4 in the game with a double --- his first since opening night --- and a stolen base.

Locker played 10 games for the Bells, starting nine, going 9-33 (.273) with one homer, two doubles, six runs scored and three runs batted in. He was also 4-5 on stolen bases and played only in center field defensively.

The Bells announced last week that Locker would not play any baseball games past this weekend to rest up for the beginning of UW's football camp Aug. 4.

The Bells are 12-15 in the West Coast Collegiate Baseball League.