Lake Center Christian 2, Lisbon 1

HARTVILLE — Lisbon struggled on offense as it fell to Lake Center Christian, 2-1, in baseball action Friday.

Haiden Colvin had a double and went 1 for 3 at the plate for the Blue Devils.

Lisbon starting pitcher Tyler Welsh pitched two innings and surrendered three hits, two unearned runs, and one walk.

LI: 0-0-0-0-1-0-0 – 1-3-2

LC: 0-1-1-0-0-0-x – 2-7-0

Raiders get 22nd win

JEFFERSON — South Range put its feet on the gas pedal during its 9-3 win at Jefferson in softball action Friday.

Bree Kohler had a triple as she went 2 for 4 with two RBIs for the Raiders (22-3).

Juli Stachowicz went 2 for 3 and tallied an RBI. Teammates Jillian Strecansky and Samantha Susany each homered and went 2 for 4 with a pair of RBIs in the win.

Madison Dado was 2 for 2 with two runs scored for the Raiders.

South Range’s Mallory Vidman also had two RBIs.

Stachowicz pitched a complete game and struck out eight while allowing three runs and eight hits for the winners.

SR: 2-2-0-0-1-0-4 – 9-13-1

JE: 1-0-0-0-0-2-0 – 3- 8-4

SR – Stachowicz, wp (7IP, 3ER, 8H, 5K).

Cubs down Pirates

CHICAGO (AP) — Zach Davies allowed five hits in seven scoreless innings, Rex Brothers got his first save in eight years and the Chicago Cubs held on to beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 3-2 on Friday, extending their winning streak to four.

Joc Pederson had three hits and an RBI for the Cubs, who were coming off a three-game sweep of the World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers.

Javier Baez and David Bote had two hits each as Chicago got back to .500 at 16-16.

Davies (2-2), acquired from San Diego in a seven-player deal in December, had his best outing for the Cubs on a chilly day at Wrigley Field, with the wind blowing in. The slender right-hander limited the Pirates to five singles while walking one and hitting a batter, and he lowered his ERA from 8.22 ERA to 6.30.

Davies consistently got ahead of hitters with solid fastball command. He kept the Pirates off balance with weak swings, got quick outs and limited his pitch count.

“It sets you in such a better position to navigate each at-bat,” Davies said. “You’re ahead in the count and you throw from a place of confidence. You don’t have to throw over the middle of the plate.”

Davies worked to stay low-key.

“I learned at a young age that emotions don’t help me,” he said. “I’m a thinker. I try to set that aside and focus on the next play.”

Pittsburgh has lost seven of eight and is last in the NL Central at 13-18. The Pirates have six runs in their last five games.

Colin Morin and Jacob Stallings had two hits each. Pittsburgh rallied for two runs off relievers Andrew Chafin and Ryan Tepera in the ninth — and loaded the bases with two outs.

Todd Frazier had a run-scoring a groundout, and Ka’ai Tom had an RBI single.

Pinch-hitter Wilmer Difo dumped a bloop single into center off Brothers, who then hit Adam Frazier with a pitch to load the bases. But Brothers got Bryan Reynolds to fly out on a full-count pitch to end it, and earn his first save since Sept. 29, 2013, when he earned his 19th that season, for Colorado at the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Cubs manager David Ross admitted he was trying to work around a tired bullpen. Usual closer Craig Kimbrel wasn’t available.

“I was nervous for Rex and our group, but he came through” Ross said. “I think I get more nervous than the guys on the field. I thought that was a real nice performance today from Rex to get the final out.”

Pittsburgh loaded the bases in the seventh, but Davies fielded Frazier’s tapper with his bare hand and got a forceout at the plate. Tom followed with a comebacker, and Davies started an inning-ending double play.

“Obviously, the game ends 3-2, and we had another opportunity in the seventh and just didn’t capitalize,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “We put ourselves in a position to win the game and we came up a hit short, but that inning was unfortunate that we couldn’t at least get one.”

Trevor Cahill (1-4) allowed three runs — two earned — and eight hits in five innings. The right-hander could only chuckle as he got the Pirates first hit in the third.

With Tom at first, Cahill fouled off two sacrifice bunt attempts behind 0-2 in the coubt. He pushed his third attempt to the right side and past charging Cubs infielders to reach base.

Pederson trotted home with an unearned run in the first when Phillip Evans dropped Anthony Rizzo’s fly near the close-in right-field sidewall.

Pederson had an RBI single in the second, and Matt Duffy hit a sacrifice fly to short center against the wind in the third.

CUBS ROSTER MOVE

Chicago designated LHP Kyle Ryan for assignment and recalled LHP Jason Adam from Triple-A Iowa.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Pirates: Manager Craig Shelton expects RHP Chad Kuhl (right shoulder discomfort) to throw live batting practice within the next few days. … 3B Ke’Bryan Hayes (left wrist strain) has resumed swinging a bat, but there’s no timetable for his return. Hayes hit .376 in 24 games as a rookie last year, but has been out since the second game of this season.

Cubs: Placed CF Ian Happ (bruised ribs) on the 10-day injured list retroactive to May 4. Happ was out of the lineup for the fourth consecutive game after being taken from the field in a cart following a collision with 2B Nico Hoerner during Sunday’s loss at Cincinnati. … The Cubs selected the contract of OF Nick Martini from Iowa. Martini, from suburban Crystal Lake, pinch hit for Davies in the seventh and flied out.

UP NEXT

Pirates RHP Wil Crowe (0-1, 4.66) takes the mound against Cubs RHP Trevor Williams (2-2, 6.00) on Saturday. Williams will face Pittsburgh, his former team, for the second time.

Creed tackles Darlington

DARLINGTON, S.C. (AP) — Reigning NASCAR Truck Series champion Sheldon Creed won for the first time this season, moving past Ben Rhodes on a restart three laps from the end and holding on for victory at Darlington Raceway on Friday night.

Creed raced to his sixth career victory. He’d been shutout since he won the close the 2020 season at Phoenix and capture the truck championship.

He wasn’t much of a factor until the final laps as crashes — including a 17-car pileup with 30 laps left — knocked out several stronger cars including points leader John Hunter Nemechek.

“I don’t want to call it a relief,” Creed said about his first win of the season. “But I think it’s a return to the right direction.”

Creed was best at Darlington when it counted.

He passed Rhodes on a restart seven laps from the end and had some separation until a spinout by Danny Bohn brought out the last of 12 cautions.

Creed took the outside slot and stayed in front of Rhodes for the victory.

“I was really aggressive on restarts,” Creed said. “I’m sure I didn’t make many friends tonight. But that’s what it takes.”

Rhodes was second followed by Carson Hocevar, Matt Crafton and Johnny Sauter. Nemechek, who fell from first to 21st after the wreck, rallied to end in eighth.

Rhodes called it a bizarre race, especially and contenders dropped out and caution laps increased in the final stage. But it was up to those remaining to overcome the problems and push on to end.

“This is a challenging track,” he said. “Step up or step out. That’s what I think.”

Nemechek had the strongest vehicle on the track, winning the second stage and leading 66 of the first 117 laps. But he got caught up in a restart wreck — it appeared that Stewart Friesen turned Corey Heim to begin things — that caused a 12-minute, red-flag stoppage to sort out and clean up.

“What the heck, I was just pushed too hard” by Austin Hill, Nemechek told his KBM team on the radio. Hill countered that leader Nemechek spun his tires on the restart to clog things up.

No matter. The multi-truck accident that collected 17 vehicles also caught up two of the three KBM drivers in Nemechek and Chad Smith, ending the team’s try at a record-setting sixth consecutive series win.

Team owner Kyle Busch won the truck race at Kansas last week to match the record accomplished by Roush Racing in 1999 and 2000 and Kevin Harvick Inc. in 2009.

Nemechek took the blame after the race with his Tweet, “Gave it away.”

While the wreck ruined the chances of several top contenders, Creed pointed his car in the perfect direction to avoid the accident. He then felt he’d have something left at the end.

“I started to feel really good” about his chances at victory, he thought.

Creed had a chance at winning here last September, leading with three laps remaining when an accident forced overtime. Creed went into the pits to change tires and could not catch up as Rhodes took the win.

“We got one back here,” he said. “What a cool race track.”