Cavs open Saturday

CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Cavaliers will open the NBA playoffs by hosting the Toronto Raptors at 1 p.m. Saturday.

The Cavaliers (52-3) are the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference, while Toronto (46-36) is the fifth seed. The Raptors swep the season series 3-0 (by scores of 110-99, 126-113 and 112-101). But the Cavaliers have won 11 of their last 14 games and are 35-14 since Dec. 29.

Saturday’s game will be televised on Prime Video.

Golf benefits Indians

SALINEVILLE — The annual Southern Local Golf Outing will be held at 8 a.m. May 23 at Turkana Golf Course. Teams of four can register for $320 by May 14. The event includes lunch at the turn, a dinner catered by Bad Axe BBQ, cash prizes, hole prizes and raffle baskets. All proceeds will benefit the Southern Local golf program. To enter or for more information, call (330) 679-8921 or (330) 679-2343 or email gerard.grimm@slindians.org.

Leetonia seeks HOFers

LEETONIA — The Leetonia Athletic Hall of Fame is now accepting nominations for the Class of 2026. Induction of the new members will be held the weekend of September 4-5.

Nomination forms are available on the school website www.leetonia.k12.oh.us and the administration office. Deadline to nominate is May 31. Nomination forms should be mailed to Leetonia Athletic Hall of Fame 450 Walnut Street, Leetonia, Ohio 44431.

Martinez, Rocchio go deep for Guardians

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Angel Martinez and Brayan Rocchio homered as the Cleveland Guardians beat the St. Louis Cardinals 9-3 on Monday night.

Gavin Williams (2-1) allowed two runs in five-plus innings for the win. He gave up five hits, walked two and struck out four.

Jordan Walker’s major league-best eighth home run leading off the sixth ended Williams’ night. Walker became the fifth player in Cardinals history to hit at least eight homers in the first 16 games of a season, joining Stan Musial (1954), Mark McGwire (1998), Scott Rolen (2004) and Albert Pujols (2006).

Martinez gave the Guardians a 1-0 lead in the first inning, sending Matthew Liberatore’s curveball 398 feet over the left-field wall.

Daniel Schneemann’s two-run single sparked a Guardians rally in the fourth. Austin Hedges followed with a sacrifice fly to give Cleveland a 4-1 lead.

Rocchio made it 6-1 with a two-run homer off Justin Bruihl in the sixth that left his bat at 108.1 mph, according to Statcast.

Steven Kwan capped a three-run outburst in the eighth with a two-run single. Five of the nine Guardians batters reached safely at least twice.

Liberatore (0-1) needed a season-high 105 pitches to get through five innings. He allowed four runs on six hits, walked three and struck out two.

Alec Burleson’s RBI single drew the Cardinals even at 1 in the first, capping a string of three straight two-strike singles off Williams.

Orioles manager takes line drive off his face

BALTIMORE (AP) — Craig Albernaz was struck in the face by a line drive, then returned after receiving treatment to embrace the guy who sent the baseball whistling into the dugout.

That’s because Orioles second baseman Jeremiah Jackson did more than just injure his manager. He also hit a grand slam that helped Baltimore erase a six-run deficit in a 9-7 win over Arizona on Monday night.

Turns out, Albernaz wasn’t seriously hurt by the liner that struck him in the left cheek. But he was immediately taken into the tunnel and treated by the team’s medical staff.

“He’s doing good. Just as a precaution, he’s going to get it scanned,” said bench coach Donnie Ecker, who pinch-hit for Albernaz at the postgame news conference.

Jackson, meanwhile, was delighted to see Albernaz emerge from the tunnel to give him a big hug after the sixth-inning grand slam that cut a 7-2 deficit to a single run.

UCLA has five in first round

NEW YORK (AP) — The party isn’t over for UCLA’s national champions. The Bruins had another big celebration at the WNBA draft.

Lauren Betts, Gabriela Jaquez and Kiki Rice were taken with picks Nos. 4-6 on Monday night, barely a week after helping the Bruins win their first NCAA championship. UCLA became the first team to have five first-round selections, and the first with six players selected in one draft.

In a whirlwind stretch where the Bruins were feted from coast to coast, the good times hit their peak at the draft, where the best team this season took its place among the best of all time.

“It’s really hard to sum up because there’s so much,” Jaquez said. “I think that we’re just on a high right now. We just won the national championship. A lot of us have also graduated college, which is a huge step and something to be super proud of, especially at UCLA. And then we got to go to Jimmy Kimmel, a Laker game, Clipper game, dance, have the celebration at Pauley Pavilion. We went on ‘Good Morning America’ this morning. Obviously, a lot of us are here at the draft tonight being drafted. It’s just been a special moment.”

The 6-foot-7 Betts was selected by the Washington Mystics, with Jaquez then taken by the Chicago Sky. The expansion Toronto Tempo made Rice their first draft pick with the No. 6 selection.

With coach Cori Close sitting up front near her players, the Bruins kept having reasons to stand up and cheer. They were going so quickly that after Angela Dugalic was taken at No. 9 to join Betts in Washington, she worried she’d miss witnessing more big moments for her teammates.

Betts said she wasn’t surprised, having watched how hard her teammates worked.

“These are like my sisters, and getting to watch your family do something like that is amazing,” Betts said. “But I mean, this team is just so special. We knew the type of players that we had on the team, and to really just have this night really showcase all of the things that we’ve worked on all season is just amazing.”

UCLA went 37-1, routing South Carolina on April 5 in the title game — with their seniors scoring all of their points in the Final Four — and then made WNBA history when Gianna Kneepkens was drafted by Connecticut with the 15th and final pick of the first round. Close has said she doesn’t care about records, but that changed Monday.

“Well, I mean, I sort of do care about this one actually, because No. 1, it helps us in recruiting. I think we’ve really taken a developmental approach to this and to see it come to fruition the way it has is obviously really gratifying,” she said.

“Just to be a part of an historic night and for them to be so excited for each other, that’s sort of representative of how they’ve been all year long. But it’s a pretty cool record to be a part of.”

UConn had the previous record of four first-round selections — all in the first six picks — in 2002. Sue Bird was No. 1, Swin Cash No. 2, Asjha Jones No. 4 and Tamika Williams No. 6 from a team that went 39-0.

Tennessee, in 1999 and again in 2008, had five players selected in the draft, as did Notre Dame in 2019 and South Carolina in 2023. But those players weren’t all taken in the first round.

“I think it definitely demonstrates that being a selfless team, that maybe giving up individual stats for team success, that you can win with that formula. You can still be successful. You can win at a high level as a team but you can also achieve individual goals,” Rice said.

“We knew we all wanted to go to the WNBA. We all wanted to be pros, but that wasn’t the only focus during the season. It was winning, it was giving to each other, it was how can we be the best team possible. In the process of doing that, we still got the results that we wanted to at the end of the day, and that’s something that is really special.”

Charlisse Leger-Walker was taken by the Sun in the second round, set to remain teammates with Kneepkens.

The Bruins went to dinner together while in New York and were going to spend more time together after the draft. But Kneepkens said they wouldn’t be saying their goodbyes yet.

“Yeah, those girls mean the most to me, and good thing we live in this day and age and we have phones,” she said. “So hopefully we’ll keep in touch, and obviously we’ll see each other around.”