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CLIPPERS CHOOSE REST
COLUMBIANA -- Columbiana postponed Wednesday’s boys and girls soccer matches at Newton Falls due to heat and safety concerns.
The Clipper girls soccer team was set to play its third game in three days on Wednesday.
The games will be made up at a later date.
LEOPARDS TOP BRANCH
BELOIT -- Louisville beat West Branch 4-1 on Wednesday in tennis action.
West Branch is 2-5 and hosts Southeast today.
FIRST SINGLES: Cailyn Brink (W) def. Paige Bears, 7-6, retirement
SECOND SINGLES: Tatum Barlow (L) def. Sophia Hall, 6-0, 6-0
THIRD SINGLES: Alyssa Lirgg (L) def. Ava Cope, 6-0, 6-1
FIRST DOUBLES: Madison Elkins-Baylee Walker (L) def. Leah Irey-Addison Bloor, 6-2, 6-3
SECOND DOUBLES: Kayla Pauli-Ally Roberts (L) def. Landry Simon, Lauren Sanor, 6-2, 2-6, 6-4.
BRANCH IS 7-0
BELOIT -- West Branch’s girls soccer team was a 12-0 winner over Carrollton on Wednesday.
West Branch is 7-0 and 1-0 in the Eastern Buckeye Conference.
Cambrie Nezbeth, Hensley Biery and Elli Colian had two goals each for the Warriors. Alinee Bacconi, Emma Klingensmith, Iris Nezbeth, Bri Clark, Audrey Eaton and Regan Daley also scored.
Branch is at Minerva next Wednesday.
GUARDIANS BLANKED
CLEVELAND (AP) -- Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit a three-run homer and had a season-high five RBIs, Dylan Cease scattered four hits over six innings and the Toronto Blue Jays routed the Cleveland Guardians 11-0 on Wednesday night.
The Guardians remain in the third American League wild-card position, but their lead over Toronto, Baltimore and Texas was sliced to 1 1/2 games.
Cease (10-5), one of the top Cy Young Award candidates, struck out four without a walk and did not allow a runner past second base. The right-hander hasn’t lost since July 20, going 4-0 with a 1.38 ERA in eight starts.
Guerrero homered in the second against Joey Cantillo (9-8), capping a five-run inning that made it 6-0. The six-time All-Star, who went 3 for 4, has hit all eight of his home runs on the road.
Rookie Brett Bateman scored three times on Guerrero’s three hits, and Josh Smith belted a solo homer in the eighth off Carlos Hernández as Toronto evened the series at one win apiece.
Cease had his 19-start streak with at least seven strikeouts end, one short of the MLB record for a season by Curt Schilling in 1997 and Randy Johnson in 2001. Paul Sewald, Brendon Little and Braydon Fisher wrapped up the six-hitter.
Cantillo allowed a career-high nine runs in 5 1/3 innings, but five were unearned on an error by shortstop Angel Genao. Catcher Austin Hedges gave up one run in 1 2/3 innings for the Guardians.
Toronto has won four of its last five and is 21-13 since July 27. The 11-run victory margin was its second largest this season.
DEVERS CRUSHES BUCS
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Rafael Devers continued his hot hitting with his 32nd home run of the season and the San Francisco Giants scored twice in the 10th inning to defeat Pittsburgh 5-4 on Wednesday night, ending the Pirates’ four-game winning streak.
Devers had a solo shot with one out in the first inning to open the scoring a night after the Giants dropped a wild 13-12 decision in the series opener. The first baseman extended his hitting streak to 10 games by going 2 for 3 with two walks.
Bryce Eldridge’s RBI double down the left-field line in the 10th inning put the Giants ahead 4-3 and Turner Hill added a sacrifice fly. Both runs came off Camilo Doval (3-2), who led the NL with 39 saves for the Giants in 2023.
The Pirates had runners on first and second with two outs in the ninth. However, Hill made a sliding catch of Nick Gonzales’ sinking liner to left field to preserve the 3-3 tie.
The Pirates scored single runs in the seventh and eighth innings.
Jason Foley (2-1) pitched a scoreless ninth. Dylan Smith allowed the automatic runner to score in the 10th but closed it out for his fourth save.
The Giants scored twice off rookie Bubba Chandler in the fifth to break a 1-1 tie. Eldridge hit a sacrifice fly, and Hill had an RBI single.
Pirates rookie Esmerlyn Valdez drew a bases-loaded walk from Brandon Roupp with two outs in the fourth. Roupp allowed only one run and two hits in five innings. Chandler also pitched five innings and gave up three runs and five hits.
BUCKEYES TO PLAY AT LAMBEAU
GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) -- Lambeau Field will host college hockey for the first time in more than two decades when the Wisconsin men face Michigan and the Wisconsin women take on Ohio State in a Feb. 20 doubleheader.
Plans for the Travel Wisconsin Frozen Tundra Faceoff were announced Wednesday, four days before Wisconsin’s football team faces No. 4 Notre Dame at Lambeau Field.
The home stadium of the NFL’s Green Bay Packers last hosted a college hockey game in 2006, when the Wisconsin men beat Ohio State 4-2 in the inaugural Frozen Tundra Hockey Classic.
Wisconsin and Michigan have won a combined 15 national titles in men’s hockey, and both schools reached the Frozen Four last season. Michigan lost a semifinal in double overtime to Denver, which went on to beat Wisconsin in the championship game.
Wisconsin and Ohio State have played for the national title in women’s hockey each of the last four years. Wisconsin has won three of those four championship game matchups, including each of the last two.
USA READY FOR THE WORLD
BERLIN (AP) -- The U.S. women’s national team is short on practice time heading into a major competition where anything less than winning a gold medal is considered a failure.
The Americans will have to jell quickly if they hope to win a fifth straight FIBA women’s World Cup. The tournament begins Friday, when the U.S. plays China in one of eight games in Berlin.
The Americans already have had a couple of practices in Berlin since their staggered arrivals, marking the first time that the 12 players on the squad were together as a team. The U.S. is working in a bunch of young, new players like Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese and Paige Bueckers, with half the roster making its World Cup debut.
Having little practice time is nothing new to the Americans.
“It’s good to get the group together. It’s a new group. The beneficial thing about us is that even though we haven’t practiced with each other much, but we know our games really well because we scout each other every single day (in the WNBA),” veteran guard Chelsea Gray said. “So we know people’s strengths. I think basketball players, we compartmentalize better than anyone. So this is no different, we’re going to have to learn on the fly.”
They’ll have less time to get ready because this World Cup format is different from the 2022 one. With 16 teams competing in Germany instead of the 12 they had four years ago, each country will play only three games in the preliminary round, down from five in Australia. That gives the U.S. fewer games to figure out rotations and work on its on-court chemistry, but it does give them more rest time.