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Final Four minus good sports

PHOENIX (AP) — UConn’s Geno Auriemma was not a happy man. With the officiating. With his team’s performance. With South Carolina coach Dawn Staley. The Huskies coach ripped into the officiating crew during a live TV interview and then got into a heated argument with Staley in the final seconds of their 62-48 loss to the Gamecocks in the national semifinals of the women’s Final Four on Friday night. A minute later, he stalked off the floor alone, stewing over the nightmare performance. “There were six fouls called that quarter — all of them against us,” Auriemma said ...

Future is now for Pirates

PITTSBURGH (AP) — All of the emotions were there, from joy to jitters and everything in between. Well, almost everything. The one thing Konnor Griffin didn’t feel when the Pittsburgh Pirates shortstop — all 19 years and 344 days of him — ahead of his big league debut Friday against the Baltimore Orioles was shock. “I’m ready for this,” Griffin said a few hours before stepping onto the field at PNC Park as a professional for the first time. Certainly looks that way. All of Griffin’s considerable physical gifts were on display over 2 hours and 44 electric minutes ...

DeLauter on a record pace

CLEVELAND (AP) — Chase DeLauter has developed a knack for memorable openers. DeLauter became the first Cleveland player to make his major league debut in last year’s AL Wild Card series against Detroit. On March 26 at Seattle, DeLauter became the seventh player since 1889 to hit two home runs in his first major league regular-season game. So, it wasn’t a surprise that DeLauter achieved another milestone on Friday. His two-run homer in the seventh inning of the Guardians’ 4-1 victory over the Chicago Cubs made him the first Cleveland player since Joe Charboneau in 1980 to ...

Italians will be left at home for third straight Cup

Qualifying is done. The lineup is complete. The countdown to the biggest-ever World Cup is on, with the 48-team tournament in North America a veritable hodgepodge of stellar names and unheralded upstarts. Here’s a look at what we learned from a qualification campaign that lasted 2 1/2 years, featured 2,527 goals, and finished Tuesday with six nations booking the final spots at soccer’s biggest event. You can qualify for the World Cup without winning a qualifying match Sweden appears to have done the impossible. How, people might ask, can a team that didn’t win a match ...

Skenes looks more himself in win over Reds

CINCINNATI — Paul Skenes quickly shrugged off the shortest start of his dominant major league career. Pirates fans shouldn’t worry either after Skenes returned to form on Wednesday. The reigning NL Cy Young winner allowed one run in five innings and struck out five in the Pirates’ 8-3 win over the Cincinnati Reds. “I’m pretty insulated from a lot of stuff that’s out there. The stuff that I do see or hear, I don’t really care anyway because it doesn’t have anything to do with the play. I’m just thinking about getting back to execution and executing my pitches,” ...

UConn not like past versions

Geno Auriemma is taking an undefeated UConn team into the women’s Final Four for the ninth time. This group, while extremely talented like the rest, is a bit different than the previous ones for the coach. Auriemma recalls those earlier teams with AP Player of the Year winners Sue Bird, Diana Taurasi, Tina Charles, Maya Moore and Breanna Stewart as having “that kind of swagger, trash-talking kind of mentality” when wondering why people were surprised that they hadn’t lost any games. “We don’t walk around with that attitude,” Auriemma said. “That’s why I think, ...