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Florida, TCU clinch College World Series bids; Wake Forest, Virginia, Texas, Oral Roberts, LSU win

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 20:51:39 GMT

Florida and TCU clinched spots in the College World Series on Saturday and Wake Forest moved within a win of becoming the first No. 1 national seed to make the final eight of the NCAA Tournament since 2018.Oral Roberts and Virginia forced winner-take-all Game 3s in their super regionals, and LSU and Texas won their openers.The No. 2 Gators got a career-best performance from Hurston Waldrep and finished a two-game sweep of Southeastern Conference rival South Carolina with a 4-0 win. They’ll make their 13th appearance in the CWS — which begins Friday in Omaha, Nebraska — and eighth in 16 seasons under Kevin O’Sullivan.“Just happy to have the opportunity to experience this,” O’Sullivan said. “Getting to Omaha is goal number one, but we feel like we have a team that can potentially do some special things in Omaha.”TCU swept Indiana State with a 6-4 victory and will go into the CWS with wins in 11 straight games and 17 of 18.Wake Forest opened its super regional with a ...

Teofimo Lopez beats Josh Taylor by unanimous decision, wins 140-pound title

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 20:51:39 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Teofimo Lopez captured a title in a second weight class Saturday night, beating formerly unbeaten Josh Taylor by unanimous decision to win the WBO’s junior welterweight belt.Lopez, the former lightweight champion, hadn’t looked sharp lately after moving up to 140 pounds. But he delivered a superb performance inside Madison Square Garden, with punches that were just quicker and stronger than the champion’s.Lopez (19-1) won by scores of 115-113 on two of the cards and 117-111 on the other, and he threw power shots throughout the final round in hopes of not even getting to the scorecards.Coming off a split decision victory last December that was so unimpressive that he was caught on camera afterward asking if he still had it, Lopez showed that he most definitely still does. He looked like the fighter who had won multiple versions of the title at 135 pounds, highlighed by a victory over Vasiliy Lomachenko, before losing them to George Kambosos Jr. in No...

Correa’s 2nd career grand slam keys 7-run 8th, Twins beat Blue Jays 9-4

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 20:51:39 GMT

TORONTO (AP) — Carlos Correa hit his second career grand slam, Max Kepler and Trevor Larnach also homered and the Minnesota Twins scored seven runs in the eighth inning to beat the Toronto Blue Jays 9-4 Saturday.Minnesota, which leads the AL Central with a 33-32 record, scored seven runs its previous five games.“We needed that as a team,” Correa said of the seven-run outburst. “We needed to put great at bats together like that. We’ve been waiting for that for the past week. It came at the right time.”Newly promoted Edouard Julien reached base three times and Donovan Solano had three hits as the Twins won for the 13th time in their past 17 games at Rogers Centre. Minnesota has homered in 16 consecutive games in Canada.Jorge López (2-2) pitched a one-hit seventh as the Twins won their second straight after a five-game skid.Adam Cimber (0-2) lost for the second straight day, giving up six runs and five hits while getting just one out.“It’s a bunt single and a broken-bat single, and thi...

Oral Roberts rallies to beat Oregon 8-7 to even super regional

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 20:51:39 GMT

EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — Justin Quinn had a two-run single in the bottom of the ninth inning to rally Oral Roberts to an 8-7 victory over Oregon on Saturday night in the second game of the Eugene Super Regional.Oral Roberts (50-12), which saw its 21-game win streak end in a 9-8 loss to Oregon in the opener, will play a rubber game against the Ducks (41-22) on Sunday for a berth in the College World Series. Both teams have made just one previous CWS appearance — Oregon in 1954 and the Golden Eagles in 1978.Drew Cowley hit a two-out single that scored Rikuu Nishida with the tying run in the top of the fifth inning. Sabin Ceballos followed with an RBI double to put the Ducks up 5-4. Ceballos drew a two-out walk and moved to third on a double by Tanner Smith. Drew Smith drove in both runners with a triple for a 7-4 lead in the seventh. Smith’s hit looked like it was going to be caught by Jonah Cox before Cox hit the wall and lost the ball.Drew Stahl led off the bottom of the inning wit...

Yanks broadcaster John Sterling hit by foul ball, continues commentary

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 20:51:39 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Yankees radio broadcaster John Sterling was hit by a foul ball by Justin Turner in the ninth inning of New York’s 3-1 win over the Boston Red Sox on Saturday night and continued his commentary,“Ow! Ow! Ow! It really hit me, I didn’t know it was coming back that far,” Sterling said on the air.Seconds later, he added: “So once again, it’ll be a 3-2.”Sterling, 84, returned to the booth Tuesday after missing 23 games. He came down with bronchitis after missing two games to attend the college graduation of his triplets.___AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb and https://twitter.com/AP_SportsSource

New York City, Real Salt Lake play to scoreless draw

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 20:51:39 GMT

SANDY, Utah (AP) — Luis Barraza saved four shots in goal for New York City FC and Zac MacMath made one for Real Salt Lake as the two clubs played to a scoreless draw on Saturday night.NYCFC (4-7-6) earned its first road point in the series after losing on its first three tries. Real Salt Lake (5-7-5) is still looking for back-to-back wins for the first time since a three-match run in May of last season. The club has failed to win following its last 11 victories.NYCFC is 0-5-3 in its last eight matches. The club’s only longer winless streak was an 11-match skid in 2015 — its first season.NYCFC returns home to host the Columbus Crew on Saturday. Real Salt Lake travels to play D.C. United on Saturday..____AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer and https://twitter.com/AP_SportSource

French Open 2023: Novak Djokovic tries to win his 23rd Grand Slam title; he’ll play Casper Ruud

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 20:51:39 GMT

PARIS (AP) — Novak Djokovic will be seeking his men’s-record 23rd Grand Slam title in the French Open final.Casper Ruud will be seeking his first.They meet Sunday at Court Philippe Chatrier.Djokovic, a 36-year-old from Serbia, wants to break a tie with rival Rafael Nadal for the most major championships by a man. Another triumph would also make Djokovic, who won at Roland Garros in 2016 and 2021, the first man in tennis history with at least three trophies from each Slam event.This will be Ruud’s third final in the past five majors. Last year, the 24-year-old from Norway was the runner-up to Nadal at the French Open and to Carlos Alcaraz at the U.S. Open.The No. 3-seeded Djokovic owns a 4-0 head-to-head record against No. 4 Ruud and has won all eight sets they’ve played against each other.WHEN IS THE MEN’S FINAL?Play begins in Djokovic vs. Ruud at Court Philippe Chatrier at about 2:30 p.m. local time in Paris, which is 8:30 a.m. EDT. That will be preceded by the wo...

Honduras opens embassy in China after breaking off ties with Taiwan

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 20:51:39 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — Honduras opened an embassy in Beijing on Sunday, Chinese state media reported, months after the Central American nation broke off relations with Taiwan to form diplomatic ties with China.China’s Foreign Minister Qin Gang and his Honduran counterpart Enrique Reina took part in the inauguration of the embassy on Sunday morning, China’s official CCTV said. The report said Honduras still needed to determine the embassy’s permanent location and would increase its number of staff.The symbol of the two sides’ strengthening diplomatic ties came during Honduran President Xiomara Castro’s six-day visit to China.Honduras established formal relations with China in March, becoming the latest in a string of countries to break diplomatic ties with Taiwan. China sees self-governed Taiwan as a breakaway province, to be retaken by force if necessary, and prohibits its own diplomatic partners from having formal ties with Taipei.Castro arrived in Shanghai on...

Colorado Rapids reduced to nine men in 2-0 loss to Orlando City as team feels “snake bitten” by red-card decisions

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 20:51:39 GMT

The Colorado Rapids have so much fuel and tenacity when they step onto the field that, at times, can spill over and can stand in the way of getting results.Saturday night against Orlando City was one such instance as the Rapids had two players, Braian Galván and Lalas Abubakar, who were shown red cards and were reduced to nine men as Colorado lost 2-0, its seventh loss in its last eight games.It was the second successive week in which the Rapids were reduced a man and the fourth time this season, half of which came Saturday. In 2022 Colorado had six players sent off which was tied for most in MLS and the team was second in yellow-cards earned (94). While the makeup of the team has changed, the ability to scrap for every challenge, tooth-and-nail, is part of the club’s DNA.After the game, Rapids head coach Robin Fraser was asked if discipline has come at the cost of compromising their style of play, he adamantly rejected the idea that discipline was an issue at all. Fraser said...

CHP Patrol cars slam into La Puente home during high-speed pursuit

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 20:51:39 GMT

A high-speed pursuit of a motorcyclist ended with two California Highway Patrol cars slamming into a La Puente home on Saturday night.Officers attempted to pull over a motorcyclist for speeding around 4:40 p.m. When the suspect didn’t yield, a pursuit began. At around 4:52 p.m., the patrol cars lost control and slammed into the front area of a home near the intersection of Ector Street and Hacienda Boulevard.Video from the scene shows the vehicles completely destroyed a brick wall with an iron gate on top that was surrounding the home. Motorcycle pursuit ends with CHP patrol cars crashing into a La Puente home on June 10, 2023. (KTLA)Motorcycle pursuit ends with CHP patrol cars crashing into a La Puente home on June 10, 2023. (KTLA)Motorcycle pursuit ends with CHP patrol cars crashing into a La Puente home on June 10, 2023. (KTLA)Motorcycle pursuit ends with CHP patrol cars crashing into a La Puente home on June 10, 2023. (KTLA) Video captures family of coyote pups playing outside...