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Category: Sports

Missouri ranked 12th in Lindy’s Preseason Women’s Basketball Top 25

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COLUMBIA, Mo. – Mizzou Women’s Basketball earned its first preseason top-25 ranking of the 2018-19 season as Lindy’s Sports ranked Mizzou No. 12 in its Preseason Women’s Basketball Top-25 poll. In addition to the top-15 team ranking, senior Sophie Cunningham (Columbia, Mo.) was selected to the Preseason Second-Team All-America list.

In 2017-18, Mizzou earned a third consecutive NCAA Tournament berth for the first time since 1984-86. Head Coach Robin Pingeton’s squad won 24 games for the first time since 1983-84 and earned a No. 5 seed in the Big Dance, its highest seed in program history since the tournament moved to 64 teams.

Mizzou returns three of its five starters from last year’s team, including Cunningham, who has earned an All-SEC First-Team selection each of the past two seasons. Cunningham averaged 18.5 points and 4.7 rebounds per game in her junior campaign, and was the only player in the nation to shoot better than 54 percent from the field (54.2 percent, 186-for-343), 45 percent from three (45.7 percent, 69-for-151) and 83 percent from the free throw line (83.6 percent, 133-for-159).

Also returning for Mizzou is redshirt senior Lauren Aldridge (Marshfield, Mo.) and junior Amber Smith (Shreveport, La.), who each started all 32 games for the Tigers last season. In her first season with the Black & Gold, Aldridge set a new single-season program record in assist-to-turnover ratio at 2.2 while leading the team in assists with 113 and scoring 6.7 points per game. Smith, the 2017 SEC Freshman of the Year, made a significant jump in production from her freshman to sophomore campaign, improving from 5.9 points and 2.8 rebounds in 2016-17 to 9.3 points and 5.3 rebounds per game in 2017-18.

— Mizzou Athletics —

KU’s Williams Jr., named Big 12 Co-Newcomer of the Week

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IRVING, Texas – Kansas freshman running back Pooka Williams Jr., earned Big 12 Conference Co-Newcomer of the Week honors, announced by the league offices on Monday.

Williams, had a strong all-around performance against Oklahoma State, where he totaled 189 all-purpose yards, including a 60-yard rushing touchdown. Williams turned in 97 rushing yards one score on 13 carries. His 60-yard scoring run marked his longest scoring TD of the season. Williams added a season-high 60 receiving yards on a season’s-best six catches against the Cowboys. Additionally, Williams had a season-long 32-yard kickoff return to his credit.

The award marks the second conference weekly honors for the Jayhawks this season as Williams and senior linebacker Joe Dineen Jr., were each honored following KU’s win over Central Michigan. Williams’ Newcomer of the Week is the second for KU since the award’s inception in 2016.

The Jayhawks travel to Morgantown, West Virginia, for a game at WVU on Saturday, October 6. Kick off is slated for 11 a.m. (CT), at Milan Puskar Stadium.

— KU Athletics —

Missouri Western scores three second half goals to rally past Washburn

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ST. JOSEPH – Missouri Western Soccer (7-3) ended the weekend the same way as it started with another come-from-behind victory at Spratt Stadium. On Sunday, the Griffons erased a two goal deficit against Washburn (5-5) to complete the 2-0 weekend. The Griffons scored three straight goals in the second half after falling down 2-0 in the first. Sunday’s win gives the Griffons their second MIAA conference win of the season.

NOTABLES

  • It did not take long for momentum to shift in the Griffons’ direction in the second half. Schwartzkopf put the Griffons on the board with her first goal of the season just four minutes into the second half.
  • Missouri Western tied up the game at 2-2 three minutes after the Schwartzkopf goal. MaKenzie Billings scored her first career goal as a Griffon off of a Sara Collins assist in the 51st minute.
  • Much like Friday night, Cassidy Menke scored the game-winner on a penalty kick. Taylor Schwartzkopf drew the foul in the box after an aggressive drive from the left corner.
  • After Sunday’s win, Missouri Western has now won six of its last seven games.
  • The Griffons have scored three goals in a half three different times this season. They scored three goals in the second half against both Lindenwood and Northwest Missouri.
  • Missouri Western has now won its last four games against Washburn.

STATS AND LEADERS

  • The Griffons were much more aggressive offensively in the second half. After having just six shots in the first half, the Griffons outshot the Ichabods with nine shots after halftime with four shots on goal.
  • After her three goal weekend, Menke is tied for third in the MIAA in goals made (6).
  • Ten different players have now scored a goal for the Griffons this season after Billings’ and Schwartzkopf’s first goals of the season.

UP NEXT

  • Missouri Western will hit the road for their next game against Fort Hays (2-5-2) on Friday, October 6.
  • Fort Hays has lost three straight after falling to No. 20 Central Oklahoma on Sunday.
  • The Tigers beat the Griffons 1-0 in double-overtime in their only matchup last season.

    — MWSU Athletics —

Royals fall short in season finale to Cleveland 2-1

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Carlos Carrasco was sharp in Cleveland’s regular-season finale, then proclaimed himself ready for what’s next to come.

Carrasco and Trevor Bauer combined for a five-hitter, Francisco Lindor homered and scored twice, and the Indians beat the Kansas City Royals 2-1 on Sunday.

Carrasco (17-10) was working with a limited pitch count in a tuneup before an anticipated start in Game 2 of the American League Division Series against Houston on Saturday. He went five innings, allowing one run on three hits, walking two and striking out six.

“I finished the season strong,” said Carrasco, who wrapped up the regular season with a 3.38 ERA. “More important is getting ready for the postseason. The way that I pitched today, I just tried to find myself and get ready for that game. Everything that I’m looking for, I found it.”

Manager Terry Francona saw a lot to be happy with.

“He threw the ball really well,” Francona said. “Good changeup and breaking ball. I think he’s situated in a really good place heading to the playoffs.”

Bauer took over in the sixth, hurling four scoreless innings of relief while striking out two for his first career save.

Bauer ended the season with a 2.21 ERA, second in the American League to Tampa Bay’s Blake Snell.

Carrasco struck out 231 on the year, leading the Indians. Bauer struck out 221.

The Indians opened the scoring after Lindor led off the game by reaching on an error when Eric Skoglund (1-6) fumbled his grounder. After stealing second, Lindor then stole third and scored when Alcides Escobar failed to catch the throw to third for the second error of the inning.

Lindor drilled a 1-0 pitch into the stands in left-center field to lead off the third, extending the Indians’ lead to 2-0. He hit seven of his 38 homers this year against the Royals.

The Indians finished the season 91-71, their sixth straight year above .500. It is their longest streak since they had winning records eight years in a row from 1994 through 2001.

Skoglund allowed two runs, one earned, on five hits and two walks, striking out three over five innings.

“I thought he was flat today,” manager Ned Yost said. “I don’t think he was very sharp. He grinded it out. Even when he doesn’t have his best stuff, he kept us in the ballgame against our division champion. I’m very proud of his effort today.”

The Royals got on the board in the fifth when Brian Goodwin led off with a hit and stole second, then scored on Meibrys Viloria’s single.

Whit Merrifield closed the season with a single in the eighth, extending his hitting streak to a career-best 20 games. The streak was the longest of the year in the majors.

Kansas City’s attendance fell by 555,213 from the previous year — nearly 7,000 per game — and finished at 1,665,107, the team’s lowest since 2010. The club stumbled to its worst season since 2005, when it set a team record for most losses at 106. The 58-104 mark this year matched the 2004 team for the second-worst record in franchise history. This was the fifth time the club lost at least 100 games.

Yost will be back in 2019, however. The Royals announced a one-year extension before the game.

AT THE TOP

Lindor finished tied for the league lead in runs — he and Boston’s Mookie Betts both had 129.

“That’s a lot of runs,” Francona said. “(With) him leading off, that’s the most important stat. He’s done a lot of things really well. When you score that many runs, that’s a huge number for us.”

Merrifield finished the season with 192 hits and 45 stolen bases, leading the majors in both categories.

“It was a monster accomplishment,” Yost said. “Leading baseball in stolen bases is huge, but leading baseball in hits is monstrous.”

TRAINER’S ROOM

Indians: C Yan Gomes’ hand injury required two stitches but is not expected to prevent him from being available for the playoffs. “The doctors and trainers all think he’s going to be OK,” Francona said. … OF Tyler Naquin is returning from rehab in Arizona to join the team in time for Tuesday’s scrimmage. … OF Lonnie Chisenhall has been running the bases and hitting, but will not join the team, instead returning to his home in North Carolina as his family deals with the aftermath of Hurricane Florence.

UP NEXT

RHP Corey Kluber takes the mound for Cleveland in the first game of the ALDS at Houston on Friday.

— Associated Press —

MWSU women’s golf finishes sixth at Augustana Fall Invite

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SIOUX FALLS, SD – The Missouri Western women’s golf team passed the midway point of the fall season after competing in the second and final round of the Augustana Fall Invitational in Sioux Falls on Sunday. The Griffons finished sixth in the tournament with an overall score of 650.

For the first time this season, the Griffons had a new face at the top of their leaderboards. Freshman Anna Bech entered Sunday tied for tenth. Bech jumped three spots and finished the event tied for seventh. She shot a 77 in both rounds to finish ten over par. The Elmwood Golf Course had a difficult par, as only the tournament winner managed to finish the event at par. The Augustana Fall Invitational gives Bech her best finish of the season.

Shi Qing Ong had the second-best performance on the team by tying for 19th place. She shot a 160 over the two rounds and finished the weekend plus-16.

Rounding out the top-three for Missouri Western was Sabrina Galfano. Galfano ended the invitational with a score of 168.

Missouri Western Women’s Golf will not travel far for their next tournament. They will compete at the Midwest Classic in Maryville, Missouri on October 7.

— MWSU Athletics —

Northwest soccer gets shutout by Emporia State

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The Northwest Missouri State soccer team lost to the Emporia State Hornets 3-0 at Bearcat Pitch Sunday. The score was tied 0-0 going into the 76th minute but a flurry of late goals allowed the Hornets to pull off the victory.

The first goal was scored at 76:20 on a penalty kick by Tanna Benefiel. The second goal was an own goal put in by the Bearcats. The final goal was scored by Jacki Martinek and was assisted by Kennedy Hoffman.

The Bearcats are back in action Friday Oct. 5 at University of Nebraska-Kearney.

— Northwest Athletics —

Cardinals end season with 10-5 loss at Chicago

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CHICAGO (AP) — The crowd of 39,275 roared when Jason Heyward caught Francisco Pena’s flyball for the final out on a wet, cool afternoon at Wrigley Field.

Now, everything gets real crazy.

Anthony Rizzo had four hits and scored three times, and the Chicago Cubs set up a tiebreaker game for the NL Central title by beating the St. Louis Cardinals 10-5 on Sunday.

“We know what’s at stake. Obviously we needed to win today, by all means,” Rizzo said, “and tomorrow is the same thing.”

Shortly after Milwaukee completed an 11-0 victory over Detroit, Jorge De La Rosa worked a hitless ninth inning to move the Cubs back into a tie with the Brewers at 95-67. Yairo Munoz walked with two out, but Pena’s harmless fly to right closed it out.

Next up, game No. 163.

Chicago hosts Milwaukee on Monday afternoon and the Colorado Rockies visit the Los Angeles Dodgers as baseball holds a pair of tiebreaker games on the same day for the first time. At stake is the postseason road for each club.

The winner at Wrigley gets a spot in the division series and home-field advantage throughout the NL playoffs. The loser plays again Tuesday night, hosting the runner-up in the NL West in the wild-card game.

“It’s interesting that baseball is such a perfect game in some ways that it takes 162 to not decide anything,” Cubs manager Joe Maddon said.

St. Louis (88-74) was in contention heading into the final week of the season, but it was swept by Milwaukee before dropping two of three against Chicago. Catcher Yadier Molina, outfielder Marcell Ozuna and infielders Kolten Wong and Jedd Gyorko were held out of the finale due to nagging injuries.

St. Louis missed out on the playoffs for a third straight year for the first time since it went 75-86 in 1999. It finished with a 41-28 record under Mike Shildt, who took over as manager after Mike Matheny was fired on July 14.

“Three straight years of coming up short,” said first baseman Matt Carpenter, who finished with a career-high 36 homers. “We as an organization, as a total group, top to bottom, everybody in this clubhouse, all the staff, we have to find a way to get better, to compete if we want to play in October.”

The only other time Chicago began the final day of the regular season tied for the lead in its division or league was in 1908, when it beat Christy Mathewson and the New York Giants 4-2 at the Polo Grounds for the NL pennant. The Cubs then won their second straight World Series title before enduring a championship drought that cruised past a century before they won it all again in 2016.

Rizzo and company are looking for another October run, but they have been plagued by an inconsistent offense. It looked like more of the same when Jack Flaherty (8-9) cruised into the third inning with a 2-0 lead and then retired the first two batters.

Then everything changed.

The next six batters reached for Chicago, producing four runs. Rizzo hit a tiebreaking double to give him 100 RBI on the year, waving his arms in the air as he coasted into second. Jason Heyward added an RBI single.

“Just the overall approach today, two outs, a lot of two-out rallies … just kept things going and kept the line moving,” Rizzo said, “and we usually have good success when we do that.”

The Cubs broke it open with four more in the fifth. Kris Bryant roped a two-run double into the left-field corner. Two batters later, Willson Contreras hit a drive to left for his first homer since Aug. 1.

“We just couldn’t stop them,” Shildt said.

Allen Webster (1-0), the first of eight Chicago relievers after Mike Montgomery was pulled in the third, got two outs for the win.

Jose Martinez, Paul DeJong and Patrick Wisdom each had two hits for St. Louis, which left 12 runners on base. Munoz finished with three RBI.

CENTURY CLUB

Rizzo became the first lefty batter in franchise history with four seasons with at least 100 RBI.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Cardinals: Wisdom was visited by a trainer and Shildt after he was hit by a pitch in the third. The trainer examined Wisdom’s left wrist for a short time, but he stayed in the game. … Wong (left knee) is expected to undergo an MRI in the near future, general manager Michael Girsch said.

UP NEXT

Brewers right-hander Jhoulys Chacin (15-8, 3.56 ERA) will face Cubs left-hander Jose Quintana (13-11, 4.09 ERA) in the tiebreaker. Quintana is 6-2 with a 1.60 ERA in 10 career starts against Milwaukee. Chacin pitched five innings of one-hit ball in a 2-1 victory at St. Louis on Wednesday night.

— Associated Press —

Griffons dominate Washburn Saturday 38-7

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ST. JOSEPH – The Missouri Western football team (3-2) stayed perfect on Craig Field at Spratt Memorial Stadium with an impressive 38-7 win over Washburn (2-3) on Saturday night.

Missouri Western broke away from a pack of seven MIAA teams that entered the weekend 2-2, snapped a three-game losing streak to the Ichabods and improved to 3-0 in home games this season with the win.

NOTABLES

  • The Griffon offense was impressive for a second-straight week, totaling 544 yards of offense with five touchdowns
  • Missouri Western punted just two times in the game, one was a third quarter pooch punt by quarterback Dom Marino that pinned Washburn at its own on 1-yard line
  • The defense did its part, picking off four Mitch Schurig passes to move into a three-way tie for the most in the MIAA this season (8)
  • Kobe Cummings had the first interception of his Griffon career in the first quarter. The pick in the end zone ended a nine-play, 58-yard Washburn drive that got to the MWSU 18 and preserved a 7-0 Griffon lead
  • Missouri Western possessed the ball for nine more minutes than Washburn
  • The Griffons scored on all four trips to the red zone and on three of their first four drives of the game
  • It was MWSU’s first win over Washburn since 2014 (40-14 in Topeka)
  • The win vaulted the Griffons into a three-way tie for third in the MIAA standings with Central Missouri and Nebraska Kearney

STATS AND LEADERS

  • Dom Marino finished 17-of-23 passing for 249 yards and four touchdowns. He did not throw an interception in the game and also rushed 11 times for 65 yards and a score.
  • James Bailey Jr. rushed 17 times for 139 yards, averaging 8.2 yards per carry for his second consecutive 100-yard game
  • Keylan Mack had seven catches for 63 yards and a touchdown
  • Donnell Hawkins caught two touchdowns out of the backfield, one a 51-yard catch and run off a screen pass from Marino
  • True Freshman Kobe Cummings led the team with 14 tackles and had the interception
  • Brandin Dandridge had two interceptions to take the MIAA lead with four
  • Jabbar Miles had another interception to bring his season total to three, tied for second most in the MIAA
  • The Griffons rushed for 295 yards as a team and are now averaging 213 rushing yards per game

UP NEXT

  • The Griffons travel to Missouri Southern (0-4) for a 2 p.m. kick in Joplin on Saturday, Oct. 6
  • Missouri Southern lost 61-7 at Central Missouri, Saturday, and has been outscored 275-40 on the season

Bearcats blank Emporia State 41-0

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MARYVILLE, Missouri, — The Northwest Missouri State Bearcats returned to their winning ways with a 41-0 victory over Emporia State after an almost two hour weather delay. The attendance was 6,141 people for Military Appreciation Day.

Northwest’s offense piled up 450 yards of total offense, 267 through the air and 183 on the ground. The defense held the Hornets to only 194 yards of total offense, 151 yards passing and 43 yards rushing. The Bearcats only gave up 11 first downs compared to their 18.

Northwest scored 27 of their 41 in the first half on three passing touchdowns by Braden Wright, including two over 70 yards to Alec Tatum (72 yds) and Jaime Taylor (80 yards).The Bearcats added one rushing touchdown by Josh Caldwell to end the half.

Wright had one rushing touchdown in the second half to finish with four total touchdowns and 312 total yards on the day. The last touchdown was scored by running back Brody McMahon from one yard out. Alec Tatum finished with three catches and 105 yards.

Northwest has six tackles for loss on the day, including two sacks by sophomore Sam Roberts. Sam Roberts and Jackson Barnes led the team in tackles with 7 total on the game. The Bearcats defense also forced seven 3-and-outs on the day and four turnover on downs.

The Bearcats will be back in action next Saturday at 2 p.m. in Pittsburg, Kan. to face the undefeated Pittsburg State Gorillas.

— Northwest Athletics —

Missouri Western volleyball bounce back to sweep Fort Hays State

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ST. JOSEPH – Griffon Volleyball (10-9, 3-4) snapped a three-game skid with a sweep of Fort Hays State (6-13, 0-7) on Saturday afternoon.

The Griffons jumped out to an impressive 2-0 lead, winning the first set by nine and the second by 17 before escaping with the third set win to complete the sweep.

NOTABLES

  • The win ended a streak of three-straight losses for MWSU
  • Fort Hays State jumped out to a 6-1 lead in the third before the Griffons went on a 15-6 run to jump on top 16-12
  • MWSU never trailed again in the third, but after leading 22-18 and 24-20, FHSU went on a little run to make the set much closer
  • Fort Hays State’s eight points in the second set were the fewest allowed by the Griffons this season

STATS AND LEADERS

  • Ali Tauchen had six kills in the first set and ended the match with nine
  • Missouri Western held FHSU to a -.290 hitting percentage in the second set
  • Stephanie Doak led MWSU with 12 kills
  • Rachel Losch had a team-high seven total blocks
  • Liv Winker led the team with 34 assists
  • Audrey Keim had a team-high 18 digs

UP NEXT

  • Three more home matches, beginning with Pittsburg State (15-5, 4-3) on Friday, Oct. 5 at 7 p.m.
  • Pittsburg State was swept by No. 13 Washburn on Saturday
  • The Griffons also host No. 18 Central Oklahoma next Saturday, Oct. 6 at 3 p.m.

    — MWSU Athletics —

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