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Category: Sports

MWSU’s Miller finishes fourth in the heptathlon at Wichita State

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WICHITA, Kan. – Lynzi Miller was the lone Missouri Western student-athlete competing at the KT Woodman Heptathlon at Wichita State this week. The freshman placed fourth at the event, eclipsing the program record with a 4,354 point total.

Miller took fourth place in a field of 12 competitors in Wichita. She was the top finisher from NCAA Div. II and was also the top finisher among the four MIAA student-athletes at the heptathlon.

Miller’s best finish came in the 200m when she took second with a time of 25.47, finishing just two milliseconds behind the event winner. She also ran a 2:35.08 in the 800m to take third in the event.

Miller also earned top-five finishes in the long jump with a jump of 4.99m (16′ 4.50″) and the 100m hurdles (15.30).

Missouri Western Track and Field will compete at the David Suenram Gorilla Classic on Saturday.

— MWSU Athletics —

St. Louis completes four-game sweep of LA with 11-7 win

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ST. Louis (AP) — Matt Wieters drove in a three runs and stole a base for just the third time in six years, leading the St. Louis Cardinals over the Los Angeles Dodgers 11-7 Thursday for a four-game sweep of the NL champions.

Making his first start this season, the 32-year-old Wieters hit a sacrifice fly in the second inning and a two-run double in the fifth that put the Cardinals ahead 8-7. With runners at the corners in the fifth, Wieters stole second as Matt Carpenter struck out, his first steal since April 27, 2017, and just the ninth of his major league career.

Harrison Bader was hit by pitches with the bases loaded in both the second and fifth innings. He was the first player to force in runs twice in a game while getting hit since Toronto’s Reed Johnson on April 16, 2005, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

Jose Martinez matched a career high with four hits, including an RBI double off Yimi Garcia in a two-run sixth. St. Louis set a season high for runs and swept the Dodgers in a four-game series for the first time since July 15-18, 2010.

David Freese and Walker Buehler hit solo home runs in the second inning for Los Angeles, and Kike Hernandez homered to cap a four-run third.

Giovanny Gallegos (1-0) pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings in his first appearance of the season for the Cardinals to win in relief of Michael Wacha, who allowed seven runs and eight hits in 3 2/3 innings.

Pedro Baez (0-1) gave up four runs — three earned — and four hits in one inning.

Trailing 7-4, St. Louis started to close when Jedd Gyorko singled in a run in the third. The Cardinals’ four-run fifth included a run-scoring error by second baseman Max Muncy.

KERSHAW

Los Angeles Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw is scheduled to make his season debut on Monday at home against the Cincinnati Reds.

The 31-year-old left-hander, troubled by left shoulder inflammation since early in spring training, made his second minor league injury rehabilitation start on Tuesday. He gave up two solo home runs and five hits over six innings for Double-A Tulsa against Springfield. He struck out six, walked none and threw 59 of 81 pitches for strikes.

In his first rehab start last week, Kershaw gave up two runs and four hits in 4 1/3 innings for Triple-A Oklahoma City against San Antonio.

MAKING MOVES

Dodgers: Los Angeles recalled RHP Jaime Schultz from Oklahoma City and optioned RHP J.T. Chargois to the Triple-A farm team.

Cardinals: Utility player Yairo Munoz will rejoin St. Louis as a 26th player for this weekend’s series against the Cincinnati Reds in Mexico.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Dodgers: SS Corey Seager was hit by a pitch by Gallegos in the fourth, left at the start of the bottom half and was diagnosed with a bruised left hamstring

UP NEXT

Cardinals: RHP Adam Wainwright (1-0, 4.50) is to start Friday against the Reds and RHP Tanner Roark (0-0, 5.79). Wainwright is one win shy of 150.

Dodgers: LHP Julio Urias (0-0, 3.12) is scheduled to start at home Friday against Milwaukee and RHP Corbin Burnes (0-1, 9.90).

— Associated Press —

Molina, Ozuna homer as Cards top Dodgers 7-2 for 4th straight win

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ST. LOUIS (AP) — Yadier Molina and Marcell Ozuna homered, Jack Flaherty tossed six effective innings and the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 7-2 on Wednesday night.

The Cardinals have won four in a row and will try to sweep the four-game series Thursday. They have outscored their opponents 19-6 during the winning streak.

Max Muncy and Joc Pederson homered for the Dodgers, who have lost three straight after a five-game winning streak.

Paul DeJong had three hits and drove in a run with a triple in the sixth. DeJong extended his career-best hitting streak to 11 games. He is tied with San Francisco’s Brandon Crawford for the longest current streak in the National League.

Flaherty (1-0) gave up three hits and one run in his 99-pitch effort. He struck out eight and did not walk a batter. He has permitted one run over 11 innings in his last two starts.

Molina, who drove in three runs, homered off Kenta Maeda (2-1) in the sixth to push the lead to a 5-1. Ozuna, who had three hits, added a two-run drive in the eighth.

Maeda gave up five runs and seven hits in 5 1/3 innings.

Pederson’s one-out shot in the sixth brought the Dodgers to 2-1. Los Angeles has gone deep in 11 of 13 games this season.

EVEN UP

The Cardinals and Dodgers have played each other 2,074 times since 1892. The series is even at 1,029-1,029 with 16 ties.

KERSHAW ON TRACK

Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw is scheduled to make his season debut Sunday or Monday, according to manager Dave Roberts.

The three-time Cy Young Award winner, bothered by shoulder inflammation during spring training, completed his second effective rehab appearance Tuesday night for Double-A Tulsa against Springfield. He went six innings and allowed two runs on five hits. He struck out six and did not walk a batter.

“He felt good coming out of it,” Roberts said. “He’s lined up for Sunday or Monday, whichever makes the most sense.”

TRAINER’S ROOM

Dodgers: Placed C Russell Martin on the 10-day injured list with lower back inflammation and recalled C Rocky Gale from Triple-A Oklahoma City. Gale was 2 for 6 with three runs scored at Oklahoma City. He went 0 for 2 as a September call-up last season.

Cardinals: Ozuna was in the starting lineup after he tumbled off the outfield fence while trying to catch a long drive Tuesday. Ozuna scaled the left field wall, but the ball came up short and he hit the warning track face first.

UP NEXT

Los Angeles RHP Walker Buehler (1-0, 6.75 ERA) will face RHP Michael Wacha (0-0, 1.54) in the series finale Thursday afternoon. Buehler has not allowed a run in two career starts against St. Louis, yielding five hits over 15 innings with 18 strikeouts. Wacha walked a career-high eight in a 6-4 loss to San Diego on Saturday.

— Associated Press —

Mizzou’s Cunningham selected 13th overall by Phoenix in WNBA Draft

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NEW YORK – Mizzou Women’s Basketball senior guard Sophie Cunningham (Columbia, Mo.) was selected by the Phoenix Mercury with the first pick in the second round of Wednesday’s WNBA Draft. Cunningham’s 13th overall selection is the highest a Mizzou player has ever been drafted in the WNBA Draft.

Cunningham surpasses Amanda Lassiter, who was selected by the Houston Comets with the 15th pick of the first round in 2001. Cunningham is the first Mizzou player to be drafted since Bri Kulas in 2014, and the third selection during head coach Robin Pingeton’s tenure, following Kulas and Christine Flores in 2012.

Cunningham received AP and USWBA All-America Third Team and WBCA All-America Honorable Mention honors after helping guide Mizzou to its fourth consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance in 2018-19. She earned AP All-America Honorable Mention honors after outstanding sophomore and junior campaigns.

Cunningham was named to her third straight All-SEC First Team by the league’s coaches, becoming the first player in program history to earn All-Conference First Team honors in three consecutive seasons. In addition, she was named to the All-SEC First Team by the Associated Press for the second straight season.

Cunningham closed her Mizzou career as Mizzou’s all-time scoring leader, finishing her historic career with 2,187 points. Among program records, Cunningham also ranks first in free throws made (537), second in three-pointers made (238), third in three-point percentage (40.3), third in free throw percentage (83.9), fourth in points per game (17.0) and fourth in assists (390).

In her senior campaign, Cunningham was the only player to average 17.0 ppg, make 80 three-pointers, make 150 free throws and record 200 rebounds. In conference play, Cunningham led the SEC in three-point shooting (46.5 percent) and threes per game (2.9). She reached 20 points in 16 games this season, including 10 times against SEC opponents, and 30 points four times.

Cunningham earned SEC All-Tournament honors after averaging 25.3 ppg and 5.3 rpg at the SEC Tournament, as she became the first Mizzou player to earn All-Tournament honors since 1994.

— Mizzou Athletics —

Big 12 Conference, ESPN enhance comprehensive rights agreement

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ESPN and the Big 12 Conference have significantly expanded their existing rights agreement, which runs through the 2024-25 season. Adding to its already robust coverage of the Big 12, the agreement means that ABC or ESPN will now exclusively televise the Big 12 Football Championship every year through 2024 – adding three additional championship games (2019, 2021 and 2023) and bolstering ABC and ESPN’s Championship Saturday lineup each year on the eve of College Football’s Selection Day.

In addition, the agreement will bring hundreds of Big 12 events – including exclusive football and basketball games, as well as multiple other sports, conference championships and original content – to ESPN+, the direct-to-consumer subscription sports streaming service.  As part of the agreement, all ESPN+ events will be produced and presented under a Big 12-branded offering to be developed by the conference and ESPN, and launched on ESPN+ ahead of the start of the 2019-20 athletic season.

“Our institutions are thrilled with the exposure all 10 athletics programs will receive through this Big 12-branded offering,” commented Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby.  “I appreciate the efforts of ESPN’s Burke Magnus, Nick Dawson and Pete Derzis in bringing this to fruition. Building on our relationship with ESPN and Disney DTCI allows our programs access to cutting-edge technology through the ESPN+ platform, and the ability for multiple live contests to be distributed simultaneously.  Our goal was to be forward thinking in the use of technology to create a conference-branded platform and believe this partnership ideally positions the Big 12 now and into the foreseeable future.”

“We appreciate the continued collaboration with our friends at the Big 12 Conference and their commitment to innovation,” said Burke Magnus, ESPN executive vice president, programming & scheduling. “This enhancement to our rights agreement reflects an ongoing desire to give Big 12 fans access to their favorite teams and hundreds of more contests, while embracing the power of technology and the expanded nature of sports consumption with ESPN+.”

Hundreds of Events Added Through 2024-25

Under the expanded agreement, hundreds of additional Big 12 sports events annually will be presented under the new Big 12-branded offering on ESPN+, with each participating Big 12 Conference school assigning available rights to ESPN and delivering more than 50 exclusive events per year. The lineup will include:

  • An exclusive regular-season football game each season from each participating school, as well as any spring football games;
  • All regular season and exhibition men’s basketball games not distributed on ESPN’s linear networks (expected to be upwards of 75 games per year);
  • Women’s basketball and other conference sports such as volleyball, soccer, wrestling, softball, baseball and more;
  • Select Big 12 Conference championship events and original content.

Eight of the conference’s 10 schools will produce and deliver multiple sports under the new Big 12-branded platform on ESPN+, with schools joining on a rolling basis. Starting in 2019, there will be games from Baylor, Kansas, Kansas State and Oklahoma State, in addition to the select Big 12 Conference championship events.

In 2020-21, Iowa State, TCU, West Virginia and Texas Tech will join the lineup. Due to existing long-term rights agreements, Texas (the Longhorn Network) and Oklahoma will not produce and deliver programming included on ESPN+ at this time, but will be featured as road teams in games listed under the new Big 12-branded offering on the service.

Big 12 events will be available as part of any ESPN+ subscription, and join a programming lineup of thousands of live sports events and thousands of hours of on-demand content, including acclaimed original programming and the 30 for 30 film library, as well as premium editorial content and tools.

The ESPN App and ESPN.com will offer a branded, one-stop home for viewing Big 12 events, making events distributed under the new Big 12-branded offering on ESPN+ accessible to fans alongside current Big 12 events streamed from ESPN networks (available to pay television subscribers via “TV everywhere” authentication), as well as other related video. The content will also be served to fans who select Big 12 Conference member schools among their favorites in the ESPN App.

Griffon softball sweeps SBU with a one-hitter & a walk-off HR

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ST. JOSEPH – A run-rule one-hitter and a walk-off home run from a freshman pushed Griffon Softball’s (26-14, 13-5) win streak to eight games with Tuesday’s doubleheader sweep of Southwest Baptist (5-30, 2-8).

Missouri Western starter Kenzie Hilzer was one out away from a five-inning no-hitter in game one, but SBU got its lone hit of the game with two out in the fifth of an 8-0 Griffon win. In game two, MWSU saw a three run lead turn into a one run deficit only to have Sydni Hawkins end the drama with a two-run walk-off home run to center in a 5-4 victory.

HILZER JUST MISSES NO-NO
Hilzer struck out four batters through five innings, allowing just the one hit to earn the junior a third-straight positive decision. She now has two wins and a save in her last three appearances, allowing just one run on six hits over her last 12 innings with 11 strikeouts and only three walks.

HAWKINS WALKS IT OFF
An error by the Griffons with two outs in the top of the sixth turned into SBU’s first run of the day and a misplayed bloop to the outfield and another error with two outs in the seventh led to Southwest Baptist taking a 4-3 lead after 6 .

Gabi Carter led off the bottom of the seventh with a single up the middle and with one out, Hawkins ended the game with a no-doubter to center. The freshman extended her hitting streak to 11 games, a stretch that has seen her batting average increase 29 points to .356.

BLANTON STAYS HOT
With three hits in the series, Brea Blanton had nine hits in her last five games, batting .529 in that stretch. The freshman now leads the team with a .417 batting average and is tied with Emma Hoffart with a team-high six RBIs.

STREAK AND STANDINGS
The eight-game win streak is the longest for the team since rattling off nine-straight early in the 2017 season. After Tuesday, the Griffons were still in fourth place, but two Central Missouri losses at Pittsburg State vaulted Washburn into second in the MIAA standings, just two games ahead of Missouri Western.

OTHER NOTABLES

  • Morgan Frost went 4-for-7 on the day with another double to extend her season total to 15, second most in the MIAA
  • Taylor Hoelscher went 4-for-5 and now has eight hits in her last six games
  • Cassidy Kelsheimer had three hits on the day to break out of a 3-for-28 stretch
  • Kaili Hinds got the win in game two to improve to 11-3 on the season. She allowed four runs, but just two were earned and she struck out eight with one walk.
  • MWSU improved to 10-3 at home this season and eclipsed last year’s win total of 25
  • The Griffons have won 13 of their last 15 games, outscoring their opponents by 42 runs over that span

UP NEXT
The Griffons travel to Missouri Southern (Friday) and Pittsburg State (Saturday) this weekend for two doubleheaders before getting a week off. MWSU wraps up the regular season on April 26 (Washburn) and 27 (Emporia State) at home.

— MWSU Athletics —

Bearcats fall to Pitt State 4-3 in Kansas City

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KANSAS CITY, Kansas – The Northwest Missouri State University baseball team dropped a 3-2 non-conference decision to the Pittsburg State University at the Kansas City T-Bones Stadium.

Alixon Herrera ripped a two-out double to the deepest part of the park to score Connor Quick in the first and give the Bearcats a 1-0 lead.

Bearcat starter Gibson Brown allowed one unearned run on four hits as he worked the first five innings on the hill.

Northwest added an unearned run of its own in the bottom of the fifth. Calvin Rudolph reached on a throwing error by Pittsburg State shortstop Tyson Cushman. Rudolph moved up to second on a passed ball by PSU catcher Caleb Cox. Quick followed with a double down the left field line to plate Rudolph and give Northwest a 2-1 lead.

The Gorillas rallied off Bearcat closer Trevor Dudar in the eighth and ninth innings. Pittsburg State scored on a bases loaded walk with two outs in the eighth to tie the game at 3-3. The Gorillas then scored the go-ahead run in the ninth after three walks and a sacrifice fly.

Northwest drops to 17-16 overall, while Pittsburg State moves to 18-16 on the year.

The Bearcats will return to action Friday at 3 p.m. at Missouri Western. The Bearcats and Griffons will play a three-game set in St. Joseph.

NOTES: Connor Quick had a three-hit night as he went 3-for-4 with a run and an RBI … Alex Slocum pitched 1 2/3 innings and gave up one hits and struck out two in relief of the starter Brown … Dudar pitched 1 1/3 innings and gave up no hits, but walked five.

— Northwest Athletics —

MWSU women’s golf wraps up Central Region Preview in 10th

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SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) – The Missouri Western women’s golf team played the second and final round of the Central Region Spring Preview on Tuesday, finishing tied for 10th with a total score of 648. Chong Yong led the Griffons at the event, as she tied for ninth with a two-round score of 152 (+8)

Missouri Western places tied for tenth after entering Tuesday in 13th place. The Griffons improved their second-round score by 10 strokes, scoring a 319 in the second round. The Griffons also placed ahead of three MIAA schools, while tying Central Missouri for tenth. Dallas Baptist won the event with a team score of 589.

Chong Yong took ninth place at the Central Region Spring Preview after finishing the first round tied for 31st. After her 79 (+7) on Monday, Yong improved by six strokes with her 73 (+1) second-round performance. Her ninth-place finish also marks her second top-10 finish of the spring, and her two-round total of 152 is her best score this spring.

Also improving in Tuesday’s final round was Anna Bech. Bech shot a 79 (+7) in the second round, shaving six strokes off of her score of 85 (+13) in the first. Her total score of 164 tied her for 49th.

Jenna Kosmatka was the next Griffon on the leaderboards, shooting an 84 (+12) in the second round to bring her total to 166.

Katie Irvin scored a 170 for the Griffons while Sabrina Galfano improved her first-round score by seven strokes to finish with a total score of 173.

Next up for Missouri Western Women’s Golf is the MIAA Championship, which will begin April 23 at Firekeeper Golf Course in Mayetta, Kansas.

— MWSU Athletics —

Cardinals blank Dodgers 4-0

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ST. LOUIS (AP) — Yadier Molina drove in three runs, Paul Goldschmidt homered and the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 4-0 on Tuesday night, overcoming an embarrassing play by Marcell Ozuna.

St. Louis already had a 4-0 lead when Kike Hernandez led off the eighth with a drive to left. Ozuna went back and climbed up the wall, but he misjudged the ball and tumbled onto the warning track as he tried to make the play. Hernandez’s drive bounced over for a ground-rule double, but Mike Mayers and Andrew Miller managed to escape the threat.

Six St. Louis pitchers combined for a seven-hitter. The Dodgers stranded 13 runners and struck out 10 times.

John Brebbia (1-0) pitched 1 1/3 innings for the win.

Los Angeles dropped consecutive games for the first time this season. The Dodgers had won five in a row before stalling in St. Louis.

— Associated Press —

Northwest’s Klein named MIAA Field Athlete of the Week

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Northwest Missouri State junior long jumper Marcus Klein has been named the MIAA field athlete of the week.

Klein (Harlan, Iowa) automatically qualified for the NCAA outdoor track and field championship meet in the long jump with a series of jumps measuring – 7.61m, 7.61m, 7.75m and 7.75m – at the SBU Bearcat Invitational in Bolivar, Missouri. The 7.75 meter jump converts to 25′ 5.25″, which bests the previous school mark set by Matt Abele in 2001 (25’1.5″). Klein’s jump ranks No. 2 in the nation in the long jump among NCAA Division II competitors.

Earlier this spring, Klein captured the MIAA indoor title in the long jump.

— Northwest Athletics —

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