4/8/24 Hometown Broadcasting Sports Monday
8 April 2024 Sports
From Wayne Mausser
William Contreras hit two home runs, Willy Adames also homered and the Milwaukee Brewers pounded the Seattle Mariners 12-4 on Sunday.
Contreras finished with four hits and five RBIs. He hit his first homer off Seattle starter Emerson Hancock (1-1) in the second inning and connected on his second two-run shot off third baseman Josh Rojas, who pitched the eighth.
Contreras, who is batting .387 with an OPS of 1.121, made a believer out of Mariners manager Scott Servais.
The Brewers had 14 hits. Colin Rea (2-0) went six innings and allowed seven hits, including RBI singles by Jorge Polanco and Rojas. Rea pitched with a stomach virus, Brewers manager Pat Murphy said.
Adames’ home run off the left-field foul pole highlighted a four-run fourth inning and chased Hancock, a 24-year-old right hander making his fifth-career major league start.
Hancock allowed eight runs on 11 hits with six strikeouts in 3 1/3 innings.
Oliver Dunn and Jake Bauers each had two hits with an RBI and two runs scored for Milwaukee. Sal Frelick, who was dropped down to sixth in the batting order for the game, responded with two hits and two RBIs.
Reliever Collin Snider took a shot off the knee cap by Frelick in the fourth. He fell flat on the mound as Servais and the Mariners’ training staff raced from the dugout. Snider eventually threw a warm-up pitch, but then walked off the field. Tayler Saucedo came on in relief.
LHP Aaron Ashby, who missed the 2023 season after left shoulder surgery, makes his season debut for Milwaukee in the first road game of four against Cincinnati and RHP Graham Ashcraft (0-1, 3.00). First pitch is at 5:40.
Elsewhere in the NL Central Sunday the Pirates nipped the Orioles 3-2, the Mets downed the Reds 3-1, the Marlins over the Cardinals 10-3 and the Cubs beat the Dodgers 8-1. The Brewers and Pirates are 6-2 and tied for first in the division.
Jalen Brunson scored 43 points and the Knicks surged in the second half to win 122-109 and hand the Bucks their fourth consecutive loss. Brunson is averaging 37.2 points in five games against the Bucks this season.
Brunson’s ninth 40-point game of the season put him in sole possession of third place on the Knicks’ single-season list. Bernard King had a team-record 13 games with 40 or more in 1984-85.
The Bucks are facing their longest losing streak of the season and also have dropped six of their last seven. Milwaukee is a game ahead of the Knicks and Orlando Magic in the race for the Eastern Conference’s No. 2 playoff seed behind the Boston Celtics.
At least this loss came to a team with a winning record. The Bucks’ current slide started with losses to the Washington Wizards, Memphis Grizzlies and Toronto Raptors, who are all well below .500.
“We’re not a losing team,” Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo said. “We don’t have that mentality. That’s not in us. … This is not what we do. We’ve got to be better.”
Antetokounmpo had 28 points, 15 rebounds and eight assists in his return to action after missing the Bucks’ 117-111 loss to the Raptors on Friday due to an issue with his left hamstring. This marked just the fourth time in the last 29 games that the Bucks’ top three players – Antetokounmpo, Damian Lillard and Khris Middleton – were all available.
But they wouldn’t all make it to the end of the game. Middleton got hit in the face midway through the second quarter and didn’t play the rest of the night.
Middleton fell to the floor after New York’s Donte DiVincenzo inadvertently hit him in the face. As Middleton was lying on his stomach, Knicks center Isaiah Hartenstein fell after hitting a shot and landed on the Bucks forward’s back.
The three-time All-Star headed to the locker room with blood coming from his mouth. Bucks coach Doc Rivers said Middleton got a tooth knocked out and was visiting a dentist after the game.
Without Middleton on the floor, Brunson and the Knicks rallied. He also had eight assists and six rebounds.
DiVincenzo scored 26 points and Hartenstein added 18 points and 10 rebounds. Josh Hart had seven points, nine rebounds and nine assists.
Bobby Portis scored 24 points and Lillard had 23 for the Bucks. The Bucks host the Boston Celtics on Tuesday.
The Gamecocks vanquished the Iowa Hawkeyes 87-75 in the women’s NCAA tournament title game to become the 10th team in Division I history to complete an undefeated season (38-0), joining UConn (six times), Baylor (2011-12), Tennessee (1997-98) and Texas (1985-86) as the only programs to achieve such a feat.
After graduating 2023 No. 1 WNBA draft pick Alivah Boston and four other starters from last year, South Carolina became the first team since at least 2000 to win a title after returning none of its primary starters from a team that reached the Final Four the previous season.
To clinch history, the Gamecocks defeated the team that ended their season last year in Iowa and Caitlin Clark, the presumptive No. 1 pick in next week’s WNBA draft.
Clark scored 30 Sunday and ended her collegiate career with the most points in Division I men’s or women’s history at 3,951. Iowa, which beat South Carolina in the national semifinal last year before losing to the LSU Tigers in the title game, once more fell short of its first national championship.
“The biggest thing is it’s really hard to win these things,” Clark said. “I think I know that better than most people by now. To be so close twice really hurts.”
Final Four Most Outstanding Player Kamilla Cardoso finished with 15 points and a career-high 17 boards, becoming the fifth player with at least 15 points and 15 rebounds in a championship game in the past 25 seasons. Having already announced she is entering the draft, where she is expected to be an early pick, Cardoso is the only major contributor for South Carolina who won’t return next season.
Purdue meets UConn in the men’s NCAA basketball championship game Monday night. In the semifinals Saturday the #1 seed Boilermakers 7’4” center Nick Edey scored 20 points and grabbed 12 rebounds in a 64-40 victory over 11th seed North Carolina State. The Wolfpack hadwon nine straight ACC and NCAA tournament elimination games en route to its spot in the Final Four as an 11 seed. Purdue shot 10 of 25 from 3-point distance (40%), keeping pace with a 40.6% success rate on the season that ranked as the second-best in the nation. LanceJones did the bulk of of the work on a 4-of-9 effort from 3-point distance en route to 14 points, four rebounds and three assists.
In the other match-up the Huskies pulled away from a pesky Alabama team late in the second half of their Final Four matchup on Saturday to dispatch the Crimson Tide 86-72. The Huskies pulled away from a pesky Alabama team late in the second half to get the win. Stephon Castle finished with 21 points, while Donovan Clingan had 18, while Alex Karaban and Cam Spencer each scored 14. Clingan also finished with four blocks while Alex Karaban and Alex Spencer each had eight rebounds.
Monday night’s game starts at 8:20.
The Milwaukee Brewers claimed right-handed pitcher Vladimir Gutierrez off waivers from the Miami Marlins on Friday and assigned him to their Triple-A affiliate in Nashville.
Miami had designated the 28-year-old Gutierrez for assignment on Monday after he gave up three runs over four innings in a 9-7, 10-inning loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates a day earlier.
Gutierrez went 9-6 with a 4.74 ERA in 22 starts for the Cincinnati Reds in 2021. He was 1-6 with a 7.61 ERA for the Reds the next year before undergoing Tommy John surgery. He worked his way back from the injury to pitch in five minor league games last season.
The Marlins signed him in February.
In other Brewers pitching news, left-hander Aaron Ashby went on the taxi squad this weekend as the team monitors the health of right-hander Jakob Junis, who is dealing with what manager Pat Murphy described as a “scratchy” shoulder.
On the men’s PGA tour Akshay Bhatia finished off one of the most impressive and improbable wire-to-wire victories in recent memory, fending off a heroic charge by runner-up Denny McCarthy on Sunday afternoon, and finding his way into the winner’s circle at the TPC San Antonio Oaks Course winning 2024 Valero Texas Open.
McCarthy forced a playoff with an incredible string of eight birdies in the final nine holes, and after he buried a seventh-straight birdie putt it appeared he might be poised for his first PGA Tour victory.
Bhatia responded with a huge birdie putt of his own on the 18th hole, and then watched as McCarthy made a surprising and fatal mistake by chunking a wedge from 100 yards out on the playoff hole and splashing it into a creek.
Adding a little more drama, Bhatia then asked for his shoulder to be taped up by a trainer before his approach on the playoff hole, telling those on hand that he pulled it out of its socket during a fist-pump celebration.
Beaver Dam’s McKenna Nelson won the girls 14-15 age group at the 2024 Drive, Chip and Putt National Finals at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia
The Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame will gain 13 new members. The 2024 class was announced Saturday in Glendale, Arizona, the site of this year’s NCAA Men’s Final Four. One of the 13 inductees includes former UW-Madison, UW-Platteville and Milwaukee head coach Bo Ryan.
Ryan, who was announced as a finalist back in February, was in Glendale to receive a commemorative jersey alongside other inductees. “When I got the news about entering the Naismith Hall of Fame, my thoughts instantly went to the countless people who have been a part of this journey with me,” Ryan said. “I’m grateful and humbled
by an honor like this, but I sincerely believe that this is a reflection of the contributions of so many people that have helped me in my career.”
The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame induction marks the ninth hall of fame that Ryan will be enshrined in. He was inducted into the College Basketball Hall of Fame in 2017.
Ryan went 747-233 (.762) in 32 seasons as a collegiate head coach with UW-Platteville (1984-89), Milwaukee (1999-2001) and UW-Madison (2001-15). He is the winningest coach in UW-Madison history with a 364-130 (.737) overall record.
Honored four times as the Big Ten Coach of the Year, Ryan led the Badgers to four Big Ten regular-season titles, three Big Ten tournament championships, and back-to-back Final Four appearances (2014-15). He was also a four-time Division III champion (1991, ‘95, ‘98-99) as head coach of UW-Platteville.
In 36 seasons, Murphy compiled a record of 668-219. He was 615-193 at Seymour and 53-26 at Kimberly. The 668 wins rank No. 2 in the state in boys basketball, with Jerry Petitgoue holding the top spot with a seemingly unreachable 1,027.
Murphy won three state titles at Seymour, four silver balls and made 12 trips to the state tournament, the last coming in 2011. He also captured 15 conference titles and led Seymour to seven straight state title games from 2000-2006.
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