College Softball

Skyhawks’ softball on a roll – RMAC Pitcher of the Week

COLORADO SPRINGS – For the first time since Cary Moone did it back in 2008, the Fort Lewis College softball team won Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Pitcher of the Week honors.

Last week, FLC third baseman Chelsea Rodriguez became the Skyhawks’ first position player since Temple Levings (2005) to win player-of-the-week honors.

Villegas, a transfer from South Mountain Community College, was 1-0 with a .51 earned run average and six strikeouts in three appearances at the Grand Canyon Invitational in Phoenix last weekend. She won her only start and pitched 6 1/3 innings of relief.

“Alexis pitched extremely well all weekend,” FLC head coach Kira Zeiter said in a news release Tuesday. “She was using all pitches in her arsenal to keep the opposing hitters off-balance. Alexis is calm and confident on the mound and puts a sense of ease in the team.”

Fort Lewis (2-7) went 1-3 at the tournament and will play its first home and RMAC games of the season this weekend, but the back-to-back doubleheaders will be played at Ricketts Field in Farmington because of the snowpack at Aspen Field on the FLC campus. FLC will host RMAC neophyte Black Hills State (0-5) at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. and noon Sunday.

Durango Herald

MLB

Note to MLB managers: No more stalling on the hill

NEW YORK – Major League Baseball tweaked its rulebook to prevent managers from stalling to give relievers extra time to get ready. The change was proposed by the Playing Rules Committee in the offseason and approved by MLB, the players’ union and umpires.

La Russa will work for Selig, but work remains unknown

LAKELAND, Fla. – Tony La Russa said he’s talked to Commissioner Bud Selig about working for Major League Baseball in some capacity.

La Russa, who retired as a manager after guiding the St. Louis Cardinals to the World Series title last year, was visiting with the Detroit Tigers at spring training Tuesday. La Russa is good friends with Tigers manager Jim Leyland and has a longstanding relationship with general manager Dave Dombrowski.

La Russa was vague when talking about what he might do for MLB but said he would not be taking Joe Torre’s old job as executive vice president of baseball operations. He said he’d be working with Selig but he’s “not sure how official the commissioner wants to make it.”

Compensation for Epstein is Carpenter and one more

FORT MYERS, Fla. – The Chicago Cubs and Boston Red Sox finally announced a deal Tuesday that settles a four-month dispute over what Boston should get as compensation when two-time world champion general manager Theo Epstein left for Chicago.

The Cubs sent right-handed reliever Chris Carpenter – a 26-year-old, hard-throwing reliever – and a player to be named later to the Red Sox for a player to be named.

World Cup Skiing

Mancuso is best of the best in parallel World Cup slalom

MOSCOW – Julia Mancuso of the United States and Alexis Pinturault of France dominated the parallel slalom World Cup races on a giant ramp in Moscow on Tuesday.

Mancuso dominated Michaela Kirchgasser of Austria in both final runs in the only city event on the Alpine circuit this season. Overall World Cup leader Lindsey Vonn, who lost to Mancuso in the semifinals, finished third.

The top 16 men and women in the World Cup standings competed in the event on a 564-foot long ramp with 18 gates, constructed on a square at the Luzhniki sports complex.

Pinturault edged Felix Neureuther of Germany by 0.17 in the second run of the final to earn his first career World Cup title. Andre Myhrer of Sweden beat Romed Baumann of Austria for third.

Associated Press