College Basketball
Weather continues to rain on college basketball’s parade
The winter storm that continued to wreak havoc Thursday in the Northeast and South forced the postponement of sporting events for the second consecutive day.
Two men’s basketball games featuring AP Top 25 teams were postponed – No. 13 Louisville at Temple and No. 23 SMU at Rutgers. They have been rescheduled for Friday night.
Other Division I men’s games scheduled for Thursday night that have been postponed include: Charleston Southern at High Point, Bryant at Mount St. Mary’s, Central Connecticut State at St. Francis, Wagner at Farleigh Dickinson, Northern Kentucky at Kennesaw State and Western Carolina at Chattanooga.
MLB
MLB gets 2 new crew chiefs and 7 new umpires in ’14
NEW YORK – Bill Miller and Jeff Nelson were promoted to crew chiefs by Major League Baseball, which added seven umpires to the big league staff as part of the expansion for increased instant replay.
MLB agreed last month to boost the umpire staff by six members, and an additional ump was hired to replace Wally Bell, who died in October of an apparent heart attack.
The new members of the staff announced Thursday are Jordan Baker (age 32), Lance Barrett (29), Cory Blaser (32), Mike Estabrook (37), Mike Muchlinski (36), David Rackley (32) and D.J. Reyburn (37). All seven were minor league umps who filled in at the big league level in recent years for umps that were injured or on vacation.
As part of MLB’s replay agreement with the World Umpires Association, the big league staff expanded from 68 to 74. Major league umps will be used as replay officials as the offices of MLB Advanced Media in New York, where many on-field umpiring decisions will be subject to video review.
Justin Klemm was hired in the new post of director of instant replay. A veteran of nine years as a minor league ump, he had spent the last six years with the Professional Baseball Umpire Corp., which manages minor league umps. He will report to Peter Woodfork, MLB’s senior vice president of baseball operations.
Soccer
USA soccer will host Mexico in an Arizona friendly
CHICAGO – The U.S. soccer team will host Mexico in an exhibition game April 2 at Glendale, Ariz., as both nations prepare for the World Cup.
The game, announced Thursday, is not on a FIFA fixture date. That means Europe-based players are not likely to be available for the match.
Preparing for their seventh consecutive World Cup appearance, the Americans opened their 2014 schedule with a 2-0 win over South Korea on Feb. 1. The U.S. is planning home exhibitions for May 27, June 1 and June 7 before leaving for Brazil.
At the World Cup, the U.S. has first-round games against Ghana on June 16, Portugal six days later and Germany on June 26. Mexico will open against Cameroon, before playing Brazil and Croatia.
Wambach scores her 165th in the Americans’ 8-nil win
ATLANTA – Abby Wambach extended her record with her 165th international goal, and the United States’ women’s soccer team beat Russia 8-0 in an exhibition Thursday night to extend its unbeaten streak to 42 games.
Shutting out Russia for the second time in six days by a combined 15-0 score, the world’s top-ranked team improved to 36-0-6 since March 2012. The Americans are 70-0-10 in their last 73 home games.
Hope Solo earned her second shutout in as many games against the Russians.
With the U.S. up 2-0 on own goals in the 11th and 50th minutes, Amy Rodriguez took Heather O’Reilly’s pass from the right side and volleyed it in with her left leg for a 3-0 lead in the 52nd minute.
Wambach, scoring her 40th goal in the Americans’ last 48 games, made it 4-0 in the 54th, taking Megan Rapinoe’s pass from the left side and bowling over goalkeeper Maria Zhamanakova in the penalty box for the score.
Associated Press
