September 21, 2020 4:01 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) – Ben Roethlisberger threw for 311 yards with two touchdowns and an interception and the Pittsburgh Steelers fended off a spirited comeback by the Denver Broncos 26-21. The Steelers (2-0) knocked out Denver starting quarterback Drew Lock in the first quarter with a right shoulder injury but didn’t secure the win under safety Terrell Edmunds sacked Broncos backup Jeff Driskel on fourth-and-2 with less than two minutes to go. Driskel completed 18 of 34 for 256 yards with two touchdowns and a pick and absorbed a serious pounding at the hands of Pittsburgh’s defense.
September 21, 2020 3:58 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) – Yadier Molina hit a two-run homer and Jack Flaherty pitched six dominant innings as the St. Louis Cardinals kept their hold on a postseason spot with a 2-1 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates. Molina’s home run to the bleachers in left field came in the seventh inning off Derek Holland and extended St. Louis’ winning streak to a season-high four games. The Cardinals had been shut out by Joe Musgrove over the first six innings. Flaherty allowed only one run and two hits while striking out 11 and walking two.
September 21, 2020 3:56 am
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) – Anthony Davis had the last word in Game 2 of the NBA’s Western Conference finals. Davis made a 3-pointer as time expired to give the Los Angeles Lakers a 105-103 victory over the Denver Nuggets and a series 2-0 lead. He scored 22 of his 31 points in the second half, including the Lakers’ last 10 of the game. The Nuggets had trailed by as much as 16, but Nikola Jokic scored 11 straight Denver points down the stretch, including a basket that made it 103-102 with 20 seconds to play. LeBron James had 26 points and 11 rebounds for the Lakers, while Jokic finished with 30 points and nine assists. Jamal Murray scored 25 points for the Nuggets, who are back in action on Tuesday.
September 21, 2020 3:55 am
MAMARONECK, N.Y. (AP) – Bryson DeChambeau has won the U.S. Open — the first major championship for golf’s long-hitting mad scientist. He shot 67 on Sunday to finish at 6 under. Third-round leader Matthew Wolff shot 75 to finish second, six strokes back. DeChambeau is the third person in history to win an NCAA title, a U.S. Amateur and the U.S. Open. The others are Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods. DeChambeau was the only player under par in the final round, laughing off Winged Foot’s narrow fairways and thick rough with his booming drives that averaged 325 yards.
September 20, 2020 7:31 am
PITTSBURGH — Tyler O’Neill hit a two-run double to end a no-hit bid started by Pittsburgh’s Mitch Keller, and the St. Louis Cardinals rallied to beat the Pirates 5-4 Saturday night. Keller threw 84 pitches over six no-hit innings and was pulled from the game leading 4-0, but the Cardinals scored five runs off relief pitchers Geoff Hartlieb and Sam Howard in the seventh. O’Neill broke up the no-hit bid and keyed the inning with his bases-loaded double against Howard (2-3). St. Louis improved to 25-24 and is a game ahead of Cincinnati and Milwaukee for second place in the NL Central. The top two teams in each division advancing to the expanded postseason. The 24-year-old Keller spun a gem in his second start since missing six weeks with a strained left oblique, but was pulled well short of finishing it off. He walked two and hit O’Neill with a pitch before retiring his final 14 batters, finishing with six strikeouts. Keller knew his chances of going nine innings were slim. Hartlieb relieved in the seventh and promptly loaded the bases by walking Brad Miller and Paul DeJong and drilling Yadier Molina. Howard then came in and allowed O’Neill’s line drive into the left field corner.
September 20, 2020 7:29 am
PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh coach Pat Narduzzi watched the Panthers put together a nearly flawless practice last Tuesday, one so close to perfect that Narduzzi admitted he practically had to invent something to complain about. That won’t be an issue going forward. While Narduzzi remains high on his team, No. 25 Pitt still has plenty to work on following a sloppy 21-10 win over Syracuse on Saturday. A week removed from a romp against overmatched Austin Peay in the opener, the Panthers (2-0, 1-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) looked very much like a work in progress against the Orange (0-2, 0-2). Seven penalties, three missed field goals and two turnovers allowed Syracuse to hang around well into the second half before Pitt finally pulled away behind a dominant defensive performance.
September 20, 2020 7:34 am
MAMARONECK, N.Y. (AP) — Matthew Wolff is playing his first U.S. Open and carving his own path. That starts with shots he gouges out of the rough. It ends with him making six birdies, the last one a towering 7-iron from the first cut of rough that landed over the steep slope on the 18th green at Winged Foot and settled 10 feet right of the pin to match the best score — a 5-under 65 — at Winged Foot in a major. He hit only two fairways Saturday on a course — and a major — with a blueprint for avoiding the rough. The only number that mattered to the 21-year-old Californian was a two-shot lead going into the final round. It’s going so well that Wolff is one round away from becoming the youngest U.S. Open champion since Bobby Jones in 1923. Maybe he’s too young to realize U.S. Open champions are supposed to play from the short grass Or maybe Wolff is so dynamic and talented that it doesn’t matter. Either way, he held a two-shot lead over Bryson DeChambeau, another guy with a recipe all his own, who only hit three fairways managed to hang in there long enough to scratch out a 70 to keep his hopes very much alive.
September 19, 2020 3:51 am
(AP)- Tyler O’Neill slammed a two-run homer in the second inning to put the Cardinals ahead to stay in a 6-5, Game 1 victory at Pittsburgh. Kolten Wong opened the scoring with a solo blast and added an RBI grounder that put the Redbirds ahead, 6-2. St. Louis completed a sweep as Dylan Carlson’s three-run shot capped a six-run sixth that rallied the Cards past the Pirates, 7-2. A catcher’s interference call coupled with throwing errors by infielders Ke’Bryan Hayes and Josh Bell prolonged an inning that allowed the Cardinals to move back to .500.
September 19, 2020 3:55 am
(AP) – Baylor’s football season opener against Houston is one of two Bowl Subdivision games postponed Friday, the day before before they were supposed to play.
Florida Atlantic’s opener against Georgia Southern was postponed earlier in the day, following the results of FAU’s COVID-19 testing Thursday. In both cases, the schools involved said they would try to find make-up dates.
September 20, 2020 2:38 am
NEW WILMINGTON, Pa. (pacathletics.org)–The Presidents’ Athletic Conference (PAC) has announced preliminary spring scheduling models and postseason championship opportunities for four of the league’s fall championship sports that had their intercollegiate athletic competition postponed in August in response to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, including football. The League’s 10 football-playing schools will be split into two divisions, North & South. Each school will play four in-division games, followed by a crossover game. The crossover opponents will be based on division standings. The season will cover seven weeks (March 12-April 23) with each team having two open dates.
South Division: Bethany, Carnegie-Mellon, Saint Vincent, Washington & Jefferson, Waynesburg
North Division: Case-Western Reserve, Geneva, Grove City, Thiel, Westminster.
