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.
September 19, 2020 3:53 am
TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) – Former Cardinals safety and Pro Football Hall of Famer Larry Wilson has died at 82. Wilson spent more than 43 years in the Cardinals organization as a player and an executive.
A seventh-round draft pick out of Utah in 1960, Wilson played 13 seasons with the Cardinals. He was an eight-time Pro Bowl selection and a first-team All-Pro five times.
September 18, 2020 3:54 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) – Steven Brault pitched a two-hitter for his first career complete game, Gregory Polanco hit a three-run homer and the Pittsburgh Pirates snapped an eight-game skid with a 5-1 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals. St. Louis dropped to third place in the NL Central, 6 1/2 games behind the division-leading Chicago Cubs and one back of the Cincinnati Reds. Brault had never pitched more than seven innings in his previous 43 starts. The Cardinals got their only hits in the third when Kolten Wong and Tommy Edman hit back-to-back singles, with Edman driving in St. Louis’ only run.
September 18, 2020 3:47 am
CLEVELAND (AP) – Baker Mayfield threw two touchdown passes, Nick Chubb ran for two scores and the Cleveland Browns gave coach Kevin Stefanski his first NFL win by beating the Cincinnati Bengals 35-30 on the NFL’s 100th birthday. Mayfield connected with Odell Beckham Jr. on a 43-yard scoring pass, and the Browns rebounded from an atrocious performance last week in Baltimore, where they were roughed up 38-6 by the Ravens and looked mostly inept in Stefanski’s debut. Things went much more smoothly against the Bengals and No. 1 overall pick Joe Burrow, who threw two TD passes and showed nice poise in just his second game.
