Sports briefs
College baseball
Shane Erny hit a grand slam, lifting Washington & Jefferson to a 15-6 victory over host Geneva in a Presidents’ Athletic Conference on Thursday.
Conference-leader W&J (15-1, 20-9) used to big innings – a six-run sixth and five-run eighth – to erase a 5-2 deficit.
Erny hit his grand slam in the sixth to give W&J an 8-5 lead.
Josh Crummer hit two doubles and drove in three for the Presidents. Erny finished the game with five RBI.
Winning pitcher Ben Marsico pitched five innings and improved his record to 7-1. He struck out seven.
In the majors
Patrick Corbin took a one-hitter into the eighth inning to earn his first win with Washington, Wilmer Difo homered and the Nationals beat the punchless San Francisco Giants 4-2 Thursday.
Signed to a $140 million, six-year contract in December after pitching for six seasons in Arizona, Corbin started three games without a decision with his new team before throwing a gem in the deciding matchup of a three-game series.
- Christian Walker continued his remarkable late-innings production with a two-run homer in the seventh, Luke Weaver got Arizona off to a good start and the Diamondbacks beat the Atlanta Braves 4-1 to complete a three-game sweep.
- Homer Bailey won consecutive starts for the first time since July 2017, holding the New York Yankees to three hits over six innings and leading the Kansas City Royals to a 6-1 victory.
- Nicholas Castellanos had three hits and drove in a pair of runs as the Detroit Tigers ended a five-game losing streak with a 9-7 win over the Chicago White Sox.
- Randal Grichuk, Justin Smoak and Teoscar Hernandez hit home runs and the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Minnesota Twins 7-4.
Eric Sogard added a three-run double for the Blue Jays, who took three of four at Target Field. Eddie Rosario homered twice for the Twins.
MLS expanding
to 30 teams
St. Louis and Sacramento have been invited to submit formal bids for franchises as Major League Soccer’s Board of Governors formally unveiled plans Thursday to expand to 30 teams.
Commissioner Don Garber made the announcement, pointing to expansion as one of the key drivers of the league’s growth in recent years.
The league is currently at 24 teams, with FC Cincinnati joining this season. Miami and Nashville are teed up to start next year and Austin, Texas, will come aboard in 2021.
The board did not identify markets that would receive teams but groups in Sacramento and St. Louis were allowed to make formal presentations to the league’s expansion committee. Garber said he hopes to have an announcement by the MLS All-Star Game in late July.
Sacramento’s hopes of landing a team were boosted in January when billionaire Ron Burkle became the new lead investor in the Sacramento Republic soccer team. The team currently plays in the second-tier United Soccer League.
Burkle is a co-owner of the NHL’s Pittsburgh Penguins with a net worth estimated at $2 billion by Forbes magazine.
In golf
Shane Lowry was convinced his game was on the rise, despite his poor scoring. He finally showed that Thursday in the RBC Heritage, shooting a 6-under 65 to take a one-shot lead.
Trey Mullinax, Daniel Berger, Luke List, Ryan Moore and Ryan Palmer were tied for second.
Top-ranked Dustin Johnson, coming off a second-place tie at Masters last week, rallied with two birdies in his final seven holes for a 68, leaving him three shot back.