Sports briefs
W&J baseball ranked No. 20
The Washington & Jefferson College baseball program was ranked at No. 20 in the Preseason D3Baseball.com/NCBWA Top 25 poll, which was recently announced by the website.
The Presidents are coming off a historic 2019 season in which they advanced to the Division III College World Series for a second time in the three seasons. W&J finished with a 38-13 overall record and a 21-3 mark in conference play in 2019.
The Presidents finished with a 9-2 record during postseason play and swept its way through the Presidents’ Athletic Conference Tournament, the NCAA Salisbury University Regional and the NCAA Super Regional over Misericordia to advance to the world series.
Mendoza has new roles at ESPN
Jessica Mendoza will no longer be on ESPN’s “Sunday Night Baseball” or work for the New York Mets front office after signing a contract extension with the network.
ESPN announced Friday that Mendoza will be an analyst on weekday games as well as making appearances on various network shows, including “SportsCenter” and “Baseball Tonight.”
Mendoza’s increased appearances on ESPN have led her to resign as a baseball operations adviser to the Mets and general manager Brodie Van Wagenen. She was hired as a Mets adviser last March.
Mendoza joined ESPN as a softball analyst and college football sideline reporter in 2007. She has been an MLB analyst since 2015 and was part of the “Sunday Night Baseball” booth for four seasons. Her roles with the network and the Mets had been under discussion since the end of last season.
In the NBA
Bradley Beal made a layup with 0.2 seconds left to reach 29 points and give the Washington Wizards a 119-118 victory Friday night over the Dallas Mavericks, who have dropped three of five games without Luka Doncic.
Beal’s heroics came after Mavericks guard Tim Hardaway Jr. drew a blocking foul and hit one of two free throws with 1.8 seconds left. Beal was 11 of 28 from the field.
Washington made 19 of 38 three-pointers. Davis Bertans was responsible for five of them and finished with 20 points.
- •Furkan Korkmaz scored a career-high 34 points, Ben Simmons added 22 points and 10 assists and the Philadelphia 76ers snapped a four-game losing streak with a 119-107 victory over the Memphis Grizzlies.
Joel Embiid didn’t come out after halftime due to a stiff neck. He finished with 10 points and 10 rebounds in 16 minutes for the 76ers, who improved to an NBA-best 23-2 at home.
In the NHL
Elvis Merzlikins got a fifth shutout in his last eight starts and the Columbus Blue Jackets extended their points streak to 10 games with a 2-0 win over the Detroit Red Wings on Friday night.
Zach Werenski’s second-period goal, his 17th of the season, broke a franchise season scoring record for defensemen for the Blue Jackets, who have won three straight and nine of 10.
- Jimmy Vesey had a goal and an assist against his former team, Carter Hutton stopped 37 shots, and the Buffalo Sabres held on to beat the New York Rangers, 3-2.
Zemgus Girgensons and Sam Reinhart also scored to help Buffalo get just its second win in seven games.
Brian Glennie, a hard-hitting defenseman who spent most of his 10-year NHL career with the Toronto Maple Leafs, has died. He was 73.