Sports briefs
College softball
A pair of strong pitching performances highlighted Washington & Jefferson’s split with Grove City at Brooks Park on Tuesday afternoon.
The Presidents surrendered just one run over the two games as W&J fell 1-0 in the opener before winning 8-0 in a five-inning second game.
W&J’s record moves to 7-4-1 and Grove City is 4-6.
The W&J bats came alive in game two to support a three-hit shutout by freshman Jordan Hinz, who got her fifth win.
Brooke Stout doubled and had three RBI for the Presidents. Haylee Holman homered, doubled, drove in a pair of runs and scored twice.
- Westminster swept Waynesburg, 13-0 and 8-0, to remain undefeated at 12-0.
In the NFL
The Philadelphia Eagles have signed veteran quarterback Joe Flacco.
Flacco’s agent, Joe Linta, made the announcement on Twitter on Tuesday. The Eagles only had Jalen Hurts under contract before the move.
Flacco, the 2012 Super Bowl MVP, started four games for the Jets last season and eight games for the Broncos in 2019. He spent his first 11 seasons with Baltimore, leading the Ravens to six playoff appearances and one Super Bowl title.
The 36-year-old Flacco returns home. He grew up close to Philadelphia and went to high school in Audubon, New Jersey. Flacco played two seasons at the University of Delaware and was selected No. 18 overall by the Ravens in 2008.
Flacco is 98-77 as a starter in the regular season, 10-5 in the playoffs.
- The Cincinnati Bengals signed free agent cornerback Eli Apple to a one-year contract.
Apple, a former Ohio State star, was a first-round pick by the New York Giants in 2016 and went to the New Orleans Saints via trade in 2018.
He played for the Carolina Panthers on a one-year contract last season but injuries limited him to two games.
In the NHL
The NHL is instituting changes to the draft lottery that make it more difficult for the last-place team to drop out of the top three in the selection order.
Beginning with the 2021 draft, only the first two picks will be subject to the lottery instead of the top three, and no team can move up more than 10 picks. Starting in 2022, no team will be able to win the draft lottery – for either of the first two spots – more than twice in a five-year span.
The tweaks were made after the Detroit Red Wings fell to the fourth pick in the 2020 draft despite finishing 23 points behind the 30th-place team.
- Michael McLeod, Kyle Palmieri, Yegor Sharangovich and Travis Zajac scored and the New Jersey Devils beat the Philadelphia Flyers 4-3 Tuesday night.
In the NBA
The Charlotte Hornets say rookie point guard LaMelo Ball underwent successful surgery on his fractured right wrist Tuesday.
Ball’s wrist will be immobilized and he’ll be reevaluated in four weeks. The Hornets say additional updates will be provided at that time, although a person familiar with the situation told the Associated Press on Monday that Ball is expected to miss the remainder of the NBA season.
In horse racing
The Preakness will be run in front of a limited capacity of 10,000 fans at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore on May 15.
Organizers of the second jewel of horse racing’s Triple Crown announced the decision Tuesday. Churchill Downs has said it expects the Kentucky Derby to be run in front of roughly 40-50% of capacity May 1 in Louisville. Typically, the Preakness draws over 100,000 spectators.