Sports briefs
Girls lacrosse
Karson Martin was unstoppable Tuesday night, scoring five goals and leading Peters Township to a 13-4 win over Moon in the opening round of the WPIAL Class 3A playoffs.
The win sends sixth-seeded Peters Township to the quarterfinals tonight against third-seeded Pine-Richland.
Peters Township’s Abby Neupaver had a strong all-around game with two goals and two assists, Grace Kail and Lani Filoon each tallied a pair of goals, and Delaney Kern had a goal and one assist.
Pony baseball
Winning pitcher Hayden Stack struck out eight and Noah Hanzen belted two doubles as Marthinsen & Salvitti defeated Avella 5-2 Wednesday in the Founders Pony League.
Avari Chandler chipped in with a double for the winners.
- Burgettstown was an 8-5 winner over Turturice & Associates in a Founders Pony League game Wednesday.
Caleb Matalik went 2-for-3 to support the winning pitching of Trent Stevens.
- Caleb Patton had a double and triple, powering Washington Hyundai to a 6-5 victory over Chartiers-Houston Heider on Tuesday in the Founders Pony League.
Leo Carder added a triple, and Zach Schrader and Cayden Saive each doubled to back the winning pitching of Ben Koskoski.
In college football
The Pac-12 announced Wednesday it was scrapping its divisional format for the upcoming football season moments after the NCAA Division I Council tossed out requirements that dictate how conferences can determine a champion.
The Pac-12 will now pair the teams with the highest conference winning percentages in its title game after 11 seasons of matching winners of the North and South divisions.
Other conferences are expected to follow, most notably the 14-team Atlantic Coast Conference. The ACC is looking to implement a new scheduling model as soon as 2023.
To have a conference title game, NCAA rules previously required leagues to split into divisions if they could not play a full round-robin schedule. The 10-member Big 12 wound up deciding to resume its title game even without divisions in part to raise the profile of the winner for playoff consideration.
In baseball
C.J. Cron hit a tiebreaking two-run homer in a three-run eighth inning, and the Colorado Rockies stopped their 12-game losing streak against San Francisco by rallying past the Giants 5-3 Wednesday.
Logan Webb retired 16 straight batters in pursuit of becoming the major leagues’ first six-game winner and led 3-2 when pinch-hitter Connor Joe singled leading off the eighth.
- Keston Hiura returned to the majors and hit a two-run, winning homer off Jesse Chavez in the 11th inning as the Milwaukee Brewers rallied from a four-run deficit to beat the Atlanta Braves, 7-6.
The Brewers had tied it with two outs in the ninth on an RBI triple from Kolten Wong.
- Isaac Paredes homered twice against his former teammates to double his career big league total, helping the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Detroit Tigers 6-1 on an afternoon Eduardo Rodriguez left in the first inning and headed to the injured list.
- Justin Turner hit a three-run homer in the fourth inning and the Los Angeles Dodgers rallied past the Arizona Diamondbacks 5-3 to complete a four-game sweep.
- Carlos Correa went 2 for 4 with an RBI double in his return from a stint on the injured list caused by a bruised middle finger on his right hand, and the Minnesota Twins set a season high for runs in a 14-4 rout of the Oakland Athletics.