Sports briefs 5/1
Wild Things exhibition
The Wild Things concluded their two-game exhibition road trip on Thursday, dropping a 3-1 game at the Lake Erie Crushers.
Outside of a three-run homer by Lake Erie, Washington pitchers performed well. Starter Zander Sechrist struck out three in three innings, Maddox Long followed on the mound and faced six batters, striking out five. Hector Gracia struck out the side in his only inning.
Andrew Czech had a three-hit day to lead the Washington batters. Benjamin Rosengard reached base three times.
The Wild Things will play one more exhibition game, Saturday night (7:05 p.m.) at home against Lake Erie. The regular season begins Thursday at Windy City.
College softball
Avery Contini pitched a three-hit shutout as fourth-seeded Hiram defeated fifth-seeded Waynesburg 5-0 on Thursday in the first round of the double-elimination Presidents’ Athletic Conference tournament that is being hosted by Westminster.
Hiram (18-19) had a pair of two-run innings and took advantage of three errors by Waynesburg (26-15) that led to four unearned runs.
Waynesburg’s Braylee Corbin hit a double.The Yellow Jackets fall into the consolation round and will face Bethany at noon today.
College baseball
California split a PSAC West doubleheader against Slippery Rock on Thursday at EQT park.
The Rock won the opener 2-1 in eight innings before Cal took the nightcap, 4-2.
The Vulcans scored four runs in the second inning in their win and Coleman Fletcher pitched a complete game five-hitter. Alex Ables drive ein a pair of runs for Cal (14-12, 26-20).
Pony baseball
Evan Campbell and Blake Korneda combined on a no-hitter as Donley Brock blanked Steptoe & Johnson 5-0 in the Washington Pony League on Wednesday.
Campbell had an electric outing as he faced 12 batters and struck out 11 of them.
Dallas’ Pickens signs franchise tag
Dallas Cowboys receiver George Pickens signed his $27.3 million franchise tag Wednesday, making it almost certain the Pro Bowler will show up for mandatory offseason work while the club remains adamant it has no plans to trade CeeDee Lamb’s sidekick.
Pickens informed the Cowboys just hours before the start of the NFL draft last week that he intended to sign the one-year tender, which sparked trade speculation because executive vice president Stephen Jones had said a day earlier Dallas had no plans to negotiate a long-term contract with Pickens this offseason.
The 25-year-old, acquired last year in a trade with Pittsburgh, had career highs in catches (93), yards receiving (1,429) and touchdowns (nine) for one of the best offenses in the NFL last season. Dallas had one of the worst defenses in the league and finished 7-9-1, missing the playoffs for the second year in a row.
Pickens thrived alongside Lamb, who is going into the second year of a $136 million, four-year contract that currently ranks him third among NFL receivers with an average annual value of $34 million.
There was incentive for Pickens to take the guaranteed money under the tag because it’s a huge payday compared to the total earnings of $6.8 million on his four-year rookie deal as a 2022 second-round pick out of Georgia.
By signing the contract, Pickens can participate in the voluntary offseason program that started this week.
College basketball
The world’s tallest college basketball player is going coast to coast.
Former Florida walk-on Olivier Rioux, a 7-9 center from Canada and one of the most recognizable student-athletes in North America, announced Thursday he has signed with UC Irvine. The school in Southern California announced his arrival hours earlier.
Rioux played sparingly in two years with the Gators, redshirting as a true freshman during the team’s national championship season and then getting on the court in mop-up duty this past season. He played 15 total minutes, finishing with seven points, six rebounds and an assist.
NBA
Taylor Jenkins was officially announced as the Milwaukee Bucks coach on Thursday, as the former Memphis Grizzlies coach takes over a team coming off a 50-loss season that snapped a string of nine straight playoff appearances.
The announcement comes a week after reports surfaced that the Bucks and Jenkins were finalizing an agreement. Jenkins takes over for Doc Rivers, who stepped down a day after the Bucks completed their season.
The 41-year-old Jenkins coached the Grizzlies from 2019-25 and posted a 250-214 record that included three straight playoff appearances from 2021-23. The Grizzlies fired him with nine games left in the 2024-25 season and went on to get swept by eventual champion Oklahoma City in the first round of that year’s playoffs.
This isn’t Jenkins’ first stint with the Bucks.
He was an assistant coach on Mike Budenholzer’s Milwaukee staff in 2018-19 and helped the Bucks post an NBA-best 60-22 record.