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Reynolds hits 2-run homer as Pirates’ 8-4 win delays Braves clinching playoff spot

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:45:31 GMT

ATLANTA (AP) — Ronald Acuña Jr. and the Atlanta Braves were agitated before the end of the first inning. It proved to be the start of a long night. Bryan Reynolds had three hits, including a two-run homer, and the Pittsburgh Pirates beat Atlanta 8-4 to prevent the Braves from becoming the first major league team to clinch a playoff berth Saturday.The Braves, who lead the majors with 92 wins, are 14 games ahead of second-place Philadelphia in their bid for a sixth consecutive NL East title. They need one more victory to clinch no worse than a wild card.After completing their series with Pittsburgh, the Braves will begin a four-game series in Philadelphia on Monday.Tensions rose and benches cleared in the first inning when Johan Oviedo’s fourth pitch backed Acuña off the plate. Acuña glared at Oviedo after the thigh-high pitch. Oviedo returned the glare and then began shouting at Acuña as he walked toward the plate.“Emotions just peaked,” Acuña said through a translator.Home plate ump...

Facing uncertain future, Washington State upsets No. 19 Wisconsin 31-22

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:45:31 GMT

PULLMAN, Wash. (AP) — Cameron Ward passed for 212 yards and two touchdowns and added another 43 yards rushing, Nakia Watson scored on a 1-yard run with 5:30 remaining and Washington State upset No. 19 Wisconsin 31-22 on Saturday night.Ward scrambled for runs of 23 yards and 14 yards during a pivotal fourth-quarter drive to help the Cougars avoid a second-half meltdown and beat the Badgers for the second straight season. Watson capped the drive with his 1-yard plunge.Washington State (2-0) hosted its first Power Five nonconference opponent since 1998 and played its first home game since the collapse of the Pac-12 this summer. Facing an uncertain future as a Power Five program, Washington State put on a show in the first half to race to a 24-6 lead.“In this moment, it’s everything. We belong in the Power Five,” Washington State coach Jake Dickert said on the field as it was flooded by celebrating fans after the upset. “These kids have worked their (tails) off. I’m so damn ...

Sonic Boom, Boomer’s 55-yarder field goal as time expires carries C. Florida past Boise St.

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:45:31 GMT

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Colton Boomer hit four field goals including the 40-yard game winner on the final play to lift Central Florida over Boise State 18-16 on Saturday evening.UCF (2-0), which struggled in the red zone, leaned on Boomer, who tied a school record with a 55-yard field goal in the second quarter.Boise State (0-2), which had fallen behind midway through the fourth quarter for the first time since the opening period, took a 16-15 lead with 1:49 remaining when backup quarterback Maddux Madsen threw a 28-yard touchdown pass to Stefan Cobbs. But the two-point conversion pass attempt failed, which proved to be costly.UCF quarterback John Rhys Plumlee, who finished 16-of-24 passing for 272 yards, engineered a comeback of his own. Plumlee drove the Knights 58 yards on nine plays to set up Boomer’s game-winning kick at the horn.UCF came out aggressive on its opening possession, needing only two plays to get to the Boise State 15. But on the next play, Alexander Teubner intercepte...

Japan’s Yamamoto throws 2nd no-hitter ahead of possible move to Major League Baseball

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:45:31 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — Japanese pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who could be moving to Major League Baseball next season, pitched the 100th no-hitter in Japanese big league history on Saturday for the Orix Buffaloes against the Lotte Marines.Yamamoto struck out eight, walked one and hit one batter in the 4-0 victory, extending his scoreless streak to 42 innings. The 25-year-old right-hander is 14-5 with a 1.26 ERA, 145 strikeouts and 24 walks in 143 innings this season.It was the second no-hitter for the two-time Pacific League MVP, who threw his first against the Seibu Lions on June 18 last year.He was 1-0 with a 2.45 ERA in two starts and one relief appearance at this year’s World Baseball Classic, striking out 12 and walking two in 7 1/3 innings.Yamamoto does not have enough service time to become a free agent in Japan but he could be offered to MLB teams under the posting system agreed to by MLB and Nippon Professional Baseball.New York Yankees general manager Brian Cashman watched from...

No. 11 Texas upends No. 3 Alabama 34-24

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:45:31 GMT

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) — Quinn Ewers finished what he started last season, passing for 349 yards and three touchdowns to lead No. 11 Texas to a 34-24 victory over third-ranked Alabama on Saturday night in a huge win for a program trying to climb back into national championship contention.The Longhorns (2-0) delivered the biggest victory under Steve Sarkisian in a game that slipped away last season after a red-hot Ewers exited because of a first-quarter shoulder injury. He was back and with another big weapon in Adonai Mitchell. This amounted to a welcome-to-the-Southeastern Conference moment for a program set to join Alabama & Co. next season.It didn’t come without a fight from the Crimson Tide (1-1), which has now seen three games slip away late in the past two seasons. Alabama had its 21-game home winning streak snapped along with a 57-game regular-season binge against nonconference teams dating to Nick Saban’s debut season, 2007.No. 22 COLORADO 36, NEBRASKA 14BOULDER, Colo. (A...

Western Carolina beats defending Southern Conference champion Samford 30-7

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:45:31 GMT

CULLOWHEE, N.C. (AP) — Cole Gonzales passed for 262 yards and two touchdowns, Desmond Reid rushed for 170 yards and a score, and Western Carolina beat defending Southern Conference champion Samford 30-7 on Saturday in a weather-delayed game.Western Carolina led 14-7 with 11:38 remaining in the second quarter when the game was delayed due to lightning in the area. The Catamounts had the ball after WCU’s first takeaway of the season. The game, originally scheduled for a 2:30 p.m. start, restarted five hours later at 9 p.m.Richard McCollum made two field goals in the closing 98 seconds of the first half to extend Western Carolina’s lead to 20-7. McCollum added an 18-yarder in the third quarter and Reid scored on a short run in the fourth.Western Carolina (1-1, 0-1 Southern Conference) ended a five-game winless drought against Samford (1-1, 0-1) with its first victory in the series since the 2017 season.Michael Hiers threw for 315 yards and a touchdown for Samford, which is ...

Tennessee State blocks game-tying field goal attempt to hold off UAPB in Southern Heritage Classic

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:45:31 GMT

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Jordan Grant and Demeatric Crenshaw each scored on short touchdown runs and Tennessee State got a bonus touchdown in an unlikely manner, defeating Arkansas-Pine Bluff 24-14 on Saturday night in the 34th Southern Heritage Classic.The Tigers built a 17-0 lead through three quarters but had to hold on in the final minute when UAPB lined up for a tying 31-yard field goal attempt. The kick was blocked in the middle of the line and James Green scooped up the ball, broke a tackle and raced 92 yards for a touchdown.After the touchdowns by Grant and Crenshaw, James Lowery added a 23-yard field goal to give the Tigers a 17-0 lead with less than a minute to go in the third quarter.The Golden Lions then drove 75 yards and 99 yards for a pair of short touchdown runs of their own, cutting their deficit to 17-14. UAPB next drove 63 yards in 4 1/2 minutes to set up the field goal try, but the play ended in Green’s long sprint down the sideline.Deveon Bryant passed for 17...

Rishi Sunak defends net zero record, confirms he will attend COP28

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:45:31 GMT

NEW DELHI — British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak confirmed he will attend the COP28 summit later this year as he defended his record on net zero.Sunak told reporters travelling with him to the G20 summit in India that achieving net zero emissions “if done in the right way can be very beneficial for jobs.”He added that he would be going to the COP28 summit starting November 30 in Dubai. There had been a question mark over his attendance given his checkered record on climate issues.His ruling Conservative Party has sought to draw a dividing line with Labour on climate policies in recent weeks by stressing that they shouldn’t lead to increased costs for families.Sunak told reporters in New Delhi that he did not think tackling climate change should involve a “hair shirt” approach of giving up luxuries or increasing people’s bills.“The net zero story for me shouldn’t be kind of hair shirt story of giving everything up and your bills going up,” he said. “That’s not the vision of...

Christie’s legacy lives on in ‘A Haunting in Venice’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:45:31 GMT

With Friday’s “A Haunting in Venice,” director-star Kenneth Branagh charts a surprisingly dark and sinister vision for this, his third Agatha Christie-Hercule Poirot murder mystery.Where Branagh’s “Murder on the Orient Express” and “Murder on the Nile” were lavish, all-star scenarios complimented by extensive CGI, “Haunting” is set entirely in a 1947 Venetian palazzo on the Grand Canal shockingly visited by violent death.It was screenwriter Michael Green who conceived the premise of a Halloween mystery by adapting Christie’s novel “Hallowe’en Party,” said executive producer James Prichard, CEO of the Agatha Christie Limited and the legendary author’s great grandson.“At first I wasn’t quite sure what Michael wanted to do or why,” Prichard, 53, explained in a Zoom interview from London.  “But his view was that we shouldn’t just do another big story in the traditional way, but maybe we should try something different, play with it a bit.“One of the things I actually learned ...

Squeeze amps up for Tuesday show in Boston

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:45:31 GMT

Plenty of words have been used to describe Squeeze’s brand of pop: Catchy, melodic, classically English. And quite often the word “quirky” will get thrown into the mix as well.“I never got that, because I thought that what we did was perfectly normal,” singer and guitarist Glenn Tilbrook said recently. “But now when I listen back, we were pretty damn quirky. I mean, ‘Black Coffee in Bed’ has three different kinds of verses — Why did we do that? But it seemed normal at the time.”Normal or not, Squeeze wound up with a trunk full of killer singles, all of which should be played when they hit the Wang Theatre with the Psychedelic Furs Tuesday. Tilbrook and co-singer/writing partner Chris Difford have guided Squeeze through numerous lineups, but the new one is a little different. It’s the first septet version, adding a full-time steel guitarist (Melvin Duffy) and an extra singer/percussionist, Steve Smith who used to front the band Dirty Vegas (and lived briefly in Boston). So expe...