Podcast appearances and mentions of forest hills central

Our coverage of the Forest Hills Central Rangers vs. Coldwater Cardinals varsity girls basketball game from Mol Arena in Grand Rapids, a Girls Classic Division contest at the Cornerstone High School Holiday Tournament. Announcers: Sean Watson & Quinn Berry. Final score: Coldwater 36, Forest Hills Central 22. Our McDonald's Player of the Game was Coldwater guard Elli Foley, who was named to the All-Tournament Team along with Forest Hills Central's Maggie Sneider.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I was on-site for some big matchups between Forest Hills Central and Clarkston as well as Brighton and Hartland. Lots of thoughts on all four of those teams, plus a closer look at Michigan high school hockey's biggest rivalry between Detroit Catholic Central and Brother Rice. We update the Top-10 Rankings and break down the biggest games coming up this weekend. MJR Foundation LINK: https://mjrfoundation.org/2023-jilek-cup-donation-competition/

Join Jonathon Kidd and Sean Baligian for another of State Champs! Hockey Time. 0:45 - Clarkston at Detroit Catholic Central Recap 1:52 - Plymouth at Livonia Churchill Recap 2:46 - Forest Hills Central at Mona Shores Recap 3:31 - Brother Rice at Houghton Recap 4:18 - Alpena at the North-South Showcase 5:53 - MAC Showcase Recap 8:06 - Ann Arbor Huron 8:55 - Wyandotte Roosevelt 9:48 - Nathan Bryer - Clarkston - Coaches Corner 12:28 - Warrior Player of the Year Update 14:19 - DAC Athlete of the Year Promo 15:37 - Wall Award Update 18:02 - Wednesday Game Previews Detroit Catholic Central at Brother Rice, Livonia Stevenson at Hartland, Lakeland at Flint Powers, Grosse Pointe South at Trenton 19:45 - Thursday Game Preview Allen Park at Riverview Gabriel Richard 20:23 - Friday Game Previews Brighton at Hartland, Saginaw Heritage at Mona Shores 21:07 - Saturday Game Previews Flint Powers at Detroit Country Day, Saginaw Heritage at Byron Center, U of D Jesuit at Detroit Catholic Central, Brother Rice at Trenton Presented by Alta Equipment Company & LTU Athletics & sponsored by the MHSAA, Ice Mountain Spring Water, Warrior Hockey, Michigan High School Hockey Coaches Association and the Detroit Athletic Club.

Curious about the Forest Hills Public School District here in Grand Rapids, Michigan? Whether you're looking to relocate to the Grand Rapids area, looking to make a move within Grand Rapids, or are just generally curious about the Forest Hills school district, we're going to break it down for you. About the Forest Hills School District (0:43) Forest Hills Eastern (2:30) Forest Hills Northern (3:30) Forest Hills Central (4:40) Specialty Schools and Immersion Programs (6:00) Fine Arts Opportunities (7:30) Athletics (8:15) This district is absolutely amazing and if you have children in the Forest Hills Public schools, we'd love if you'd comment on some of the things that you love about the Forest Hills public schools! Get more from May Group Realtors at https://marketgrandrapids.com or over on Instagram @maygroupgr and @livingingrandrapids

This week on STATE CHAMPS! Extra Point. Lorne Plant, Sydney Cariel and Devin Gardner preview the upcoming MHSAA State Finals3:50 - Division 8 - Ubly vs. Whiteford5:28 - Division 2 - Forest Hills Central vs. De La Salle7:11 - Division 6 - West Catholic vs. Negaunee9:08 - Division 4 - Goodrich vs. South Christian10:24 - Mr. Football Final Four Announcement16:44 - DMC Gamechangers18:52 - DAC Athlete of the Year Promo20:03 - Anvil Award Final Four Announcement26:04 - Division 7 - St. Francis vs. Lumen Christi27:24 - Division 1 - Belleville vs. Caledonia 32:08 - Division 5 - Frankenmuth vs. Gladwin33:23 - Division 3 - Detroit King vs. Muskegon38:28 - Final Thoughts on the MHSAA Football FinalsSpecial thanks to Bally Sports Detroit and our sponsors Lawrence Technological University, MHSAA, Hungry Howie's, ALTA Equipment Company, Michigan Army National Guard, Detroit Medical Center, Fieger Law, Menards, Detroit Athletic Club, and the Southeast Michigan Ford Dealers.

MLB – Major League Baseball Yesterday Seattle Mariners 7, Detroit Tigers 0 Chicago White Sox 7, Kansas City Royals 1 Cubs were off Mariners 7, Tigers 0 – Mariners hand Tigers 18th shutout loss, complete sweep Julio Rodriguez and Ty France hit back-to-back home runs in the third inning and the Seattle Mariners completed a three-game series sweep by defeating the Detroit Tigers 7-0. It was the 18th shutout loss for the Tigers this season. France and Curt Casali drove in two runs apiece as the Mariners won for the sixth time in seven games. Logan Gilbert (11-5), who had gone winless in his previous nine starts, held Detroit to two hits and a walk while striking out nine in six innings. Gilbert’s last victory came on July 5. White Sox 7, Royals 1 – Vaughn, Pollock homer, White Sox beat Royals 7-1 Andrew Vaughn and A.J. Pollock each cracked a two-run homer and singled, and the Chicago White Sox topped the Kansas City Royals 7-1. Leury Garcia and Elvis Andrus each added two hits and an RBI and for the White Sox, who won their second straight following a five-game slide to climb back within a game of .500. Chicago improved to 2-1 under bench coach Miguel Cairo, serving in his third game as acting manager while Tony La Russa is on indefinite leave to undergo tests for an unspecified health issue. Johnny Cueto allowed one run on six hits in 5 1/3 innings, walking none and striking out five. Tonight Kansas City (Lynch 4-9) at Detroit (Hutchison 2-7), 7:10 p.m.              WSJM 6:50 Minnesota (Gray 7-4) at Chicago White Sox (Martin 2-4), 8:10 p.m. Chicago Cubs (Sampson 1-4) at St. Louis (Montgomery 7-3), 8:15 p.m. WNBA – WNBA Playoffs – WNBA Semifinals (best of 5) Sunday Chicago Sky at Connecticut Sun, 1:00 p.m.                                 (Series tied 1-1) Las Vegas Aces at Seattle Storm, 3:00 p.m.                                 (Series tied 1-1) NCAAFB – College Football – Week 1 Last Night (12) Oklahoma State 58, Central Michigan 44 OSU 58, CMU 44 – Sanders helps No. 12 Oklahoma State beat Central Michigan Spencer Sanders passed for a career-high 406 yards and accounted for six touchdowns and No. 12 Oklahoma State beat Central Michigan 58-44 on Thursday night to give Mike Gundy his 150th coaching victory. Gundy improved to 150-69 in his 18th season coaching his alma mater. Sanders matched a career high with four touchdown passes and set a career mark with two rushing scores in the opener for both teams. Braydon Johnson had career highs of six catches for 133 yards and Brennan Presley added five catches for 83 yards. Daniel Richardson passed for a career-high 424 yards and threw four touchdown passes for Central Michigan. Lew Nichols III, the nation’s leading rusher last year, ran for 72 yards and two touchdowns on 26 carries. Tonight Western Michigan at (15) Michigan State, 7:00 p.m.                    Superhits 103.7 Cosy-FM 5:30 ‘ Eastern Kentucky at Eastern Michigan, 7:00 p.m. NCAAFB – Mel Tucker leads No. 15 Michigan St against Western Michigan No. 15 Michigan State opens with Western Michigan on Friday night at home. Mel Tucker was named Big Ten coach of the year last season after winning 11 games, following a 2-5 debut with the Spartans in 2020. Broncos coach Tim Lester is 32-25 in five seasons and is coming off a 52-24 win over Nevada in the Quick Lane Bowl. Michigan State has eight starters back on defense and five on offense. .The Broncos return eight starters on defense and four on offense from last year’s team that was 8-5 overall and 4-4 in the Mid-American Conference. Saturday Colorado State at (8) Michigan, 12:00 p.m.                                News/Talk/Sports 94.9 WSJM 11:00 (5) Notre Dame at (3) Ohio State, 7:30 p.m. NCAAFB – No. 8 Michigan aiming higher, hosts Colorado State in opener No. 8 Michigan wants to surpass the success last year’s team had, and that won’t be easy. The Wolverines won a Big Ten title for the first time since 2004 and earned its first trip to the College Football Playoff. To achieve lofty goals, the Wolverines can’t afford to get stunned in a game that’s expected to be a rout such as Saturday’s opener at home against Colorado State. Former Nevada coach Jay Norvell is making his debut, hoping to help the Rams stay competitive in a game they’re expected to lose by four-plus touchdowns. NCAAFB – No. 2 Ohio State seeks fast start against No. 5 Notre Dame No. 2 Ohio State has one of the most explosive offensive attacks in the nation, and coach Ryan Day is stressing a fast start against No. 5 Notre Dame in Saturday night’s season opener. New Buckeyes defensive coordinator Jim Knowles installed a new scheme and a salty attitude in the unit. Emotions will be running high for first-year Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman, who played linebacker at Ohio State in 2004-08 and coached at Cincinnati under Luke Fickell. The Fighting Irish haven’t beaten Ohio State since 1936. NFL – Bears set to unveil conceptual plans for suburban stadium The Chicago Bears are set to unveil conceptual plans for a suburban stadium and entertainment complex next week. The team is considering a move from its longtime home, Soldier Field. The Bears have signed a purchase agreement for a 326-acre tract of land in Arlington Heights, Illinois, about 30 miles northwest of Soldier Field. The team will hold a community meeting in the town next week and detail its plans. Team president Ted Phillips has said a deal likely wouldn’t close until early 2023. That’s when the team would decide if it makes sense financially to pursue the project. NFL – Bears GM Poles not ruling out long-term contract with Smith Chicago Bears general manager Ryan Poles remains optimistic the team can agree to a long-term contract with Roquan Smith and repair their relationship after the star linebacker requested a trade. Poles says he has “faith” Smith will “have a good year and we’ll work on our relationship.” Smith was hoping to strike a new deal with the contract he signed after the Bears drafted him with the No. 8 overall pick in 2018 set to expire following this season. He participated in voluntary and mandatory offseason workouts. But with negotiations at a standstill, things took a heated turn once training camp started. He opted to “hold in” and then went public with a trade request while accusing Poles of negotiating in bad faith. NFL – Ravens’ mascot headed to IR with ‘drumstick’ injury The Baltimore Ravens are making a feathered addition to their injured reserve list. Coach John Harbaugh announced that Poe — the team’s bird mascot — was going on IR. Poe was carted off the field at halftime of the Ravens’ preseason game against Washington last weekend. Poe was joined by other mascots for a halftime game before being injured. Harbaugh said Poe has a season-ending injury to his drumstick, and the team would find a replacement. Tennis – US Open – Serena, Venus Williams lose in 1st round of US Open doubles Serena and Venus Williams have lost in the first round of doubles at the U.S. Open. They were eliminated by the Czech pair of Lucie Hradecka and Linda Noskova 7-6 (5), 6-4 on Thursday night. Arthur Ashe Stadium had never hosted a first-round doubles match until this one featuring two American sisters who have combined to claim 14 Grand Slam titles in doubles but were partnering for the first time since the 2018 French Open. The 17-year-old Noskova was making her Grand Slam doubles debut. The 37-year-old Hradecka won two major doubles trophies with a different partner. Tennis – US Open – Nadal hits nose with racket, tops Fognini Rafael Nadal has come back to win at the U.S. Open after cutting himself on the bridge of his nose when his racket bounced off the court and smacked him in the face against Fabio Fognini.  Nadal was bleeding and took a medical timeout. A trainer put a bandage on his nose.  The 22-time Grand Slam champion won the second-round match 2-6, 6-4, 6-2, 6-1 at Arthur Ashe Stadium.  They started Thursday night and finished after midnight.  Play resumed after about a five-minute delay when Nadal hurt himself on the first point of a game with Nadal leading 3-0 in the fourth set. NBA – AP source: Cavaliers acquiring All-Star G Mitchell from Jazz A person familiar with the trade tells AP the Cleveland Cavaliers have agreed to acquire All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell in a blockbuster trade with the Utah Jazz. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the NBA still has to approve the trade. The person says Cleveland is sending guard Collin Sexton, forward Lauri Markkanen and rookie guard Ochai Agbaji along with three unprotected first-round picks to the Jazz. Mitchell is one of the league’s premiere scorers and his acquisition could put the Cavs among the elite teams in the Eastern Conference. NASCAR – NASCAR drivers feeling the hits more in Next Gen car The jolts are more jarring and the effects linger for longer for NASCAR drivers in the Next Gen car’s debut season. Racers feel they have taken harder hits in accidents this season than in the past. NASCAR crash analysis agrees, and there have been discussions with drivers about how to improve safety. The issue came to the forefront earlier this summer when Kurt Busch crashed in qualifying at Pocono. He suffered a concussion and still has not been cleared to race. Busch gave up his playoff spot because of his condition. NBAGL – New rules: G League will set a target score for OT games Overtime in the G League this season will be a race to seven points. The schedule for the G League’s 22nd season has been was released, with the 50-game slate for teams beginning on Nov. 4 and ending on March 25. And the league is making some changes, with a switch to a “target score” ending for its overtime games among the most significant. The first team to score seven points in the OT period wins, and that extra session will be untimed. MILB – Minor league unionization getting interest from players Players on the Single-A Tampa Tarpons have been talking individually about efforts to unionize minor league players and the idea is gaining momentum. Centerfielder Spencer Jones says it is something that definitely interests him. Tampa reliever Ryan Anderson says it makes a lot of sense because it could lead to better benefits down the line. Signed cards from 30% of minor leaguers in the bargaining unit would allow filing a petition with the National Labor Relations Board asking for a union authorization election, which would be decided by majority vote. MILB – Midwest League Baseball Last Night West Michigan Whitecaps 5, Fort Wayne Tin Caps 2 South Bend Cubs 3, Lansing Lugnuts 1 Lake County Captains 8, Great Lakes Loons 5 – 10 Innings Tonight West Michigan Whitecaps at Fort Wayne Tin Caps, 7:05 p.m. Lansing Lugnuts at South Bend Cubs, 7:05 p.m. Lake County Captains at Great Lakes Loons, 7:05 p.m. MCCAA – Junior College Athletics Last Night Volleyball Lake Michigan College 3, Bethel JV 0 Saturday Men’s Soccer Terra State Community College at Lake Michigan College, 3:00 p.m. MHSAA – High School Sports Last Night Football Non-Conference St. Joseph 41, Hudsonville Unity Christian 28 Kalamazoo United 33, Lakeshore 28 Berrien Springs 35, Hillsdale 28 Niles 28, Buchanan 18 Ada Forest Hills Eastern 56, South Haven 22 Mattawan 37, Marshall 0 Lawton 28, Decatur 12 Brandywine 46, Cassopolis 0 Allegan 56, Comstock 0 Plainwell 49, Coldwater 0 Schoolcraft 22, Centreville 2 Parchment 21, Delton-Kellogg 14 Saugatuck 20, Lakeview 7 G.R. Forest Hills Central 42, Portage Central 0 Battle Creek Central 34, Harper Creek 0 Kalamazoo Loy Norrix 8, Kalamazoo Central 7 Holland West Ottawa 21, Portage Northern 10 Tecumseh 54, Gull Lake 14 White Pigeon 32, Galesburg-Augusta 7 Hudson 22, Constantine 20 Battle Creek Lakeview (1-0) at River Rouge (1-0), PPD Power outage at River Rouge Wolverine Conference Paw Paw 33, Otsego 27 Edwardsburg 38, Three Rivers 30 Vicksburg 42, Sturgis 7 8-Man Football Wyoming Tri-Unity 60, Twin Cities 52        Bridgman 60, Red Arrow 12 Marcellus 44, Fennville 18 Farwell 34, Bloomingdale 0 Martin 50, Gobles 6 Mendon 76, Wyoming-Lee 12 Boys Soccer Fennville 5, Constantine 0 Mattawan 8, Paw Paw 0 Buchanan 0, New Buffalo 0 – TIE Howardsville Christian 4, Kalamazoo Heritage 0 Bryon Center 3, Kalamazoo Central 0 Friday Football Non-Conference GR Ottawa Hills (0-1) at Benton Harbor (0-1), 7:00 p.m. Dowagiac (0-1) at Watervliet (1-0), 7:00 p.m. Boys Soccer Bangor at Our Lady of the Lake, 12:00 p.m. Berrien Springs at Niles, 10:00 a.m.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

MLB – Major League Baseball Yesterday Seattle Mariners 7, Detroit Tigers 0 Chicago White Sox 7, Kansas City Royals 1 Cubs were off Mariners 7, Tigers 0 – Mariners hand Tigers 18th shutout loss, complete sweep Julio Rodriguez and Ty France hit back-to-back home runs in the third inning and the Seattle Mariners completed a three-game series sweep by defeating the Detroit Tigers 7-0. It was the 18th shutout loss for the Tigers this season. France and Curt Casali drove in two runs apiece as the Mariners won for the sixth time in seven games. Logan Gilbert (11-5), who had gone winless in his previous nine starts, held Detroit to two hits and a walk while striking out nine in six innings. Gilbert’s last victory came on July 5. White Sox 7, Royals 1 – Vaughn, Pollock homer, White Sox beat Royals 7-1 Andrew Vaughn and A.J. Pollock each cracked a two-run homer and singled, and the Chicago White Sox topped the Kansas City Royals 7-1. Leury Garcia and Elvis Andrus each added two hits and an RBI and for the White Sox, who won their second straight following a five-game slide to climb back within a game of .500. Chicago improved to 2-1 under bench coach Miguel Cairo, serving in his third game as acting manager while Tony La Russa is on indefinite leave to undergo tests for an unspecified health issue. Johnny Cueto allowed one run on six hits in 5 1/3 innings, walking none and striking out five. Tonight Kansas City (Lynch 4-9) at Detroit (Hutchison 2-7), 7:10 p.m.              WSJM 6:50 Minnesota (Gray 7-4) at Chicago White Sox (Martin 2-4), 8:10 p.m. Chicago Cubs (Sampson 1-4) at St. Louis (Montgomery 7-3), 8:15 p.m. WNBA – WNBA Playoffs – WNBA Semifinals (best of 5) Sunday Chicago Sky at Connecticut Sun, 1:00 p.m.                                 (Series tied 1-1) Las Vegas Aces at Seattle Storm, 3:00 p.m.                                 (Series tied 1-1) NCAAFB – College Football – Week 1 Last Night (12) Oklahoma State 58, Central Michigan 44 OSU 58, CMU 44 – Sanders helps No. 12 Oklahoma State beat Central Michigan Spencer Sanders passed for a career-high 406 yards and accounted for six touchdowns and No. 12 Oklahoma State beat Central Michigan 58-44 on Thursday night to give Mike Gundy his 150th coaching victory. Gundy improved to 150-69 in his 18th season coaching his alma mater. Sanders matched a career high with four touchdown passes and set a career mark with two rushing scores in the opener for both teams. Braydon Johnson had career highs of six catches for 133 yards and Brennan Presley added five catches for 83 yards. Daniel Richardson passed for a career-high 424 yards and threw four touchdown passes for Central Michigan. Lew Nichols III, the nation’s leading rusher last year, ran for 72 yards and two touchdowns on 26 carries. Tonight Western Michigan at (15) Michigan State, 7:00 p.m.                    Superhits 103.7 Cosy-FM 5:30 ‘ Eastern Kentucky at Eastern Michigan, 7:00 p.m. NCAAFB – Mel Tucker leads No. 15 Michigan St against Western Michigan No. 15 Michigan State opens with Western Michigan on Friday night at home. Mel Tucker was named Big Ten coach of the year last season after winning 11 games, following a 2-5 debut with the Spartans in 2020. Broncos coach Tim Lester is 32-25 in five seasons and is coming off a 52-24 win over Nevada in the Quick Lane Bowl. Michigan State has eight starters back on defense and five on offense. .The Broncos return eight starters on defense and four on offense from last year’s team that was 8-5 overall and 4-4 in the Mid-American Conference. Saturday Colorado State at (8) Michigan, 12:00 p.m.                                News/Talk/Sports 94.9 WSJM 11:00 (5) Notre Dame at (3) Ohio State, 7:30 p.m. NCAAFB – No. 8 Michigan aiming higher, hosts Colorado State in opener No. 8 Michigan wants to surpass the success last year’s team had, and that won’t be easy. The Wolverines won a Big Ten title for the first time since 2004 and earned its first trip to the College Football Playoff. To achieve lofty goals, the Wolverines can’t afford to get stunned in a game that’s expected to be a rout such as Saturday’s opener at home against Colorado State. Former Nevada coach Jay Norvell is making his debut, hoping to help the Rams stay competitive in a game they’re expected to lose by four-plus touchdowns. NCAAFB – No. 2 Ohio State seeks fast start against No. 5 Notre Dame No. 2 Ohio State has one of the most explosive offensive attacks in the nation, and coach Ryan Day is stressing a fast start against No. 5 Notre Dame in Saturday night’s season opener. New Buckeyes defensive coordinator Jim Knowles installed a new scheme and a salty attitude in the unit. Emotions will be running high for first-year Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman, who played linebacker at Ohio State in 2004-08 and coached at Cincinnati under Luke Fickell. The Fighting Irish haven’t beaten Ohio State since 1936. NFL – Bears set to unveil conceptual plans for suburban stadium The Chicago Bears are set to unveil conceptual plans for a suburban stadium and entertainment complex next week. The team is considering a move from its longtime home, Soldier Field. The Bears have signed a purchase agreement for a 326-acre tract of land in Arlington Heights, Illinois, about 30 miles northwest of Soldier Field. The team will hold a community meeting in the town next week and detail its plans. Team president Ted Phillips has said a deal likely wouldn’t close until early 2023. That’s when the team would decide if it makes sense financially to pursue the project. NFL – Bears GM Poles not ruling out long-term contract with Smith Chicago Bears general manager Ryan Poles remains optimistic the team can agree to a long-term contract with Roquan Smith and repair their relationship after the star linebacker requested a trade. Poles says he has “faith” Smith will “have a good year and we’ll work on our relationship.” Smith was hoping to strike a new deal with the contract he signed after the Bears drafted him with the No. 8 overall pick in 2018 set to expire following this season. He participated in voluntary and mandatory offseason workouts. But with negotiations at a standstill, things took a heated turn once training camp started. He opted to “hold in” and then went public with a trade request while accusing Poles of negotiating in bad faith. NFL – Ravens’ mascot headed to IR with ‘drumstick’ injury The Baltimore Ravens are making a feathered addition to their injured reserve list. Coach John Harbaugh announced that Poe — the team’s bird mascot — was going on IR. Poe was carted off the field at halftime of the Ravens’ preseason game against Washington last weekend. Poe was joined by other mascots for a halftime game before being injured. Harbaugh said Poe has a season-ending injury to his drumstick, and the team would find a replacement. Tennis – US Open – Serena, Venus Williams lose in 1st round of US Open doubles Serena and Venus Williams have lost in the first round of doubles at the U.S. Open. They were eliminated by the Czech pair of Lucie Hradecka and Linda Noskova 7-6 (5), 6-4 on Thursday night. Arthur Ashe Stadium had never hosted a first-round doubles match until this one featuring two American sisters who have combined to claim 14 Grand Slam titles in doubles but were partnering for the first time since the 2018 French Open. The 17-year-old Noskova was making her Grand Slam doubles debut. The 37-year-old Hradecka won two major doubles trophies with a different partner. Tennis – US Open – Nadal hits nose with racket, tops Fognini Rafael Nadal has come back to win at the U.S. Open after cutting himself on the bridge of his nose when his racket bounced off the court and smacked him in the face against Fabio Fognini.  Nadal was bleeding and took a medical timeout. A trainer put a bandage on his nose.  The 22-time Grand Slam champion won the second-round match 2-6, 6-4, 6-2, 6-1 at Arthur Ashe Stadium.  They started Thursday night and finished after midnight.  Play resumed after about a five-minute delay when Nadal hurt himself on the first point of a game with Nadal leading 3-0 in the fourth set. NBA – AP source: Cavaliers acquiring All-Star G Mitchell from Jazz A person familiar with the trade tells AP the Cleveland Cavaliers have agreed to acquire All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell in a blockbuster trade with the Utah Jazz. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the NBA still has to approve the trade. The person says Cleveland is sending guard Collin Sexton, forward Lauri Markkanen and rookie guard Ochai Agbaji along with three unprotected first-round picks to the Jazz. Mitchell is one of the league’s premiere scorers and his acquisition could put the Cavs among the elite teams in the Eastern Conference. NASCAR – NASCAR drivers feeling the hits more in Next Gen car The jolts are more jarring and the effects linger for longer for NASCAR drivers in the Next Gen car’s debut season. Racers feel they have taken harder hits in accidents this season than in the past. NASCAR crash analysis agrees, and there have been discussions with drivers about how to improve safety. The issue came to the forefront earlier this summer when Kurt Busch crashed in qualifying at Pocono. He suffered a concussion and still has not been cleared to race. Busch gave up his playoff spot because of his condition. NBAGL – New rules: G League will set a target score for OT games Overtime in the G League this season will be a race to seven points. The schedule for the G League’s 22nd season has been was released, with the 50-game slate for teams beginning on Nov. 4 and ending on March 25. And the league is making some changes, with a switch to a “target score” ending for its overtime games among the most significant. The first team to score seven points in the OT period wins, and that extra session will be untimed. MILB – Minor league unionization getting interest from players Players on the Single-A Tampa Tarpons have been talking individually about efforts to unionize minor league players and the idea is gaining momentum. Centerfielder Spencer Jones says it is something that definitely interests him. Tampa reliever Ryan Anderson says it makes a lot of sense because it could lead to better benefits down the line. Signed cards from 30% of minor leaguers in the bargaining unit would allow filing a petition with the National Labor Relations Board asking for a union authorization election, which would be decided by majority vote. MILB – Midwest League Baseball Last Night West Michigan Whitecaps 5, Fort Wayne Tin Caps 2 South Bend Cubs 3, Lansing Lugnuts 1 Lake County Captains 8, Great Lakes Loons 5 – 10 Innings Tonight West Michigan Whitecaps at Fort Wayne Tin Caps, 7:05 p.m. Lansing Lugnuts at South Bend Cubs, 7:05 p.m. Lake County Captains at Great Lakes Loons, 7:05 p.m. MCCAA – Junior College Athletics Last Night Volleyball Lake Michigan College 3, Bethel JV 0 Saturday Men’s Soccer Terra State Community College at Lake Michigan College, 3:00 p.m. MHSAA – High School Sports Last Night Football Non-Conference St. Joseph 41, Hudsonville Unity Christian 28 Kalamazoo United 33, Lakeshore 28 Berrien Springs 35, Hillsdale 28 Niles 28, Buchanan 18 Ada Forest Hills Eastern 56, South Haven 22 Mattawan 37, Marshall 0 Lawton 28, Decatur 12 Brandywine 46, Cassopolis 0 Allegan 56, Comstock 0 Plainwell 49, Coldwater 0 Schoolcraft 22, Centreville 2 Parchment 21, Delton-Kellogg 14 Saugatuck 20, Lakeview 7 G.R. Forest Hills Central 42, Portage Central 0 Battle Creek Central 34, Harper Creek 0 Kalamazoo Loy Norrix 8, Kalamazoo Central 7 Holland West Ottawa 21, Portage Northern 10 Tecumseh 54, Gull Lake 14 White Pigeon 32, Galesburg-Augusta 7 Hudson 22, Constantine 20 Battle Creek Lakeview (1-0) at River Rouge (1-0), PPD Power outage at River Rouge Wolverine Conference Paw Paw 33, Otsego 27 Edwardsburg 38, Three Rivers 30 Vicksburg 42, Sturgis 7 8-Man Football Wyoming Tri-Unity 60, Twin Cities 52        Bridgman 60, Red Arrow 12 Marcellus 44, Fennville 18 Farwell 34, Bloomingdale 0 Martin 50, Gobles 6 Mendon 76, Wyoming-Lee 12 Boys Soccer Fennville 5, Constantine 0 Mattawan 8, Paw Paw 0 Buchanan 0, New Buffalo 0 – TIE Howardsville Christian 4, Kalamazoo Heritage 0 Bryon Center 3, Kalamazoo Central 0 Friday Football Non-Conference GR Ottawa Hills (0-1) at Benton Harbor (0-1), 7:00 p.m. Dowagiac (0-1) at Watervliet (1-0), 7:00 p.m. Boys Soccer Bangor at Our Lady of the Lake, 12:00 p.m. Berrien Springs at Niles, 10:00 a.m.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

MLB – Major League Baseball Yesterday Seattle Mariners 7, Detroit Tigers 0 Chicago White Sox 7, Kansas City Royals 1 Cubs were off Mariners 7, Tigers 0 – Mariners hand Tigers 18th shutout loss, complete sweep Julio Rodriguez and Ty France hit back-to-back home runs in the third inning and the Seattle Mariners completed a three-game series sweep by defeating the Detroit Tigers 7-0. It was the 18th shutout loss for the Tigers this season. France and Curt Casali drove in two runs apiece as the Mariners won for the sixth time in seven games. Logan Gilbert (11-5), who had gone winless in his previous nine starts, held Detroit to two hits and a walk while striking out nine in six innings. Gilbert’s last victory came on July 5. White Sox 7, Royals 1 – Vaughn, Pollock homer, White Sox beat Royals 7-1 Andrew Vaughn and A.J. Pollock each cracked a two-run homer and singled, and the Chicago White Sox topped the Kansas City Royals 7-1. Leury Garcia and Elvis Andrus each added two hits and an RBI and for the White Sox, who won their second straight following a five-game slide to climb back within a game of .500. Chicago improved to 2-1 under bench coach Miguel Cairo, serving in his third game as acting manager while Tony La Russa is on indefinite leave to undergo tests for an unspecified health issue. Johnny Cueto allowed one run on six hits in 5 1/3 innings, walking none and striking out five. Tonight Kansas City (Lynch 4-9) at Detroit (Hutchison 2-7), 7:10 p.m.              WSJM 6:50 Minnesota (Gray 7-4) at Chicago White Sox (Martin 2-4), 8:10 p.m. Chicago Cubs (Sampson 1-4) at St. Louis (Montgomery 7-3), 8:15 p.m. WNBA – WNBA Playoffs – WNBA Semifinals (best of 5) Sunday Chicago Sky at Connecticut Sun, 1:00 p.m.                                 (Series tied 1-1) Las Vegas Aces at Seattle Storm, 3:00 p.m.                                 (Series tied 1-1) NCAAFB – College Football – Week 1 Last Night (12) Oklahoma State 58, Central Michigan 44 OSU 58, CMU 44 – Sanders helps No. 12 Oklahoma State beat Central Michigan Spencer Sanders passed for a career-high 406 yards and accounted for six touchdowns and No. 12 Oklahoma State beat Central Michigan 58-44 on Thursday night to give Mike Gundy his 150th coaching victory. Gundy improved to 150-69 in his 18th season coaching his alma mater. Sanders matched a career high with four touchdown passes and set a career mark with two rushing scores in the opener for both teams. Braydon Johnson had career highs of six catches for 133 yards and Brennan Presley added five catches for 83 yards. Daniel Richardson passed for a career-high 424 yards and threw four touchdown passes for Central Michigan. Lew Nichols III, the nation’s leading rusher last year, ran for 72 yards and two touchdowns on 26 carries. Tonight Western Michigan at (15) Michigan State, 7:00 p.m.                    Superhits 103.7 Cosy-FM 5:30 ‘ Eastern Kentucky at Eastern Michigan, 7:00 p.m. NCAAFB – Mel Tucker leads No. 15 Michigan St against Western Michigan No. 15 Michigan State opens with Western Michigan on Friday night at home. Mel Tucker was named Big Ten coach of the year last season after winning 11 games, following a 2-5 debut with the Spartans in 2020. Broncos coach Tim Lester is 32-25 in five seasons and is coming off a 52-24 win over Nevada in the Quick Lane Bowl. Michigan State has eight starters back on defense and five on offense. .The Broncos return eight starters on defense and four on offense from last year’s team that was 8-5 overall and 4-4 in the Mid-American Conference. Saturday Colorado State at (8) Michigan, 12:00 p.m.                                News/Talk/Sports 94.9 WSJM 11:00 (5) Notre Dame at (3) Ohio State, 7:30 p.m. NCAAFB – No. 8 Michigan aiming higher, hosts Colorado State in opener No. 8 Michigan wants to surpass the success last year’s team had, and that won’t be easy. The Wolverines won a Big Ten title for the first time since 2004 and earned its first trip to the College Football Playoff. To achieve lofty goals, the Wolverines can’t afford to get stunned in a game that’s expected to be a rout such as Saturday’s opener at home against Colorado State. Former Nevada coach Jay Norvell is making his debut, hoping to help the Rams stay competitive in a game they’re expected to lose by four-plus touchdowns. NCAAFB – No. 2 Ohio State seeks fast start against No. 5 Notre Dame No. 2 Ohio State has one of the most explosive offensive attacks in the nation, and coach Ryan Day is stressing a fast start against No. 5 Notre Dame in Saturday night’s season opener. New Buckeyes defensive coordinator Jim Knowles installed a new scheme and a salty attitude in the unit. Emotions will be running high for first-year Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman, who played linebacker at Ohio State in 2004-08 and coached at Cincinnati under Luke Fickell. The Fighting Irish haven’t beaten Ohio State since 1936. NFL – Bears set to unveil conceptual plans for suburban stadium The Chicago Bears are set to unveil conceptual plans for a suburban stadium and entertainment complex next week. The team is considering a move from its longtime home, Soldier Field. The Bears have signed a purchase agreement for a 326-acre tract of land in Arlington Heights, Illinois, about 30 miles northwest of Soldier Field. The team will hold a community meeting in the town next week and detail its plans. Team president Ted Phillips has said a deal likely wouldn’t close until early 2023. That’s when the team would decide if it makes sense financially to pursue the project. NFL – Bears GM Poles not ruling out long-term contract with Smith Chicago Bears general manager Ryan Poles remains optimistic the team can agree to a long-term contract with Roquan Smith and repair their relationship after the star linebacker requested a trade. Poles says he has “faith” Smith will “have a good year and we’ll work on our relationship.” Smith was hoping to strike a new deal with the contract he signed after the Bears drafted him with the No. 8 overall pick in 2018 set to expire following this season. He participated in voluntary and mandatory offseason workouts. But with negotiations at a standstill, things took a heated turn once training camp started. He opted to “hold in” and then went public with a trade request while accusing Poles of negotiating in bad faith. NFL – Ravens’ mascot headed to IR with ‘drumstick’ injury The Baltimore Ravens are making a feathered addition to their injured reserve list. Coach John Harbaugh announced that Poe — the team’s bird mascot — was going on IR. Poe was carted off the field at halftime of the Ravens’ preseason game against Washington last weekend. Poe was joined by other mascots for a halftime game before being injured. Harbaugh said Poe has a season-ending injury to his drumstick, and the team would find a replacement. Tennis – US Open – Serena, Venus Williams lose in 1st round of US Open doubles Serena and Venus Williams have lost in the first round of doubles at the U.S. Open. They were eliminated by the Czech pair of Lucie Hradecka and Linda Noskova 7-6 (5), 6-4 on Thursday night. Arthur Ashe Stadium had never hosted a first-round doubles match until this one featuring two American sisters who have combined to claim 14 Grand Slam titles in doubles but were partnering for the first time since the 2018 French Open. The 17-year-old Noskova was making her Grand Slam doubles debut. The 37-year-old Hradecka won two major doubles trophies with a different partner. Tennis – US Open – Nadal hits nose with racket, tops Fognini Rafael Nadal has come back to win at the U.S. Open after cutting himself on the bridge of his nose when his racket bounced off the court and smacked him in the face against Fabio Fognini.  Nadal was bleeding and took a medical timeout. A trainer put a bandage on his nose.  The 22-time Grand Slam champion won the second-round match 2-6, 6-4, 6-2, 6-1 at Arthur Ashe Stadium.  They started Thursday night and finished after midnight.  Play resumed after about a five-minute delay when Nadal hurt himself on the first point of a game with Nadal leading 3-0 in the fourth set. NBA – AP source: Cavaliers acquiring All-Star G Mitchell from Jazz A person familiar with the trade tells AP the Cleveland Cavaliers have agreed to acquire All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell in a blockbuster trade with the Utah Jazz. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the NBA still has to approve the trade. The person says Cleveland is sending guard Collin Sexton, forward Lauri Markkanen and rookie guard Ochai Agbaji along with three unprotected first-round picks to the Jazz. Mitchell is one of the league’s premiere scorers and his acquisition could put the Cavs among the elite teams in the Eastern Conference. NASCAR – NASCAR drivers feeling the hits more in Next Gen car The jolts are more jarring and the effects linger for longer for NASCAR drivers in the Next Gen car’s debut season. Racers feel they have taken harder hits in accidents this season than in the past. NASCAR crash analysis agrees, and there have been discussions with drivers about how to improve safety. The issue came to the forefront earlier this summer when Kurt Busch crashed in qualifying at Pocono. He suffered a concussion and still has not been cleared to race. Busch gave up his playoff spot because of his condition. NBAGL – New rules: G League will set a target score for OT games Overtime in the G League this season will be a race to seven points. The schedule for the G League’s 22nd season has been was released, with the 50-game slate for teams beginning on Nov. 4 and ending on March 25. And the league is making some changes, with a switch to a “target score” ending for its overtime games among the most significant. The first team to score seven points in the OT period wins, and that extra session will be untimed. MILB – Minor league unionization getting interest from players Players on the Single-A Tampa Tarpons have been talking individually about efforts to unionize minor league players and the idea is gaining momentum. Centerfielder Spencer Jones says it is something that definitely interests him. Tampa reliever Ryan Anderson says it makes a lot of sense because it could lead to better benefits down the line. Signed cards from 30% of minor leaguers in the bargaining unit would allow filing a petition with the National Labor Relations Board asking for a union authorization election, which would be decided by majority vote. MILB – Midwest League Baseball Last Night West Michigan Whitecaps 5, Fort Wayne Tin Caps 2 South Bend Cubs 3, Lansing Lugnuts 1 Lake County Captains 8, Great Lakes Loons 5 – 10 Innings Tonight West Michigan Whitecaps at Fort Wayne Tin Caps, 7:05 p.m. Lansing Lugnuts at South Bend Cubs, 7:05 p.m. Lake County Captains at Great Lakes Loons, 7:05 p.m. MCCAA – Junior College Athletics Last Night Volleyball Lake Michigan College 3, Bethel JV 0 Saturday Men’s Soccer Terra State Community College at Lake Michigan College, 3:00 p.m. MHSAA – High School Sports Last Night Football Non-Conference St. Joseph 41, Hudsonville Unity Christian 28 Kalamazoo United 33, Lakeshore 28 Berrien Springs 35, Hillsdale 28 Niles 28, Buchanan 18 Ada Forest Hills Eastern 56, South Haven 22 Mattawan 37, Marshall 0 Lawton 28, Decatur 12 Brandywine 46, Cassopolis 0 Allegan 56, Comstock 0 Plainwell 49, Coldwater 0 Schoolcraft 22, Centreville 2 Parchment 21, Delton-Kellogg 14 Saugatuck 20, Lakeview 7 G.R. Forest Hills Central 42, Portage Central 0 Battle Creek Central 34, Harper Creek 0 Kalamazoo Loy Norrix 8, Kalamazoo Central 7 Holland West Ottawa 21, Portage Northern 10 Tecumseh 54, Gull Lake 14 White Pigeon 32, Galesburg-Augusta 7 Hudson 22, Constantine 20 Battle Creek Lakeview (1-0) at River Rouge (1-0), PPD Power outage at River Rouge Wolverine Conference Paw Paw 33, Otsego 27 Edwardsburg 38, Three Rivers 30 Vicksburg 42, Sturgis 7 8-Man Football Wyoming Tri-Unity 60, Twin Cities 52        Bridgman 60, Red Arrow 12 Marcellus 44, Fennville 18 Farwell 34, Bloomingdale 0 Martin 50, Gobles 6 Mendon 76, Wyoming-Lee 12 Boys Soccer Fennville 5, Constantine 0 Mattawan 8, Paw Paw 0 Buchanan 0, New Buffalo 0 – TIE Howardsville Christian 4, Kalamazoo Heritage 0 Bryon Center 3, Kalamazoo Central 0 Friday Football Non-Conference GR Ottawa Hills (0-1) at Benton Harbor (0-1), 7:00 p.m. Dowagiac (0-1) at Watervliet (1-0), 7:00 p.m. Boys Soccer Bangor at Our Lady of the Lake, 12:00 p.m. Berrien Springs at Niles, 10:00 a.m.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

MLB – Major League Baseball Yesterday Seattle Mariners 7, Detroit Tigers 0 Chicago White Sox 7, Kansas City Royals 1 Cubs were off Mariners 7, Tigers 0 – Mariners hand Tigers 18th shutout loss, complete sweep Julio Rodriguez and Ty France hit back-to-back home runs in the third inning and the Seattle Mariners completed a three-game series sweep by defeating the Detroit Tigers 7-0. It was the 18th shutout loss for the Tigers this season. France and Curt Casali drove in two runs apiece as the Mariners won for the sixth time in seven games. Logan Gilbert (11-5), who had gone winless in his previous nine starts, held Detroit to two hits and a walk while striking out nine in six innings. Gilbert’s last victory came on July 5. White Sox 7, Royals 1 – Vaughn, Pollock homer, White Sox beat Royals 7-1 Andrew Vaughn and A.J. Pollock each cracked a two-run homer and singled, and the Chicago White Sox topped the Kansas City Royals 7-1. Leury Garcia and Elvis Andrus each added two hits and an RBI and for the White Sox, who won their second straight following a five-game slide to climb back within a game of .500. Chicago improved to 2-1 under bench coach Miguel Cairo, serving in his third game as acting manager while Tony La Russa is on indefinite leave to undergo tests for an unspecified health issue. Johnny Cueto allowed one run on six hits in 5 1/3 innings, walking none and striking out five. Tonight Kansas City (Lynch 4-9) at Detroit (Hutchison 2-7), 7:10 p.m.              WSJM 6:50 Minnesota (Gray 7-4) at Chicago White Sox (Martin 2-4), 8:10 p.m. Chicago Cubs (Sampson 1-4) at St. Louis (Montgomery 7-3), 8:15 p.m. WNBA – WNBA Playoffs – WNBA Semifinals (best of 5) Sunday Chicago Sky at Connecticut Sun, 1:00 p.m.                                 (Series tied 1-1) Las Vegas Aces at Seattle Storm, 3:00 p.m.                                 (Series tied 1-1) NCAAFB – College Football – Week 1 Last Night (12) Oklahoma State 58, Central Michigan 44 OSU 58, CMU 44 – Sanders helps No. 12 Oklahoma State beat Central Michigan Spencer Sanders passed for a career-high 406 yards and accounted for six touchdowns and No. 12 Oklahoma State beat Central Michigan 58-44 on Thursday night to give Mike Gundy his 150th coaching victory. Gundy improved to 150-69 in his 18th season coaching his alma mater. Sanders matched a career high with four touchdown passes and set a career mark with two rushing scores in the opener for both teams. Braydon Johnson had career highs of six catches for 133 yards and Brennan Presley added five catches for 83 yards. Daniel Richardson passed for a career-high 424 yards and threw four touchdown passes for Central Michigan. Lew Nichols III, the nation’s leading rusher last year, ran for 72 yards and two touchdowns on 26 carries. Tonight Western Michigan at (15) Michigan State, 7:00 p.m.                    Superhits 103.7 Cosy-FM 5:30 ‘ Eastern Kentucky at Eastern Michigan, 7:00 p.m. NCAAFB – Mel Tucker leads No. 15 Michigan St against Western Michigan No. 15 Michigan State opens with Western Michigan on Friday night at home. Mel Tucker was named Big Ten coach of the year last season after winning 11 games, following a 2-5 debut with the Spartans in 2020. Broncos coach Tim Lester is 32-25 in five seasons and is coming off a 52-24 win over Nevada in the Quick Lane Bowl. Michigan State has eight starters back on defense and five on offense. .The Broncos return eight starters on defense and four on offense from last year’s team that was 8-5 overall and 4-4 in the Mid-American Conference. Saturday Colorado State at (8) Michigan, 12:00 p.m.                                News/Talk/Sports 94.9 WSJM 11:00 (5) Notre Dame at (3) Ohio State, 7:30 p.m. NCAAFB – No. 8 Michigan aiming higher, hosts Colorado State in opener No. 8 Michigan wants to surpass the success last year’s team had, and that won’t be easy. The Wolverines won a Big Ten title for the first time since 2004 and earned its first trip to the College Football Playoff. To achieve lofty goals, the Wolverines can’t afford to get stunned in a game that’s expected to be a rout such as Saturday’s opener at home against Colorado State. Former Nevada coach Jay Norvell is making his debut, hoping to help the Rams stay competitive in a game they’re expected to lose by four-plus touchdowns. NCAAFB – No. 2 Ohio State seeks fast start against No. 5 Notre Dame No. 2 Ohio State has one of the most explosive offensive attacks in the nation, and coach Ryan Day is stressing a fast start against No. 5 Notre Dame in Saturday night’s season opener. New Buckeyes defensive coordinator Jim Knowles installed a new scheme and a salty attitude in the unit. Emotions will be running high for first-year Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman, who played linebacker at Ohio State in 2004-08 and coached at Cincinnati under Luke Fickell. The Fighting Irish haven’t beaten Ohio State since 1936. NFL – Bears set to unveil conceptual plans for suburban stadium The Chicago Bears are set to unveil conceptual plans for a suburban stadium and entertainment complex next week. The team is considering a move from its longtime home, Soldier Field. The Bears have signed a purchase agreement for a 326-acre tract of land in Arlington Heights, Illinois, about 30 miles northwest of Soldier Field. The team will hold a community meeting in the town next week and detail its plans. Team president Ted Phillips has said a deal likely wouldn’t close until early 2023. That’s when the team would decide if it makes sense financially to pursue the project. NFL – Bears GM Poles not ruling out long-term contract with Smith Chicago Bears general manager Ryan Poles remains optimistic the team can agree to a long-term contract with Roquan Smith and repair their relationship after the star linebacker requested a trade. Poles says he has “faith” Smith will “have a good year and we’ll work on our relationship.” Smith was hoping to strike a new deal with the contract he signed after the Bears drafted him with the No. 8 overall pick in 2018 set to expire following this season. He participated in voluntary and mandatory offseason workouts. But with negotiations at a standstill, things took a heated turn once training camp started. He opted to “hold in” and then went public with a trade request while accusing Poles of negotiating in bad faith. NFL – Ravens’ mascot headed to IR with ‘drumstick’ injury The Baltimore Ravens are making a feathered addition to their injured reserve list. Coach John Harbaugh announced that Poe — the team’s bird mascot — was going on IR. Poe was carted off the field at halftime of the Ravens’ preseason game against Washington last weekend. Poe was joined by other mascots for a halftime game before being injured. Harbaugh said Poe has a season-ending injury to his drumstick, and the team would find a replacement. Tennis – US Open – Serena, Venus Williams lose in 1st round of US Open doubles Serena and Venus Williams have lost in the first round of doubles at the U.S. Open. They were eliminated by the Czech pair of Lucie Hradecka and Linda Noskova 7-6 (5), 6-4 on Thursday night. Arthur Ashe Stadium had never hosted a first-round doubles match until this one featuring two American sisters who have combined to claim 14 Grand Slam titles in doubles but were partnering for the first time since the 2018 French Open. The 17-year-old Noskova was making her Grand Slam doubles debut. The 37-year-old Hradecka won two major doubles trophies with a different partner. Tennis – US Open – Nadal hits nose with racket, tops Fognini Rafael Nadal has come back to win at the U.S. Open after cutting himself on the bridge of his nose when his racket bounced off the court and smacked him in the face against Fabio Fognini.  Nadal was bleeding and took a medical timeout. A trainer put a bandage on his nose.  The 22-time Grand Slam champion won the second-round match 2-6, 6-4, 6-2, 6-1 at Arthur Ashe Stadium.  They started Thursday night and finished after midnight.  Play resumed after about a five-minute delay when Nadal hurt himself on the first point of a game with Nadal leading 3-0 in the fourth set. NBA – AP source: Cavaliers acquiring All-Star G Mitchell from Jazz A person familiar with the trade tells AP the Cleveland Cavaliers have agreed to acquire All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell in a blockbuster trade with the Utah Jazz. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the NBA still has to approve the trade. The person says Cleveland is sending guard Collin Sexton, forward Lauri Markkanen and rookie guard Ochai Agbaji along with three unprotected first-round picks to the Jazz. Mitchell is one of the league’s premiere scorers and his acquisition could put the Cavs among the elite teams in the Eastern Conference. NASCAR – NASCAR drivers feeling the hits more in Next Gen car The jolts are more jarring and the effects linger for longer for NASCAR drivers in the Next Gen car’s debut season. Racers feel they have taken harder hits in accidents this season than in the past. NASCAR crash analysis agrees, and there have been discussions with drivers about how to improve safety. The issue came to the forefront earlier this summer when Kurt Busch crashed in qualifying at Pocono. He suffered a concussion and still has not been cleared to race. Busch gave up his playoff spot because of his condition. NBAGL – New rules: G League will set a target score for OT games Overtime in the G League this season will be a race to seven points. The schedule for the G League’s 22nd season has been was released, with the 50-game slate for teams beginning on Nov. 4 and ending on March 25. And the league is making some changes, with a switch to a “target score” ending for its overtime games among the most significant. The first team to score seven points in the OT period wins, and that extra session will be untimed. MILB – Minor league unionization getting interest from players Players on the Single-A Tampa Tarpons have been talking individually about efforts to unionize minor league players and the idea is gaining momentum. Centerfielder Spencer Jones says it is something that definitely interests him. Tampa reliever Ryan Anderson says it makes a lot of sense because it could lead to better benefits down the line. Signed cards from 30% of minor leaguers in the bargaining unit would allow filing a petition with the National Labor Relations Board asking for a union authorization election, which would be decided by majority vote. MILB – Midwest League Baseball Last Night West Michigan Whitecaps 5, Fort Wayne Tin Caps 2 South Bend Cubs 3, Lansing Lugnuts 1 Lake County Captains 8, Great Lakes Loons 5 – 10 Innings Tonight West Michigan Whitecaps at Fort Wayne Tin Caps, 7:05 p.m. Lansing Lugnuts at South Bend Cubs, 7:05 p.m. Lake County Captains at Great Lakes Loons, 7:05 p.m. MCCAA – Junior College Athletics Last Night Volleyball Lake Michigan College 3, Bethel JV 0 Saturday Men’s Soccer Terra State Community College at Lake Michigan College, 3:00 p.m. MHSAA – High School Sports Last Night Football Non-Conference St. Joseph 41, Hudsonville Unity Christian 28 Kalamazoo United 33, Lakeshore 28 Berrien Springs 35, Hillsdale 28 Niles 28, Buchanan 18 Ada Forest Hills Eastern 56, South Haven 22 Mattawan 37, Marshall 0 Lawton 28, Decatur 12 Brandywine 46, Cassopolis 0 Allegan 56, Comstock 0 Plainwell 49, Coldwater 0 Schoolcraft 22, Centreville 2 Parchment 21, Delton-Kellogg 14 Saugatuck 20, Lakeview 7 G.R. Forest Hills Central 42, Portage Central 0 Battle Creek Central 34, Harper Creek 0 Kalamazoo Loy Norrix 8, Kalamazoo Central 7 Holland West Ottawa 21, Portage Northern 10 Tecumseh 54, Gull Lake 14 White Pigeon 32, Galesburg-Augusta 7 Hudson 22, Constantine 20 Battle Creek Lakeview (1-0) at River Rouge (1-0), PPD Power outage at River Rouge Wolverine Conference Paw Paw 33, Otsego 27 Edwardsburg 38, Three Rivers 30 Vicksburg 42, Sturgis 7 8-Man Football Wyoming Tri-Unity 60, Twin Cities 52        Bridgman 60, Red Arrow 12 Marcellus 44, Fennville 18 Farwell 34, Bloomingdale 0 Martin 50, Gobles 6 Mendon 76, Wyoming-Lee 12 Boys Soccer Fennville 5, Constantine 0 Mattawan 8, Paw Paw 0 Buchanan 0, New Buffalo 0 – TIE Howardsville Christian 4, Kalamazoo Heritage 0 Bryon Center 3, Kalamazoo Central 0 Friday Football Non-Conference GR Ottawa Hills (0-1) at Benton Harbor (0-1), 7:00 p.m. Dowagiac (0-1) at Watervliet (1-0), 7:00 p.m. Boys Soccer Bangor at Our Lady of the Lake, 12:00 p.m. Berrien Springs at Niles, 10:00 a.m.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

MLB – Major League Baseball Yesterday Seattle Mariners 5, Detroit Tigers 3 Chicago White Sox 4, Kansas City Royals 2 Chicago Cubs 7, Toronto Blue Jays 5 Mariners 5, Tigers 3 – Toro’s two-run HR carries Mariners past Tigers, 5-3 Abraham Toro hit a go-ahead, two-run homer in the seventh inning and the Seattle Mariners beat the Detroit Tigers 5-3 for their fifth win in six games. Toro, recalled from Triple-A Tacoma on Tuesday, had two hits. Eugenio Suarez also hit a two-run homer for the Mariners. Seattle starter Marco Gonzales (10-12) allowed three runs and seven hits in six innings. Paul Sewald worked around two walks in the ninth to get his 17th save. Jeimer Candelario drove in two runs for Detroit. Starting pitcher Tyler Alexander allowed two runs in 4 2/3 innings, while Alex Lange (4-4) took the loss. White Sox 4, Royals 2 – White Sox end 5-game skid behind Lynn, beat Royals 4-2 Lance Lynn pitched four-hit ball through seven innings, Elvis Andrus hit a tiebreaking home run in the fifth and the Chicago White Sox beat the Kansas City Royals 4-2 to snap a five-game losing streak. Lynn (4-5), who was reinstated from the bereavement list before the game, didn’t walk a batter and struck out eight for the fifth time this season. The Royals had scored 24 runs in their previous two games. Chicago (64-66) won for the first time under bench coach Miguel Cairo, who served his second game as acting manager while Tony La Russa is on indefinite leave for an unspecified health issue. The Royals (53-78) lost for the third time in five games. Cubs 7, Blue Jays 5 – Reyes, Hoerner help Cubs beat Blue Jays 7-5, avoid sweep Franmil Reyes homered, Nico Hoerner drove in a pair of runs and the Chicago Cubs beat the Toronto Blue Jays 7-5 to avoid a three-game sweep. Ian Happ and Zach McKinstry each had two hits as the Cubs snapped a five-game losing streak north of the border. Chicago went 15-15 in August, its first non-losing month this season. Alejandro Kirk hit a three-run homer and Cavan Biggio connected for a two-run shot for the Blue Jays, who are in position for an AL wild card but had their first losing month, going 13-14 in August. Tonight Seattle (Gilbert 10-5) at Detroit (Rodriguez 3-3), 1:10 p.m.                WSJM/WCSY 12:50 Kansas City (Mengden 0-0) at Chicago White Sox (Cueto 6-6), 2:10 p.m. Cubs are off MLB – Exhibition games start Feb 24 as MLB hopes for normal spring Major League Baseball’s exhibition season will start Feb. 24 with a pair of games in Arizona. All 30 teams are scheduled to play Feb. 25 as games start in Florida. Spring training was cut short in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and workouts were restricted the following year due to coronavirus protocols and stadium capacity was limited. Spring training workouts in 2022 were to have started on Feb. 16 but were delayed until March 11 by a lockout. MLB – WSox manager La Russa out indefinitely with health issue Chicago White Sox manager Tony La Russa is out indefinitely because of an unspecified health issue. The 77-year-old La Russa missed Tuesday night’s 9-7 loss to Kansas City on the recommendation of his doctors. The team says the Hall of Famer is scheduled to undergo additional testing in Arizona with his personal physicians “over the coming days.” Bench coach Miguel Cairo will continue to serve as acting manager while La Russa is out. WNBA – WNBA Playoffs – WNBA Semifinals (best of five) Tonight Chicago Sky 85, Connecticut Sun 77                                 (Series tied 1-1) Las Vegas Aces 78, Seattle Storm 73                                (Series tied 1-1) Sky 85, Sun 77 – Parker scores 22, Sky beat Sun 85-77 to even the series Candace Parker scored 22 points and the Chicago Sky evened the semifinal series with an 85-77 win over the Connecticut Sun in Game 2 of the WNBA playoffs. Chicago coach James Wade said pregame that Chicago was “going to make shots” Wednesday after a lackluster 35.3% shooting performance in Game 1. The Sky responded by hitting six of 10 shots to open the game, and finished the night 32 of 63 (50.8%). NCAAFB – College Football – Week 1 Tonight Central Michigan at (12) Oklahoma State, 7:00 p.m. NCAAFB – No. 12 Oklahoma State opens with Central Michigan Oklahoma State reached the Big 12 championship game last season and beat Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl. The 12th-ranked Cowboys believe they can accomplish at least that much this season with veteran quarterback Spencer Sanders leading the way. Oklahoma State opens with Central Michigan on Thursday night. The Cowboys can’t afford to slip early, and they remember an upset loss to the Chippewas in 2016 that provided an unexpected blemish on a 10-3 season. Central Michigan returns last year’s national rushing leader, Lew Nichols III, from a team that went 9-4 and won the Sun Bowl. NCAAFB – AP sources: Presidents meeting to discuss CFP expansion The university presidents who oversee the College Football Playoff are scheduled to meet Friday to discuss expanding the four-team format. The presidents hope to accelerate a process that bogged down last year and re-open the possibility that a new model for crowning champion could be implemented as soon as the 2024 season. Two people familiar with the situation told The Associated Press the CFP’s Board of Managers, led by Mississippi State President Mark Keenum, is set to convene by video conference. All the people spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the board’s plans were not being made public. NCAAFB – No. 5 Notre Dame faces defensive test against No. 2 Buckeyes No. 5 Notre Dame relishes the Saturday night challenge. It opens the season at No. 2 Ohio State against an offense that led the FBS in total offense and scoring last season and is only expected to get better in C.J. Stroud’s second season as starting quarterback. And if Notre Dame is going to defeat Ohio State for the first time since 1936, first-year coach Marcus Freeman knows what he needs — the defense to come up big against his alma mater. NCAAFB – Born a Buckeye: Ohio State prepared Freeman for Notre Dame Marcus Freeman was born and raised a Buckeye. He played at Ohio State, too, and worked there. Freeman says he wouldn’t be the head coach at Notre Dame at the age of 36 without the time he spent in Columbus, Ohio. Freeman is taking a trip home: The season opener for his fifth-ranked Fighting Irish is Saturday night at No. 2 Ohio State. Freeman’s peers say he’s ready for the challenges that come with being the head coach of Notre Dame. NCAA approves transfer windows and enforcement reforms The NCAA Division I Board of Directors approved changes to transfer rules and several proposals aimed at enforcement reforms. The proposed changes came from the Transformation Committee as part of the first phase of that group’s work. The changes to transfer rules will go into effect immediately. Sport-specific windows will be set during an academic year when athletes would be required to enter their names in the transfer portal to be eligible immediately to compete the following school year. On the enforcement side, the Independent Accountability Resolution Process will be eliminated. The NCAA’s outside enforcement task force to handle complex infractions cases has mostly slowed down the processing of cases. Tennis – US Open – Serena beats No. 2 seed Kontaveit at US Open to reach 3rd Rd Serena Williams has eliminated No. 2 seed Anett Kontaveit 7-6 (4), 2-6, 6-2 in the U.S. Open’s second round to ensure that the 23-time Grand Slam champion will play at least one more singles match. The 40-year-old Williams has hinted this will be the last tournament of her illustrious career. Williams missed about a year of action before returning to the tour in late June at Wimbledon. She lost in the first round there and was 1-3 in 2022 entering the U.S. Open, where she is 2-0 so far this week. She beat Danka Kovinic in the first round before following that up against Kontaveit on Wednesday night in front of a full house at Arthur Ashe Stadium. Tennis – US Open – Tiger Woods shows up to support Serena Williams at US Open Serena Williams credits Tiger Woods with offering advice before she made her recent comeback from a year-long injury absence. Woods sat courtside at the U.S. Open on Wednesday night, throwing uppercuts in the stands to cheer Williams on to victory. Williams says Woods is "one of the reasons I’m here.” Woods was in Williams’ guest box at sold-out Arthur Ashe Stadium, two seats over from her sister, Venus. NFL – Bears claim OL Alex Leatherwood off waivers from Las Vegas The Chicago Bears have claimed offensive lineman Alex Leatherwood off waivers a day after the 2021 first-round draft pick was let go by the Las Vegas Raiders. Leatherwood was the No. 17 overall pick last year. The Alabama product struggled at right tackle before being moved to guard after four games. He had difficulties inside, too, and dropped on the depth chart this summer before Las Vegas let him go. NFL – Bears’ Smith says he’s focused on season, not contract talks Chicago Bears star linebacker Roquan Smith insists his focus is on the upcoming season and not his long-term future after a contract standoff with the team ended with no new deal. Smith says there won’t be any more negotiations with new general manager Ryan Poles on an extension between now and the start of the season. He also says he’s not focusing on whether he will re-sign with Chicago after the season. Smith hoped to strike a new deal, with the contract he signed after the Bears drafted him with the No. 8 overall pick in 2018 set to expire following this season. NFL – Lawyers bash Goodell-led arbitration in NFL racial bias suit Lawyers for three Black NFL coaches alleging racial bias by the league took aim directly at Commissioner Roger Goodell in their latest arguments against arbitrating a dispute they say belongs before a jury. In papers filed Wednesday in Manhattan federal court, the lawyers wrote that arbitration, which would be led by Goodell, would allow “unconscionably biased one-sided ‘kangaroo courts’" to decide the outcome of the lawsuit filed in February. They say Goodell could not be fair in overseeing and ruling on the dispute as to whether the league engages in systemic discrimination. They cited the hundreds of millions of dollars he earns from teams and his public statement that the suit is without merit. NFL – Gruden ‘ashamed’ about emails that cost him his job Former Raiders coach Jon Gruden says he is “ashamed” about his old offensive emails that cost him his job and hopes to get another chance in football. Gruden spoke publicly about the affair at the Little Rock Touchdown Club for the first time since he resigned as coach of the Raiders last October. The resignation followed the publication by The New York Times and Wall Street Journal of emails he had sent from 2011 to 2018 that contained racist, homophobic and misogynistic comments. MILB – Midwest League Baseball Tonight West Michigan Whitecaps 6, Fort Wayne Tin Caps 4 South Bend Cubs 4, Lansing Lugnuts 2 Lake County Captains 2, Great Lakes Loons 0 Tonight West Michigan Whitecaps at Fort Wayne Tin Caps, 7:05 p.m. Lansing Lugnuts at South Bend Cubs, 7:05 p.m. Lake County Captains at Great Lakes Loons, 7:05 p.m. MCCAA – Junior College Athletics Tonight Volleyball Lake Michigan College at Bethel JV, 7:30 p.m. MHSAA – High School Sports Last Night Boys soccer St. Joseph 4, Kalamazoo Central 0 Lakeshore 1, Portage Northern 1 – TIE Berrien Springs 3, Michigan Lutheran 1 Brandywine 7, Bangor 3 Bridgman 4, Watervliet 3 Niles 5, Cassopolis 2 Battle Creek Pennfield 4, Bloomingdale 3 Holland Black River 4, Coloma 0 Parma Western 4, Sturgis 0 Portage Central 6, Battle Creek Central 0 Battle Creek Lakeview 4, Kalamazoo Loy Norrix 0 Gull Lake 2, Mattawan 1 Vicksburg 4, Harper Creek 0 8-Man Football Bangor (2-0) 58, Vandercook Lake (0-2) 0 Volleyball Our Lady of the Lake 3, New Buffalo 2 Otsego at Paw Paw, 6:00 p.m. Three Rivers 3, Edwardsburg 2 Sturgis 3, Vicksburg 1 Boys Tennis St. Joseph 7, Portage Northern 1 Lakeshore 8, Kalamazoo Central 0 Otsego 8, Niles 0 Tonight Football – All games stars at 7:00 unless specified otherwise Non-Conference Hudsonville Unity Christian (0-1) at St. Joseph (0-1)      News/Talk/Sports 94.9 WSJM, NFHS Network Lakeshore (0-1) at Kalamazoo United (0-1)                         97.5 Y-Country GR Ottawa Hills (0-1) at Benton Harbor (0-1) Berrien Springs (1-0) at Hillsdale (1-0) Buchanan (1-0) at Niles (0-1)         at Berrien Springs South Haven (1-0) at Ada Forest Hills Eastern (1-0) Mattawan (0-1) at Marshall (1-0) Decatur (1-0) at Lawton (1-0) Cassopolis (0-1) at Brandywine (0-1) Comstock (0-1) at Allegan (1-0) Plainwell (1-0) at Coldwater (0-1) Centreville (1-0) at Schoolcraft (1-0) Parchment (0-1) at Delton-Kellogg (1-0) Lakeview (0-1) at Saugatuck (0-1) Battle Creek Lakeview (1-0) at River Rouge (1-0) G.R. Forest Hills Central (1-0) at Portage Central (0-1) Kalamazoo Central (0-1) at Kalamazoo Loy Norrix (0-1), 5:00 p.m. Portage Northern (1-0) at Holland West Ottawa (1-0) White Pigeon (0-1) at Galesburg-Augusta (0-1) Constantine (1-0) at Hudson (1-0) Wolverine Conference Otsego (0-1) at Paw Paw (0-1) Edwardsburg (0-1) at Three Rivers (1-0) Sturgis (1-0) at Vicksburg (0-1) 8-Man Football Wyoming Tri-Unity (1-0) at Twin Cities (0-1) Red Arrow (0-1) at Bridgman (1-0) Marcellus (0-1) at Fennville (1-0) Farwell (1-0) at Bloomingdale (0-1) Gobles (1-0) at Martin (1-0) Wyoming-Lee (0-1) at Mendon (0-1) Friday Football Non-Conference Dowagiac (0-1) at Watervliet (1-0), 7:00 p.m.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

MLB – Major League Baseball Yesterday Seattle Mariners 5, Detroit Tigers 3 Chicago White Sox 4, Kansas City Royals 2 Chicago Cubs 7, Toronto Blue Jays 5 Mariners 5, Tigers 3 – Toro’s two-run HR carries Mariners past Tigers, 5-3 Abraham Toro hit a go-ahead, two-run homer in the seventh inning and the Seattle Mariners beat the Detroit Tigers 5-3 for their fifth win in six games. Toro, recalled from Triple-A Tacoma on Tuesday, had two hits. Eugenio Suarez also hit a two-run homer for the Mariners. Seattle starter Marco Gonzales (10-12) allowed three runs and seven hits in six innings. Paul Sewald worked around two walks in the ninth to get his 17th save. Jeimer Candelario drove in two runs for Detroit. Starting pitcher Tyler Alexander allowed two runs in 4 2/3 innings, while Alex Lange (4-4) took the loss. White Sox 4, Royals 2 – White Sox end 5-game skid behind Lynn, beat Royals 4-2 Lance Lynn pitched four-hit ball through seven innings, Elvis Andrus hit a tiebreaking home run in the fifth and the Chicago White Sox beat the Kansas City Royals 4-2 to snap a five-game losing streak. Lynn (4-5), who was reinstated from the bereavement list before the game, didn’t walk a batter and struck out eight for the fifth time this season. The Royals had scored 24 runs in their previous two games. Chicago (64-66) won for the first time under bench coach Miguel Cairo, who served his second game as acting manager while Tony La Russa is on indefinite leave for an unspecified health issue. The Royals (53-78) lost for the third time in five games. Cubs 7, Blue Jays 5 – Reyes, Hoerner help Cubs beat Blue Jays 7-5, avoid sweep Franmil Reyes homered, Nico Hoerner drove in a pair of runs and the Chicago Cubs beat the Toronto Blue Jays 7-5 to avoid a three-game sweep. Ian Happ and Zach McKinstry each had two hits as the Cubs snapped a five-game losing streak north of the border. Chicago went 15-15 in August, its first non-losing month this season. Alejandro Kirk hit a three-run homer and Cavan Biggio connected for a two-run shot for the Blue Jays, who are in position for an AL wild card but had their first losing month, going 13-14 in August. Tonight Seattle (Gilbert 10-5) at Detroit (Rodriguez 3-3), 1:10 p.m.                WSJM/WCSY 12:50 Kansas City (Mengden 0-0) at Chicago White Sox (Cueto 6-6), 2:10 p.m. Cubs are off MLB – Exhibition games start Feb 24 as MLB hopes for normal spring Major League Baseball’s exhibition season will start Feb. 24 with a pair of games in Arizona. All 30 teams are scheduled to play Feb. 25 as games start in Florida. Spring training was cut short in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and workouts were restricted the following year due to coronavirus protocols and stadium capacity was limited. Spring training workouts in 2022 were to have started on Feb. 16 but were delayed until March 11 by a lockout. MLB – WSox manager La Russa out indefinitely with health issue Chicago White Sox manager Tony La Russa is out indefinitely because of an unspecified health issue. The 77-year-old La Russa missed Tuesday night’s 9-7 loss to Kansas City on the recommendation of his doctors. The team says the Hall of Famer is scheduled to undergo additional testing in Arizona with his personal physicians “over the coming days.” Bench coach Miguel Cairo will continue to serve as acting manager while La Russa is out. WNBA – WNBA Playoffs – WNBA Semifinals (best of five) Tonight Chicago Sky 85, Connecticut Sun 77                                 (Series tied 1-1) Las Vegas Aces 78, Seattle Storm 73                                (Series tied 1-1) Sky 85, Sun 77 – Parker scores 22, Sky beat Sun 85-77 to even the series Candace Parker scored 22 points and the Chicago Sky evened the semifinal series with an 85-77 win over the Connecticut Sun in Game 2 of the WNBA playoffs. Chicago coach James Wade said pregame that Chicago was “going to make shots” Wednesday after a lackluster 35.3% shooting performance in Game 1. The Sky responded by hitting six of 10 shots to open the game, and finished the night 32 of 63 (50.8%). NCAAFB – College Football – Week 1 Tonight Central Michigan at (12) Oklahoma State, 7:00 p.m. NCAAFB – No. 12 Oklahoma State opens with Central Michigan Oklahoma State reached the Big 12 championship game last season and beat Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl. The 12th-ranked Cowboys believe they can accomplish at least that much this season with veteran quarterback Spencer Sanders leading the way. Oklahoma State opens with Central Michigan on Thursday night. The Cowboys can’t afford to slip early, and they remember an upset loss to the Chippewas in 2016 that provided an unexpected blemish on a 10-3 season. Central Michigan returns last year’s national rushing leader, Lew Nichols III, from a team that went 9-4 and won the Sun Bowl. NCAAFB – AP sources: Presidents meeting to discuss CFP expansion The university presidents who oversee the College Football Playoff are scheduled to meet Friday to discuss expanding the four-team format. The presidents hope to accelerate a process that bogged down last year and re-open the possibility that a new model for crowning champion could be implemented as soon as the 2024 season. Two people familiar with the situation told The Associated Press the CFP’s Board of Managers, led by Mississippi State President Mark Keenum, is set to convene by video conference. All the people spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the board’s plans were not being made public. NCAAFB – No. 5 Notre Dame faces defensive test against No. 2 Buckeyes No. 5 Notre Dame relishes the Saturday night challenge. It opens the season at No. 2 Ohio State against an offense that led the FBS in total offense and scoring last season and is only expected to get better in C.J. Stroud’s second season as starting quarterback. And if Notre Dame is going to defeat Ohio State for the first time since 1936, first-year coach Marcus Freeman knows what he needs — the defense to come up big against his alma mater. NCAAFB – Born a Buckeye: Ohio State prepared Freeman for Notre Dame Marcus Freeman was born and raised a Buckeye. He played at Ohio State, too, and worked there. Freeman says he wouldn’t be the head coach at Notre Dame at the age of 36 without the time he spent in Columbus, Ohio. Freeman is taking a trip home: The season opener for his fifth-ranked Fighting Irish is Saturday night at No. 2 Ohio State. Freeman’s peers say he’s ready for the challenges that come with being the head coach of Notre Dame. NCAA approves transfer windows and enforcement reforms The NCAA Division I Board of Directors approved changes to transfer rules and several proposals aimed at enforcement reforms. The proposed changes came from the Transformation Committee as part of the first phase of that group’s work. The changes to transfer rules will go into effect immediately. Sport-specific windows will be set during an academic year when athletes would be required to enter their names in the transfer portal to be eligible immediately to compete the following school year. On the enforcement side, the Independent Accountability Resolution Process will be eliminated. The NCAA’s outside enforcement task force to handle complex infractions cases has mostly slowed down the processing of cases. Tennis – US Open – Serena beats No. 2 seed Kontaveit at US Open to reach 3rd Rd Serena Williams has eliminated No. 2 seed Anett Kontaveit 7-6 (4), 2-6, 6-2 in the U.S. Open’s second round to ensure that the 23-time Grand Slam champion will play at least one more singles match. The 40-year-old Williams has hinted this will be the last tournament of her illustrious career. Williams missed about a year of action before returning to the tour in late June at Wimbledon. She lost in the first round there and was 1-3 in 2022 entering the U.S. Open, where she is 2-0 so far this week. She beat Danka Kovinic in the first round before following that up against Kontaveit on Wednesday night in front of a full house at Arthur Ashe Stadium. Tennis – US Open – Tiger Woods shows up to support Serena Williams at US Open Serena Williams credits Tiger Woods with offering advice before she made her recent comeback from a year-long injury absence. Woods sat courtside at the U.S. Open on Wednesday night, throwing uppercuts in the stands to cheer Williams on to victory. Williams says Woods is "one of the reasons I’m here.” Woods was in Williams’ guest box at sold-out Arthur Ashe Stadium, two seats over from her sister, Venus. NFL – Bears claim OL Alex Leatherwood off waivers from Las Vegas The Chicago Bears have claimed offensive lineman Alex Leatherwood off waivers a day after the 2021 first-round draft pick was let go by the Las Vegas Raiders. Leatherwood was the No. 17 overall pick last year. The Alabama product struggled at right tackle before being moved to guard after four games. He had difficulties inside, too, and dropped on the depth chart this summer before Las Vegas let him go. NFL – Bears’ Smith says he’s focused on season, not contract talks Chicago Bears star linebacker Roquan Smith insists his focus is on the upcoming season and not his long-term future after a contract standoff with the team ended with no new deal. Smith says there won’t be any more negotiations with new general manager Ryan Poles on an extension between now and the start of the season. He also says he’s not focusing on whether he will re-sign with Chicago after the season. Smith hoped to strike a new deal, with the contract he signed after the Bears drafted him with the No. 8 overall pick in 2018 set to expire following this season. NFL – Lawyers bash Goodell-led arbitration in NFL racial bias suit Lawyers for three Black NFL coaches alleging racial bias by the league took aim directly at Commissioner Roger Goodell in their latest arguments against arbitrating a dispute they say belongs before a jury. In papers filed Wednesday in Manhattan federal court, the lawyers wrote that arbitration, which would be led by Goodell, would allow “unconscionably biased one-sided ‘kangaroo courts’" to decide the outcome of the lawsuit filed in February. They say Goodell could not be fair in overseeing and ruling on the dispute as to whether the league engages in systemic discrimination. They cited the hundreds of millions of dollars he earns from teams and his public statement that the suit is without merit. NFL – Gruden ‘ashamed’ about emails that cost him his job Former Raiders coach Jon Gruden says he is “ashamed” about his old offensive emails that cost him his job and hopes to get another chance in football. Gruden spoke publicly about the affair at the Little Rock Touchdown Club for the first time since he resigned as coach of the Raiders last October. The resignation followed the publication by The New York Times and Wall Street Journal of emails he had sent from 2011 to 2018 that contained racist, homophobic and misogynistic comments. MILB – Midwest League Baseball Tonight West Michigan Whitecaps 6, Fort Wayne Tin Caps 4 South Bend Cubs 4, Lansing Lugnuts 2 Lake County Captains 2, Great Lakes Loons 0 Tonight West Michigan Whitecaps at Fort Wayne Tin Caps, 7:05 p.m. Lansing Lugnuts at South Bend Cubs, 7:05 p.m. Lake County Captains at Great Lakes Loons, 7:05 p.m. MCCAA – Junior College Athletics Tonight Volleyball Lake Michigan College at Bethel JV, 7:30 p.m. MHSAA – High School Sports Last Night Boys soccer St. Joseph 4, Kalamazoo Central 0 Lakeshore 1, Portage Northern 1 – TIE Berrien Springs 3, Michigan Lutheran 1 Brandywine 7, Bangor 3 Bridgman 4, Watervliet 3 Niles 5, Cassopolis 2 Battle Creek Pennfield 4, Bloomingdale 3 Holland Black River 4, Coloma 0 Parma Western 4, Sturgis 0 Portage Central 6, Battle Creek Central 0 Battle Creek Lakeview 4, Kalamazoo Loy Norrix 0 Gull Lake 2, Mattawan 1 Vicksburg 4, Harper Creek 0 8-Man Football Bangor (2-0) 58, Vandercook Lake (0-2) 0 Volleyball Our Lady of the Lake 3, New Buffalo 2 Otsego at Paw Paw, 6:00 p.m. Three Rivers 3, Edwardsburg 2 Sturgis 3, Vicksburg 1 Boys Tennis St. Joseph 7, Portage Northern 1 Lakeshore 8, Kalamazoo Central 0 Otsego 8, Niles 0 Tonight Football – All games stars at 7:00 unless specified otherwise Non-Conference Hudsonville Unity Christian (0-1) at St. Joseph (0-1)      News/Talk/Sports 94.9 WSJM, NFHS Network Lakeshore (0-1) at Kalamazoo United (0-1)                         97.5 Y-Country GR Ottawa Hills (0-1) at Benton Harbor (0-1) Berrien Springs (1-0) at Hillsdale (1-0) Buchanan (1-0) at Niles (0-1)         at Berrien Springs South Haven (1-0) at Ada Forest Hills Eastern (1-0) Mattawan (0-1) at Marshall (1-0) Decatur (1-0) at Lawton (1-0) Cassopolis (0-1) at Brandywine (0-1) Comstock (0-1) at Allegan (1-0) Plainwell (1-0) at Coldwater (0-1) Centreville (1-0) at Schoolcraft (1-0) Parchment (0-1) at Delton-Kellogg (1-0) Lakeview (0-1) at Saugatuck (0-1) Battle Creek Lakeview (1-0) at River Rouge (1-0) G.R. Forest Hills Central (1-0) at Portage Central (0-1) Kalamazoo Central (0-1) at Kalamazoo Loy Norrix (0-1), 5:00 p.m. Portage Northern (1-0) at Holland West Ottawa (1-0) White Pigeon (0-1) at Galesburg-Augusta (0-1) Constantine (1-0) at Hudson (1-0) Wolverine Conference Otsego (0-1) at Paw Paw (0-1) Edwardsburg (0-1) at Three Rivers (1-0) Sturgis (1-0) at Vicksburg (0-1) 8-Man Football Wyoming Tri-Unity (1-0) at Twin Cities (0-1) Red Arrow (0-1) at Bridgman (1-0) Marcellus (0-1) at Fennville (1-0) Farwell (1-0) at Bloomingdale (0-1) Gobles (1-0) at Martin (1-0) Wyoming-Lee (0-1) at Mendon (0-1) Friday Football Non-Conference Dowagiac (0-1) at Watervliet (1-0), 7:00 p.m.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

MLB – Major League Baseball Yesterday Seattle Mariners 5, Detroit Tigers 3 Chicago White Sox 4, Kansas City Royals 2 Chicago Cubs 7, Toronto Blue Jays 5 Mariners 5, Tigers 3 – Toro’s two-run HR carries Mariners past Tigers, 5-3 Abraham Toro hit a go-ahead, two-run homer in the seventh inning and the Seattle Mariners beat the Detroit Tigers 5-3 for their fifth win in six games. Toro, recalled from Triple-A Tacoma on Tuesday, had two hits. Eugenio Suarez also hit a two-run homer for the Mariners. Seattle starter Marco Gonzales (10-12) allowed three runs and seven hits in six innings. Paul Sewald worked around two walks in the ninth to get his 17th save. Jeimer Candelario drove in two runs for Detroit. Starting pitcher Tyler Alexander allowed two runs in 4 2/3 innings, while Alex Lange (4-4) took the loss. White Sox 4, Royals 2 – White Sox end 5-game skid behind Lynn, beat Royals 4-2 Lance Lynn pitched four-hit ball through seven innings, Elvis Andrus hit a tiebreaking home run in the fifth and the Chicago White Sox beat the Kansas City Royals 4-2 to snap a five-game losing streak. Lynn (4-5), who was reinstated from the bereavement list before the game, didn’t walk a batter and struck out eight for the fifth time this season. The Royals had scored 24 runs in their previous two games. Chicago (64-66) won for the first time under bench coach Miguel Cairo, who served his second game as acting manager while Tony La Russa is on indefinite leave for an unspecified health issue. The Royals (53-78) lost for the third time in five games. Cubs 7, Blue Jays 5 – Reyes, Hoerner help Cubs beat Blue Jays 7-5, avoid sweep Franmil Reyes homered, Nico Hoerner drove in a pair of runs and the Chicago Cubs beat the Toronto Blue Jays 7-5 to avoid a three-game sweep. Ian Happ and Zach McKinstry each had two hits as the Cubs snapped a five-game losing streak north of the border. Chicago went 15-15 in August, its first non-losing month this season. Alejandro Kirk hit a three-run homer and Cavan Biggio connected for a two-run shot for the Blue Jays, who are in position for an AL wild card but had their first losing month, going 13-14 in August. Tonight Seattle (Gilbert 10-5) at Detroit (Rodriguez 3-3), 1:10 p.m.                WSJM/WCSY 12:50 Kansas City (Mengden 0-0) at Chicago White Sox (Cueto 6-6), 2:10 p.m. Cubs are off MLB – Exhibition games start Feb 24 as MLB hopes for normal spring Major League Baseball’s exhibition season will start Feb. 24 with a pair of games in Arizona. All 30 teams are scheduled to play Feb. 25 as games start in Florida. Spring training was cut short in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and workouts were restricted the following year due to coronavirus protocols and stadium capacity was limited. Spring training workouts in 2022 were to have started on Feb. 16 but were delayed until March 11 by a lockout. MLB – WSox manager La Russa out indefinitely with health issue Chicago White Sox manager Tony La Russa is out indefinitely because of an unspecified health issue. The 77-year-old La Russa missed Tuesday night’s 9-7 loss to Kansas City on the recommendation of his doctors. The team says the Hall of Famer is scheduled to undergo additional testing in Arizona with his personal physicians “over the coming days.” Bench coach Miguel Cairo will continue to serve as acting manager while La Russa is out. WNBA – WNBA Playoffs – WNBA Semifinals (best of five) Tonight Chicago Sky 85, Connecticut Sun 77                                 (Series tied 1-1) Las Vegas Aces 78, Seattle Storm 73                                (Series tied 1-1) Sky 85, Sun 77 – Parker scores 22, Sky beat Sun 85-77 to even the series Candace Parker scored 22 points and the Chicago Sky evened the semifinal series with an 85-77 win over the Connecticut Sun in Game 2 of the WNBA playoffs. Chicago coach James Wade said pregame that Chicago was “going to make shots” Wednesday after a lackluster 35.3% shooting performance in Game 1. The Sky responded by hitting six of 10 shots to open the game, and finished the night 32 of 63 (50.8%). NCAAFB – College Football – Week 1 Tonight Central Michigan at (12) Oklahoma State, 7:00 p.m. NCAAFB – No. 12 Oklahoma State opens with Central Michigan Oklahoma State reached the Big 12 championship game last season and beat Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl. The 12th-ranked Cowboys believe they can accomplish at least that much this season with veteran quarterback Spencer Sanders leading the way. Oklahoma State opens with Central Michigan on Thursday night. The Cowboys can’t afford to slip early, and they remember an upset loss to the Chippewas in 2016 that provided an unexpected blemish on a 10-3 season. Central Michigan returns last year’s national rushing leader, Lew Nichols III, from a team that went 9-4 and won the Sun Bowl. NCAAFB – AP sources: Presidents meeting to discuss CFP expansion The university presidents who oversee the College Football Playoff are scheduled to meet Friday to discuss expanding the four-team format. The presidents hope to accelerate a process that bogged down last year and re-open the possibility that a new model for crowning champion could be implemented as soon as the 2024 season. Two people familiar with the situation told The Associated Press the CFP’s Board of Managers, led by Mississippi State President Mark Keenum, is set to convene by video conference. All the people spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the board’s plans were not being made public. NCAAFB – No. 5 Notre Dame faces defensive test against No. 2 Buckeyes No. 5 Notre Dame relishes the Saturday night challenge. It opens the season at No. 2 Ohio State against an offense that led the FBS in total offense and scoring last season and is only expected to get better in C.J. Stroud’s second season as starting quarterback. And if Notre Dame is going to defeat Ohio State for the first time since 1936, first-year coach Marcus Freeman knows what he needs — the defense to come up big against his alma mater. NCAAFB – Born a Buckeye: Ohio State prepared Freeman for Notre Dame Marcus Freeman was born and raised a Buckeye. He played at Ohio State, too, and worked there. Freeman says he wouldn’t be the head coach at Notre Dame at the age of 36 without the time he spent in Columbus, Ohio. Freeman is taking a trip home: The season opener for his fifth-ranked Fighting Irish is Saturday night at No. 2 Ohio State. Freeman’s peers say he’s ready for the challenges that come with being the head coach of Notre Dame. NCAA approves transfer windows and enforcement reforms The NCAA Division I Board of Directors approved changes to transfer rules and several proposals aimed at enforcement reforms. The proposed changes came from the Transformation Committee as part of the first phase of that group’s work. The changes to transfer rules will go into effect immediately. Sport-specific windows will be set during an academic year when athletes would be required to enter their names in the transfer portal to be eligible immediately to compete the following school year. On the enforcement side, the Independent Accountability Resolution Process will be eliminated. The NCAA’s outside enforcement task force to handle complex infractions cases has mostly slowed down the processing of cases. Tennis – US Open – Serena beats No. 2 seed Kontaveit at US Open to reach 3rd Rd Serena Williams has eliminated No. 2 seed Anett Kontaveit 7-6 (4), 2-6, 6-2 in the U.S. Open’s second round to ensure that the 23-time Grand Slam champion will play at least one more singles match. The 40-year-old Williams has hinted this will be the last tournament of her illustrious career. Williams missed about a year of action before returning to the tour in late June at Wimbledon. She lost in the first round there and was 1-3 in 2022 entering the U.S. Open, where she is 2-0 so far this week. She beat Danka Kovinic in the first round before following that up against Kontaveit on Wednesday night in front of a full house at Arthur Ashe Stadium. Tennis – US Open – Tiger Woods shows up to support Serena Williams at US Open Serena Williams credits Tiger Woods with offering advice before she made her recent comeback from a year-long injury absence. Woods sat courtside at the U.S. Open on Wednesday night, throwing uppercuts in the stands to cheer Williams on to victory. Williams says Woods is "one of the reasons I’m here.” Woods was in Williams’ guest box at sold-out Arthur Ashe Stadium, two seats over from her sister, Venus. NFL – Bears claim OL Alex Leatherwood off waivers from Las Vegas The Chicago Bears have claimed offensive lineman Alex Leatherwood off waivers a day after the 2021 first-round draft pick was let go by the Las Vegas Raiders. Leatherwood was the No. 17 overall pick last year. The Alabama product struggled at right tackle before being moved to guard after four games. He had difficulties inside, too, and dropped on the depth chart this summer before Las Vegas let him go. NFL – Bears’ Smith says he’s focused on season, not contract talks Chicago Bears star linebacker Roquan Smith insists his focus is on the upcoming season and not his long-term future after a contract standoff with the team ended with no new deal. Smith says there won’t be any more negotiations with new general manager Ryan Poles on an extension between now and the start of the season. He also says he’s not focusing on whether he will re-sign with Chicago after the season. Smith hoped to strike a new deal, with the contract he signed after the Bears drafted him with the No. 8 overall pick in 2018 set to expire following this season. NFL – Lawyers bash Goodell-led arbitration in NFL racial bias suit Lawyers for three Black NFL coaches alleging racial bias by the league took aim directly at Commissioner Roger Goodell in their latest arguments against arbitrating a dispute they say belongs before a jury. In papers filed Wednesday in Manhattan federal court, the lawyers wrote that arbitration, which would be led by Goodell, would allow “unconscionably biased one-sided ‘kangaroo courts’" to decide the outcome of the lawsuit filed in February. They say Goodell could not be fair in overseeing and ruling on the dispute as to whether the league engages in systemic discrimination. They cited the hundreds of millions of dollars he earns from teams and his public statement that the suit is without merit. NFL – Gruden ‘ashamed’ about emails that cost him his job Former Raiders coach Jon Gruden says he is “ashamed” about his old offensive emails that cost him his job and hopes to get another chance in football. Gruden spoke publicly about the affair at the Little Rock Touchdown Club for the first time since he resigned as coach of the Raiders last October. The resignation followed the publication by The New York Times and Wall Street Journal of emails he had sent from 2011 to 2018 that contained racist, homophobic and misogynistic comments. MILB – Midwest League Baseball Tonight West Michigan Whitecaps 6, Fort Wayne Tin Caps 4 South Bend Cubs 4, Lansing Lugnuts 2 Lake County Captains 2, Great Lakes Loons 0 Tonight West Michigan Whitecaps at Fort Wayne Tin Caps, 7:05 p.m. Lansing Lugnuts at South Bend Cubs, 7:05 p.m. Lake County Captains at Great Lakes Loons, 7:05 p.m. MCCAA – Junior College Athletics Tonight Volleyball Lake Michigan College at Bethel JV, 7:30 p.m. MHSAA – High School Sports Last Night Boys soccer St. Joseph 4, Kalamazoo Central 0 Lakeshore 1, Portage Northern 1 – TIE Berrien Springs 3, Michigan Lutheran 1 Brandywine 7, Bangor 3 Bridgman 4, Watervliet 3 Niles 5, Cassopolis 2 Battle Creek Pennfield 4, Bloomingdale 3 Holland Black River 4, Coloma 0 Parma Western 4, Sturgis 0 Portage Central 6, Battle Creek Central 0 Battle Creek Lakeview 4, Kalamazoo Loy Norrix 0 Gull Lake 2, Mattawan 1 Vicksburg 4, Harper Creek 0 8-Man Football Bangor (2-0) 58, Vandercook Lake (0-2) 0 Volleyball Our Lady of the Lake 3, New Buffalo 2 Otsego at Paw Paw, 6:00 p.m. Three Rivers 3, Edwardsburg 2 Sturgis 3, Vicksburg 1 Boys Tennis St. Joseph 7, Portage Northern 1 Lakeshore 8, Kalamazoo Central 0 Otsego 8, Niles 0 Tonight Football – All games stars at 7:00 unless specified otherwise Non-Conference Hudsonville Unity Christian (0-1) at St. Joseph (0-1)      News/Talk/Sports 94.9 WSJM, NFHS Network Lakeshore (0-1) at Kalamazoo United (0-1)                         97.5 Y-Country GR Ottawa Hills (0-1) at Benton Harbor (0-1) Berrien Springs (1-0) at Hillsdale (1-0) Buchanan (1-0) at Niles (0-1)         at Berrien Springs South Haven (1-0) at Ada Forest Hills Eastern (1-0) Mattawan (0-1) at Marshall (1-0) Decatur (1-0) at Lawton (1-0) Cassopolis (0-1) at Brandywine (0-1) Comstock (0-1) at Allegan (1-0) Plainwell (1-0) at Coldwater (0-1) Centreville (1-0) at Schoolcraft (1-0) Parchment (0-1) at Delton-Kellogg (1-0) Lakeview (0-1) at Saugatuck (0-1) Battle Creek Lakeview (1-0) at River Rouge (1-0) G.R. Forest Hills Central (1-0) at Portage Central (0-1) Kalamazoo Central (0-1) at Kalamazoo Loy Norrix (0-1), 5:00 p.m. Portage Northern (1-0) at Holland West Ottawa (1-0) White Pigeon (0-1) at Galesburg-Augusta (0-1) Constantine (1-0) at Hudson (1-0) Wolverine Conference Otsego (0-1) at Paw Paw (0-1) Edwardsburg (0-1) at Three Rivers (1-0) Sturgis (1-0) at Vicksburg (0-1) 8-Man Football Wyoming Tri-Unity (1-0) at Twin Cities (0-1) Red Arrow (0-1) at Bridgman (1-0) Marcellus (0-1) at Fennville (1-0) Farwell (1-0) at Bloomingdale (0-1) Gobles (1-0) at Martin (1-0) Wyoming-Lee (0-1) at Mendon (0-1) Friday Football Non-Conference Dowagiac (0-1) at Watervliet (1-0), 7:00 p.m.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

MLB – Major League Baseball Yesterday Seattle Mariners 5, Detroit Tigers 3 Chicago White Sox 4, Kansas City Royals 2 Chicago Cubs 7, Toronto Blue Jays 5 Mariners 5, Tigers 3 – Toro’s two-run HR carries Mariners past Tigers, 5-3 Abraham Toro hit a go-ahead, two-run homer in the seventh inning and the Seattle Mariners beat the Detroit Tigers 5-3 for their fifth win in six games. Toro, recalled from Triple-A Tacoma on Tuesday, had two hits. Eugenio Suarez also hit a two-run homer for the Mariners. Seattle starter Marco Gonzales (10-12) allowed three runs and seven hits in six innings. Paul Sewald worked around two walks in the ninth to get his 17th save. Jeimer Candelario drove in two runs for Detroit. Starting pitcher Tyler Alexander allowed two runs in 4 2/3 innings, while Alex Lange (4-4) took the loss. White Sox 4, Royals 2 – White Sox end 5-game skid behind Lynn, beat Royals 4-2 Lance Lynn pitched four-hit ball through seven innings, Elvis Andrus hit a tiebreaking home run in the fifth and the Chicago White Sox beat the Kansas City Royals 4-2 to snap a five-game losing streak. Lynn (4-5), who was reinstated from the bereavement list before the game, didn’t walk a batter and struck out eight for the fifth time this season. The Royals had scored 24 runs in their previous two games. Chicago (64-66) won for the first time under bench coach Miguel Cairo, who served his second game as acting manager while Tony La Russa is on indefinite leave for an unspecified health issue. The Royals (53-78) lost for the third time in five games. Cubs 7, Blue Jays 5 – Reyes, Hoerner help Cubs beat Blue Jays 7-5, avoid sweep Franmil Reyes homered, Nico Hoerner drove in a pair of runs and the Chicago Cubs beat the Toronto Blue Jays 7-5 to avoid a three-game sweep. Ian Happ and Zach McKinstry each had two hits as the Cubs snapped a five-game losing streak north of the border. Chicago went 15-15 in August, its first non-losing month this season. Alejandro Kirk hit a three-run homer and Cavan Biggio connected for a two-run shot for the Blue Jays, who are in position for an AL wild card but had their first losing month, going 13-14 in August. Tonight Seattle (Gilbert 10-5) at Detroit (Rodriguez 3-3), 1:10 p.m.                WSJM/WCSY 12:50 Kansas City (Mengden 0-0) at Chicago White Sox (Cueto 6-6), 2:10 p.m. Cubs are off MLB – Exhibition games start Feb 24 as MLB hopes for normal spring Major League Baseball’s exhibition season will start Feb. 24 with a pair of games in Arizona. All 30 teams are scheduled to play Feb. 25 as games start in Florida. Spring training was cut short in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and workouts were restricted the following year due to coronavirus protocols and stadium capacity was limited. Spring training workouts in 2022 were to have started on Feb. 16 but were delayed until March 11 by a lockout. MLB – WSox manager La Russa out indefinitely with health issue Chicago White Sox manager Tony La Russa is out indefinitely because of an unspecified health issue. The 77-year-old La Russa missed Tuesday night’s 9-7 loss to Kansas City on the recommendation of his doctors. The team says the Hall of Famer is scheduled to undergo additional testing in Arizona with his personal physicians “over the coming days.” Bench coach Miguel Cairo will continue to serve as acting manager while La Russa is out. WNBA – WNBA Playoffs – WNBA Semifinals (best of five) Tonight Chicago Sky 85, Connecticut Sun 77                                 (Series tied 1-1) Las Vegas Aces 78, Seattle Storm 73                                (Series tied 1-1) Sky 85, Sun 77 – Parker scores 22, Sky beat Sun 85-77 to even the series Candace Parker scored 22 points and the Chicago Sky evened the semifinal series with an 85-77 win over the Connecticut Sun in Game 2 of the WNBA playoffs. Chicago coach James Wade said pregame that Chicago was “going to make shots” Wednesday after a lackluster 35.3% shooting performance in Game 1. The Sky responded by hitting six of 10 shots to open the game, and finished the night 32 of 63 (50.8%). NCAAFB – College Football – Week 1 Tonight Central Michigan at (12) Oklahoma State, 7:00 p.m. NCAAFB – No. 12 Oklahoma State opens with Central Michigan Oklahoma State reached the Big 12 championship game last season and beat Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl. The 12th-ranked Cowboys believe they can accomplish at least that much this season with veteran quarterback Spencer Sanders leading the way. Oklahoma State opens with Central Michigan on Thursday night. The Cowboys can’t afford to slip early, and they remember an upset loss to the Chippewas in 2016 that provided an unexpected blemish on a 10-3 season. Central Michigan returns last year’s national rushing leader, Lew Nichols III, from a team that went 9-4 and won the Sun Bowl. NCAAFB – AP sources: Presidents meeting to discuss CFP expansion The university presidents who oversee the College Football Playoff are scheduled to meet Friday to discuss expanding the four-team format. The presidents hope to accelerate a process that bogged down last year and re-open the possibility that a new model for crowning champion could be implemented as soon as the 2024 season. Two people familiar with the situation told The Associated Press the CFP’s Board of Managers, led by Mississippi State President Mark Keenum, is set to convene by video conference. All the people spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the board’s plans were not being made public. NCAAFB – No. 5 Notre Dame faces defensive test against No. 2 Buckeyes No. 5 Notre Dame relishes the Saturday night challenge. It opens the season at No. 2 Ohio State against an offense that led the FBS in total offense and scoring last season and is only expected to get better in C.J. Stroud’s second season as starting quarterback. And if Notre Dame is going to defeat Ohio State for the first time since 1936, first-year coach Marcus Freeman knows what he needs — the defense to come up big against his alma mater. NCAAFB – Born a Buckeye: Ohio State prepared Freeman for Notre Dame Marcus Freeman was born and raised a Buckeye. He played at Ohio State, too, and worked there. Freeman says he wouldn’t be the head coach at Notre Dame at the age of 36 without the time he spent in Columbus, Ohio. Freeman is taking a trip home: The season opener for his fifth-ranked Fighting Irish is Saturday night at No. 2 Ohio State. Freeman’s peers say he’s ready for the challenges that come with being the head coach of Notre Dame. NCAA approves transfer windows and enforcement reforms The NCAA Division I Board of Directors approved changes to transfer rules and several proposals aimed at enforcement reforms. The proposed changes came from the Transformation Committee as part of the first phase of that group’s work. The changes to transfer rules will go into effect immediately. Sport-specific windows will be set during an academic year when athletes would be required to enter their names in the transfer portal to be eligible immediately to compete the following school year. On the enforcement side, the Independent Accountability Resolution Process will be eliminated. The NCAA’s outside enforcement task force to handle complex infractions cases has mostly slowed down the processing of cases. Tennis – US Open – Serena beats No. 2 seed Kontaveit at US Open to reach 3rd Rd Serena Williams has eliminated No. 2 seed Anett Kontaveit 7-6 (4), 2-6, 6-2 in the U.S. Open’s second round to ensure that the 23-time Grand Slam champion will play at least one more singles match. The 40-year-old Williams has hinted this will be the last tournament of her illustrious career. Williams missed about a year of action before returning to the tour in late June at Wimbledon. She lost in the first round there and was 1-3 in 2022 entering the U.S. Open, where she is 2-0 so far this week. She beat Danka Kovinic in the first round before following that up against Kontaveit on Wednesday night in front of a full house at Arthur Ashe Stadium. Tennis – US Open – Tiger Woods shows up to support Serena Williams at US Open Serena Williams credits Tiger Woods with offering advice before she made her recent comeback from a year-long injury absence. Woods sat courtside at the U.S. Open on Wednesday night, throwing uppercuts in the stands to cheer Williams on to victory. Williams says Woods is "one of the reasons I’m here.” Woods was in Williams’ guest box at sold-out Arthur Ashe Stadium, two seats over from her sister, Venus. NFL – Bears claim OL Alex Leatherwood off waivers from Las Vegas The Chicago Bears have claimed offensive lineman Alex Leatherwood off waivers a day after the 2021 first-round draft pick was let go by the Las Vegas Raiders. Leatherwood was the No. 17 overall pick last year. The Alabama product struggled at right tackle before being moved to guard after four games. He had difficulties inside, too, and dropped on the depth chart this summer before Las Vegas let him go. NFL – Bears’ Smith says he’s focused on season, not contract talks Chicago Bears star linebacker Roquan Smith insists his focus is on the upcoming season and not his long-term future after a contract standoff with the team ended with no new deal. Smith says there won’t be any more negotiations with new general manager Ryan Poles on an extension between now and the start of the season. He also says he’s not focusing on whether he will re-sign with Chicago after the season. Smith hoped to strike a new deal, with the contract he signed after the Bears drafted him with the No. 8 overall pick in 2018 set to expire following this season. NFL – Lawyers bash Goodell-led arbitration in NFL racial bias suit Lawyers for three Black NFL coaches alleging racial bias by the league took aim directly at Commissioner Roger Goodell in their latest arguments against arbitrating a dispute they say belongs before a jury. In papers filed Wednesday in Manhattan federal court, the lawyers wrote that arbitration, which would be led by Goodell, would allow “unconscionably biased one-sided ‘kangaroo courts’" to decide the outcome of the lawsuit filed in February. They say Goodell could not be fair in overseeing and ruling on the dispute as to whether the league engages in systemic discrimination. They cited the hundreds of millions of dollars he earns from teams and his public statement that the suit is without merit. NFL – Gruden ‘ashamed’ about emails that cost him his job Former Raiders coach Jon Gruden says he is “ashamed” about his old offensive emails that cost him his job and hopes to get another chance in football. Gruden spoke publicly about the affair at the Little Rock Touchdown Club for the first time since he resigned as coach of the Raiders last October. The resignation followed the publication by The New York Times and Wall Street Journal of emails he had sent from 2011 to 2018 that contained racist, homophobic and misogynistic comments. MILB – Midwest League Baseball Tonight West Michigan Whitecaps 6, Fort Wayne Tin Caps 4 South Bend Cubs 4, Lansing Lugnuts 2 Lake County Captains 2, Great Lakes Loons 0 Tonight West Michigan Whitecaps at Fort Wayne Tin Caps, 7:05 p.m. Lansing Lugnuts at South Bend Cubs, 7:05 p.m. Lake County Captains at Great Lakes Loons, 7:05 p.m. MCCAA – Junior College Athletics Tonight Volleyball Lake Michigan College at Bethel JV, 7:30 p.m. MHSAA – High School Sports Last Night Boys soccer St. Joseph 4, Kalamazoo Central 0 Lakeshore 1, Portage Northern 1 – TIE Berrien Springs 3, Michigan Lutheran 1 Brandywine 7, Bangor 3 Bridgman 4, Watervliet 3 Niles 5, Cassopolis 2 Battle Creek Pennfield 4, Bloomingdale 3 Holland Black River 4, Coloma 0 Parma Western 4, Sturgis 0 Portage Central 6, Battle Creek Central 0 Battle Creek Lakeview 4, Kalamazoo Loy Norrix 0 Gull Lake 2, Mattawan 1 Vicksburg 4, Harper Creek 0 8-Man Football Bangor (2-0) 58, Vandercook Lake (0-2) 0 Volleyball Our Lady of the Lake 3, New Buffalo 2 Otsego at Paw Paw, 6:00 p.m. Three Rivers 3, Edwardsburg 2 Sturgis 3, Vicksburg 1 Boys Tennis St. Joseph 7, Portage Northern 1 Lakeshore 8, Kalamazoo Central 0 Otsego 8, Niles 0 Tonight Football – All games stars at 7:00 unless specified otherwise Non-Conference Hudsonville Unity Christian (0-1) at St. Joseph (0-1)      News/Talk/Sports 94.9 WSJM, NFHS Network Lakeshore (0-1) at Kalamazoo United (0-1)                         97.5 Y-Country GR Ottawa Hills (0-1) at Benton Harbor (0-1) Berrien Springs (1-0) at Hillsdale (1-0) Buchanan (1-0) at Niles (0-1)         at Berrien Springs South Haven (1-0) at Ada Forest Hills Eastern (1-0) Mattawan (0-1) at Marshall (1-0) Decatur (1-0) at Lawton (1-0) Cassopolis (0-1) at Brandywine (0-1) Comstock (0-1) at Allegan (1-0) Plainwell (1-0) at Coldwater (0-1) Centreville (1-0) at Schoolcraft (1-0) Parchment (0-1) at Delton-Kellogg (1-0) Lakeview (0-1) at Saugatuck (0-1) Battle Creek Lakeview (1-0) at River Rouge (1-0) G.R. Forest Hills Central (1-0) at Portage Central (0-1) Kalamazoo Central (0-1) at Kalamazoo Loy Norrix (0-1), 5:00 p.m. Portage Northern (1-0) at Holland West Ottawa (1-0) White Pigeon (0-1) at Galesburg-Augusta (0-1) Constantine (1-0) at Hudson (1-0) Wolverine Conference Otsego (0-1) at Paw Paw (0-1) Edwardsburg (0-1) at Three Rivers (1-0) Sturgis (1-0) at Vicksburg (0-1) 8-Man Football Wyoming Tri-Unity (1-0) at Twin Cities (0-1) Red Arrow (0-1) at Bridgman (1-0) Marcellus (0-1) at Fennville (1-0) Farwell (1-0) at Bloomingdale (0-1) Gobles (1-0) at Martin (1-0) Wyoming-Lee (0-1) at Mendon (0-1) Friday Football Non-Conference Dowagiac (0-1) at Watervliet (1-0), 7:00 p.m.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

MLB – Major League Baseball Last Night Detroit Tigers 3, Minnesota Twins 2 Toronto Blue Jays 8, Chicago White Sox 3 Chicago Cubs 7, St. Louis Cardinals 5 Tigers 3, Twins 2 – Daz Cameron’s HR in 8th lifts surging Tigers past Twins 3-2 Daz Cameron hit a go-ahead, two-run homer in the eighth inning and the surging Detroit Tigers held on to beat the slumping Minnesota Twins 3-2. Cameron’s 416-foot shot to left-center came off Emilio Pagan. Alex Lange gave up two walks and struck out one in the pivotal eighth inning and Gregory Soto earned his 10th save. AL Central-leading Minnesota has lost seven of 10 games and is still the division’s only team with a winning record. The fourth-place Tigers have won seven of their last nine games after a poor start this season. Blue Jays 8 White Sox 3 – Manoah sharp as Blue Jays beat White Sox, win 8th straight Alek Manoah pitched into the eighth inning, Teoscar Hernández homered and the Toronto Blue Jays extended their winning streak to eight games by beating the Chicago White Sox 8-3. Santiago Espinal had three hits and three RBIs as the surging Blue Jays won for the 12th time in 15 games. Chicago was swept in the three-game series and has lost six of eight. Manoah allowed three runs and six hits, walked one and struck out five in 7 2/3 innings. He’s 9-0 with a 2.12 ERA in 13 career home starts. Cubs 7, Cardinals 5 – Schwindel, Contreras and Happ homer as Cubs top Cards 7-5 Frank Schwindel launched a long solo homer and doubled among his three hits and the Chicago Cubs topped the St. Louis Cardinals 7-5 for their third straight victory. Willson Contreras went deep for the third time in four games and Ian Happ also homered to help Chicago end the Cardinals’ three-game winning streak. St. Louis has also won five in a row at Wrigley Field dating to last July. Paul Goldschmidt doubled to extend his hitting streak to 24 games and reached safely for a career-best 38th consecutive game. Keegan Thompson allowed three runs and five hits in 5 1/3 innings for a win in his fourth straight outing. Today St. Louis (Mikolas 3-3) at Chicago Cubs (Stroman 2-4), 2:20 p.m. Detroit (Rodriguez 0-0) at N.Y. Yankees (Cole 4-1), 7:05 p.m.               WSJM/WCSY 6:45 Chicago White Sox (Velasquez 2-3) at Tampa Bay (McClanahan 5-2), 7:10 p.m. NBA – National Basketball Association – 2022 NBA Finals Last Night Boston Celtics 120, Golden State Warriors 108              (BOS Leads 1-0) Celtics 120, Warriors 108 – Celtics have huge 4th, beat Warriors in Game 1 of NBA Finals Jaylen Brown fueled a comeback charge and scored 24 points, Al Horford hit six 3-pointers and the Boston Celtics rode the most lopsided fourth quarter in NBA Finals history to a 120-108 victory over the Golden State Warriors in Game 1. Horford finished with 26 points and the Celtics outscored the Warriors 40-16 in the final 12 minutes after trailing by 15 points late in the third quarter. Boston made its first seven tries from long distance in the fourth and wound up 9 of 12 beyond the arc over the final 12 minutes as almost everybody got involved in the 3-point flurry. NBA – Silver says NBA likes ‘parity of opportunity’ for its teams Over the last three seasons, six franchises have reached the NBA Finals. The league has seen five Eastern Conference champions in the last five seasons. This will be the fourth consecutive year that the team which hoists the trophy won’t be the same as the one who did the year before. Adam Silver likes all these numbers. The NBA Commissioner, in his annual pre-NBA Finals address Thursday night held just before Game 1 of the series between the Golden State Warriors and Boston Celtics, repeated his familiar refrain that he doesn’t care who wins. But he also sees the value in some unpredictability from one year to the next as far as which teams make it to the title round. NHL – National Hockey League – 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs – Conference Finals Last Night Colorado Avalanche 4, Edmonton Oilers 0                        (COL Leads 2-0) Avalanche 4, Oilers 0 – Francouz, Kadri lead Avs to 4-0 win over Oilers in Game 2 Nazem Kadri had three assists in a 2:04 span in the second period, backup Pavel Francouz stopped 24 shots for his second career playoff shutout and the Colorado Avalanche beat the Edmonton Oilers 4-0 on Thursday night to take a 2-0 lead in the Western Conference finals. The Avalanche broke through in the second after a scoreless opening period that featured something rarely seen so far in this series — defense. Artturi Lehkonen and Josh Manson scored 15 seconds apart to get things going in the second, with Mikko Rantanen adding another on Kadri’s third assist. Nathan MacKinnon scored late in the third. Game 3 is Saturday in Edmonton. Tonight Tampa Bay Lightning at New York Rangers, 8:00 p.m.          (NYR Leads 1-0) NHL – Flames’ Sutter wins Jack Adams as NHL coach of the year Darryl Sutter of the Calgary Flames is this season’s recipient of the Jack Adams Award as the NHL’s top head coach.  Sutter oversaw the biggest one-year improvement by any team in the league guiding the Flames to the Pacific Division title a year after they missed the playoffs.  Sutter received 54 first-place votes to beat Florida’s Andrew Brunette and New York Rangers coach Gerard Gallant for the honor. WNBA – Women’s National Basketball Association Tonight Chicago Sky at Atlanta Dream, 7:30 p.m. WNBA – Griner receiving, answering WNBA players’ emails Brittney Griner has been able to receive emails and letters from WNBA players through an account Griner’s agent set up to allow them to communicate with her.  The emails are printed out and delivered sporadically in bunches to Griner by her lawyers after being vetted by Russian officials. Griner doesn’t have access to email. She’ll either write a response on paper and her lawyers will take a photo of it or she’ll dictate a response.  The two-time Olympic gold medalist has been detained in Russia for more than 100 days after vape cartridges containing oil derived from cannabis were allegedly found in her luggage at an airport near Moscow. Tennis – French Open – Gauff to face Swiatek in final It will be top-ranked Iga Swiatek against American Coco Gauff for the French Open women’s singles title on Saturday. Swiatek won her 34th straight match today, dominating Daria Kasatkina 6-2, 6-1. Gauff has reached her first Grand Slam final by beating Martina Trevisan of Italy 6-3, 6-1. NCAAFB – CFP board chair: New format ideally in place by June 2023 The university leaders who oversee the College Football Playoff want the next format for determining a champion settled by this time next year. Mississippi State President Mark Keenum says the conference commissioners in charge of building the postseason system for the 2026 season and beyond will restart the task in the coming weeks. Keenum is the chairman of the CFP board of managers. He added that he intends to meet with his fellow presidents and chancellors in August to discuss what comes next for the playoff. An attempt to expand the playoff from the current four-team format to 12 teams before the current 12-year contract with ESPN expires after the 2025 season fell apart last fall. NCAA – Roger Valdiserri, Notre Dame SID for 3 decades, dies at 95 Roger Valdiserri, who helped tell the story of some of Notre Dame’s greatest football teams as the school’s sports information director for three decades, has died. He was 95. Valdiserri’s family says he died of natural causes at a retirement community outside Chicago. The family said he was surrounded by his five children at the time of his death. Valdiserri was a native of Pennsylvania who graduated from Notre Dame in 1954. His first job at the school was an administrative assistant for football coaches Frank Leahy and Terry Brennan. He took over as the school’s sports information director in 1966 under coach Ara Parseghian. Notre Dame won the first of four national titles in football during Valdiserri’s tenure that season. NBAGL – NBA G League – Grand Rapids Gold moving to Van Andel Arena One month after officials decided that the DeltaPlex Arena will close, the Grand Rapids Gold of the NBA G-League have had to search for a new home venue.  The team will move to the downtown Van Andel Arena starting this upcoming season.  Van Andel Arena is the 4th largest arena in the state of Michigan and is currently the home of the American Hockey League’s Grand Rapids Griffins, who are the Detroit Red Wings primary affiliate.  Van Andel Arena holds just under 11,000 for hockey, and 11, 500 for basketball.  The Gold, who are the affiliated of the NBA’s Denver Nuggets, won’t be the first professional basketball team to call Van Andel Arena home, the Grand Rapids Hoops of the now defunct CBA played there from 1996-2001.  The 2001 Big Ten Women’s Basketball tournament was also held at Van Andel Arena. MILB – Midwest League Baseball Yesterday South Bend Cubs 5, Dayton Dragons 1 – Game 1 Dayton Dragons 7, South Bend Cubs 2 – Game 2 West Michigan Whitecaps 16, Lake County Captains 8 Lansing Lugnuts 7, Cedar Rapids Kernels 3 Great Lakes Loons 5, Fort Wayne Tin Caps 2 Today West Michigan Whitecaps at Lake County Captains, 7:00 p.m. Cedar Rapids Kernels at Lansing Lugnuts, 7:05 p.m. Fort Wayne Tin Caps at Great Lakes Loons, 7:05 p.m. South Bend Cubs at Dayton Dragons, 7:05 p.m. MHSAA – High School Sports Yesterday Girls Soccer – District Championships Division 3 (Delton-Kellogg) Otsego 2, Portland 0 – OT Today Baseball Division 1 (Hudsonville) St. Joseph vs. Zeeland West, 1:00 p.m. Hudsonville vs. Holland West Ottawa, 1:00 p.m. -Championship game, 3:30 p.m. Division 4 (River Valley) River Valley vs. Eau Claire, 2:00 p.m. Michigan Lutheran vs. New Buffalo, 4:00 p.m. -Championship game, 6:00 p.m. Softball Division 4 (River Valley) River Valley vs. Eau Claire, 2:00 p.m. Bridgman vs. New Buffalo, 4:00 p.m. -Championship game, 5:30 p.m. Girls Soccer – District Finals Division 2 (Marshall) Gull Lake vs. Marshall, 6:00 p.m. Division 2 (Zeeland East) Plainwell vs. Zeeland West, 6:00 p.m. Division 3 (Berrien Springs) Three Rivers vs. South Haven, 6:00 p.m. Division 4 (Buchanan) Our Lady of the Lake vs. Michigan Lutheran, 5:00 p.m. Division 4 (Hartford) Saugatuck vs. Holland Black River, 5:00 p.m. MHSAA – High School Sports Saturday Girls Tennis – State Finals Division 2 at Hope College & Holland Christian HS St. Joseph, Battle Creek Lakeview, Portage Central, Mattawan, Berkley, Birmingham Groves, Birmingham Seaholm, Dexter, East Lansing, Forest Hills Central, Forest Hills Northern, Grosse Pointe, North Grosse Pointe, South Holly, , Midland, Petoskey, South Lyon, Temperance Bedford, Trenton Division 3 at Midland Tennis Center & Midland HS Lakeshore, Edwardsburg, Allegan, Otsego, Ada Forest Hills, Eastern Armada, BH Cranbrook Kingswood, Bloomfield Hills Marian, Chelsea, Detroit Country Day, East Grand Rapids, Grosse Ile, Haslett, Holland Christian, Ludington, Parma Western, Pontiac Notre Dame Prep, St. Johns, Whitehall, Williamston MHSAA – High School Sports Saturday (Continued) Girls Soccer – District Finals Division 2 (Mattawan) St. Joseph vs. Mattawan, 10:00 a.m. Division 1 (Portage Northern) Portage Central vs. Kal. Loy Norrix, 10:00 a.m. Baseball – District Semifinals/Final Division 1 (Portage Northern) Kalamazoo Central vs. Portage Northern, 10:00 a.m. Mattawan vs. Portage Central, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:00 p.m. Division 1 (Coldwater) Sturgis vs. Coldwater, 10:00 a.m. BC Lakeview vs. Jackson, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:30 p.m. Division 2 (Edwardsburg) Berrien Springs vs. Dowagiac, 10:00 a.m. Lakeshore vs. Edwardsburg, 12:30 p.m. -Championship game, 2:30 p.m. Division 2 (Holland Christian) South Haven vs. Hamilton, 10:00 a.m. Holland Christian vs. Zeeland East, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:00 p.m. Division 2 (Gull Lake) Gull Lake vs. Olivet, 10:00 a.m. Marshall vs. BC Pennfield, 12:30 p.m. -Championship game, 3:30 p.m. Division 2 (Parchment) Vicksburg vs. Three Rivers, 10:00 a.m. Paw Paw vs. Parchment, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:00 p.m. Division 2 (GR South Christian) Otsego vs. Wayland, 10:00 a.m. Hopkins vs. GR South Christian, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:30 p.m. Division 3 (Buchanan) Buchanan vs. Lawton, 10:00 a.m. Bridgman vs. Constantine, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:00 p.m. Division 3 (Bangor) Coloma vs. Bloomingdale, 10:00 a.m. Watervliet vs. Hartford, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:00 p.m. Division 3 (Centreville) Centreville vs. Climax-Scotts, 10:00 a.m. Schoolcraft vs. Comstock, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:00 p.m. Division 3 (Calvin Christian) Calvin Christian vs. Covenant Chr., 10:00 a.m. Fennville vs. Saugatuck, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:00 p.m. Division 4 (Decatur) Decatur vs. Marcellus, 10:00 a.m. Cassopolis (Bye) -Championship game, 12:00 p.m. Division 4 (Kalamazoo Hackett) Kal. Hackett vs. Kal. Christian, 10:00 a.m. Lawrence vs. Gobles, 12:15 p.m. -Championship game, 2:45 p.m. Softball – District Semifinals/Final Division 1 (Mattawan) St. Joseph vs. Portage Northern, 10:00 a.m. Mattawan vs. Kalamazoo Central, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:00 p.m. Division 1 (Coldwater) Coldwater vs. BC Lakeview, 10:00 a.m. Sturgis vs. BC Central, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:30 p.m. Division 2 (Berrien Springs) Niles vs. Edwardsburg, 10:00 a.m. Lakeshore vs. Berrien Springs, 12:30 p.m. -Championship game, 3:00 p.m. Division 2 (Paw Paw) Plainwell vs. Otsego, 10:00 a.m. South Haven vs. Paw Paw, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:00 p.m. Division 2 (BC Pennfield) Gull Lake vs. Three Rivers, 10:00 a.m. Vicksburg vs. Harper Creek, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:00 p.m. Division 3 (Buchanan) Buchanan vs. Brandywine, 10:00 a.m. Lawton vs. Schoolcraft, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:00 p.m. Division 3 (Bangor) Watervliet vs. Bangor, 10:00 a.m. Coloma vs. Bloomingdale, 11:30 a.m. -Championship game, 1:00 p.m. Division 3 (Centreville) Homer vs. Quincy, 10:00 a.m. Centreville vs. Bronson, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:00 p.m. Division 3 (Parchment) Parchment vs. Galesburg-Augusta, 10:00 a.m. Comstock vs. Climax-Scotts, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:00 p.m. Division 4 (Lawrence) Gobles vs. Kal. Christian, 10:00 a.m. Decatur vs. Lawrence, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:00 p.m. Division 4 (Marcellus) Marcellus vs. Howardsville Chr., 10:00 a.m. White Pigeon vs. Mendon, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:00 p.m.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

MLB – Major League Baseball Last Night Detroit Tigers 3, Minnesota Twins 2 Toronto Blue Jays 8, Chicago White Sox 3 Chicago Cubs 7, St. Louis Cardinals 5 Tigers 3, Twins 2 – Daz Cameron’s HR in 8th lifts surging Tigers past Twins 3-2 Daz Cameron hit a go-ahead, two-run homer in the eighth inning and the surging Detroit Tigers held on to beat the slumping Minnesota Twins 3-2. Cameron’s 416-foot shot to left-center came off Emilio Pagan. Alex Lange gave up two walks and struck out one in the pivotal eighth inning and Gregory Soto earned his 10th save. AL Central-leading Minnesota has lost seven of 10 games and is still the division’s only team with a winning record. The fourth-place Tigers have won seven of their last nine games after a poor start this season. Blue Jays 8 White Sox 3 – Manoah sharp as Blue Jays beat White Sox, win 8th straight Alek Manoah pitched into the eighth inning, Teoscar Hernández homered and the Toronto Blue Jays extended their winning streak to eight games by beating the Chicago White Sox 8-3. Santiago Espinal had three hits and three RBIs as the surging Blue Jays won for the 12th time in 15 games. Chicago was swept in the three-game series and has lost six of eight. Manoah allowed three runs and six hits, walked one and struck out five in 7 2/3 innings. He’s 9-0 with a 2.12 ERA in 13 career home starts. Cubs 7, Cardinals 5 – Schwindel, Contreras and Happ homer as Cubs top Cards 7-5 Frank Schwindel launched a long solo homer and doubled among his three hits and the Chicago Cubs topped the St. Louis Cardinals 7-5 for their third straight victory. Willson Contreras went deep for the third time in four games and Ian Happ also homered to help Chicago end the Cardinals’ three-game winning streak. St. Louis has also won five in a row at Wrigley Field dating to last July. Paul Goldschmidt doubled to extend his hitting streak to 24 games and reached safely for a career-best 38th consecutive game. Keegan Thompson allowed three runs and five hits in 5 1/3 innings for a win in his fourth straight outing. Today St. Louis (Mikolas 3-3) at Chicago Cubs (Stroman 2-4), 2:20 p.m. Detroit (Rodriguez 0-0) at N.Y. Yankees (Cole 4-1), 7:05 p.m.               WSJM/WCSY 6:45 Chicago White Sox (Velasquez 2-3) at Tampa Bay (McClanahan 5-2), 7:10 p.m. NBA – National Basketball Association – 2022 NBA Finals Last Night Boston Celtics 120, Golden State Warriors 108              (BOS Leads 1-0) Celtics 120, Warriors 108 – Celtics have huge 4th, beat Warriors in Game 1 of NBA Finals Jaylen Brown fueled a comeback charge and scored 24 points, Al Horford hit six 3-pointers and the Boston Celtics rode the most lopsided fourth quarter in NBA Finals history to a 120-108 victory over the Golden State Warriors in Game 1. Horford finished with 26 points and the Celtics outscored the Warriors 40-16 in the final 12 minutes after trailing by 15 points late in the third quarter. Boston made its first seven tries from long distance in the fourth and wound up 9 of 12 beyond the arc over the final 12 minutes as almost everybody got involved in the 3-point flurry. NBA – Silver says NBA likes ‘parity of opportunity’ for its teams Over the last three seasons, six franchises have reached the NBA Finals. The league has seen five Eastern Conference champions in the last five seasons. This will be the fourth consecutive year that the team which hoists the trophy won’t be the same as the one who did the year before. Adam Silver likes all these numbers. The NBA Commissioner, in his annual pre-NBA Finals address Thursday night held just before Game 1 of the series between the Golden State Warriors and Boston Celtics, repeated his familiar refrain that he doesn’t care who wins. But he also sees the value in some unpredictability from one year to the next as far as which teams make it to the title round. NHL – National Hockey League – 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs – Conference Finals Last Night Colorado Avalanche 4, Edmonton Oilers 0                        (COL Leads 2-0) Avalanche 4, Oilers 0 – Francouz, Kadri lead Avs to 4-0 win over Oilers in Game 2 Nazem Kadri had three assists in a 2:04 span in the second period, backup Pavel Francouz stopped 24 shots for his second career playoff shutout and the Colorado Avalanche beat the Edmonton Oilers 4-0 on Thursday night to take a 2-0 lead in the Western Conference finals. The Avalanche broke through in the second after a scoreless opening period that featured something rarely seen so far in this series — defense. Artturi Lehkonen and Josh Manson scored 15 seconds apart to get things going in the second, with Mikko Rantanen adding another on Kadri’s third assist. Nathan MacKinnon scored late in the third. Game 3 is Saturday in Edmonton. Tonight Tampa Bay Lightning at New York Rangers, 8:00 p.m.          (NYR Leads 1-0) NHL – Flames’ Sutter wins Jack Adams as NHL coach of the year Darryl Sutter of the Calgary Flames is this season’s recipient of the Jack Adams Award as the NHL’s top head coach.  Sutter oversaw the biggest one-year improvement by any team in the league guiding the Flames to the Pacific Division title a year after they missed the playoffs.  Sutter received 54 first-place votes to beat Florida’s Andrew Brunette and New York Rangers coach Gerard Gallant for the honor. WNBA – Women’s National Basketball Association Tonight Chicago Sky at Atlanta Dream, 7:30 p.m. WNBA – Griner receiving, answering WNBA players’ emails Brittney Griner has been able to receive emails and letters from WNBA players through an account Griner’s agent set up to allow them to communicate with her.  The emails are printed out and delivered sporadically in bunches to Griner by her lawyers after being vetted by Russian officials. Griner doesn’t have access to email. She’ll either write a response on paper and her lawyers will take a photo of it or she’ll dictate a response.  The two-time Olympic gold medalist has been detained in Russia for more than 100 days after vape cartridges containing oil derived from cannabis were allegedly found in her luggage at an airport near Moscow. Tennis – French Open – Gauff to face Swiatek in final It will be top-ranked Iga Swiatek against American Coco Gauff for the French Open women’s singles title on Saturday. Swiatek won her 34th straight match today, dominating Daria Kasatkina 6-2, 6-1. Gauff has reached her first Grand Slam final by beating Martina Trevisan of Italy 6-3, 6-1. NCAAFB – CFP board chair: New format ideally in place by June 2023 The university leaders who oversee the College Football Playoff want the next format for determining a champion settled by this time next year. Mississippi State President Mark Keenum says the conference commissioners in charge of building the postseason system for the 2026 season and beyond will restart the task in the coming weeks. Keenum is the chairman of the CFP board of managers. He added that he intends to meet with his fellow presidents and chancellors in August to discuss what comes next for the playoff. An attempt to expand the playoff from the current four-team format to 12 teams before the current 12-year contract with ESPN expires after the 2025 season fell apart last fall. NCAA – Roger Valdiserri, Notre Dame SID for 3 decades, dies at 95 Roger Valdiserri, who helped tell the story of some of Notre Dame’s greatest football teams as the school’s sports information director for three decades, has died. He was 95. Valdiserri’s family says he died of natural causes at a retirement community outside Chicago. The family said he was surrounded by his five children at the time of his death. Valdiserri was a native of Pennsylvania who graduated from Notre Dame in 1954. His first job at the school was an administrative assistant for football coaches Frank Leahy and Terry Brennan. He took over as the school’s sports information director in 1966 under coach Ara Parseghian. Notre Dame won the first of four national titles in football during Valdiserri’s tenure that season. NBAGL – NBA G League – Grand Rapids Gold moving to Van Andel Arena One month after officials decided that the DeltaPlex Arena will close, the Grand Rapids Gold of the NBA G-League have had to search for a new home venue.  The team will move to the downtown Van Andel Arena starting this upcoming season.  Van Andel Arena is the 4th largest arena in the state of Michigan and is currently the home of the American Hockey League’s Grand Rapids Griffins, who are the Detroit Red Wings primary affiliate.  Van Andel Arena holds just under 11,000 for hockey, and 11, 500 for basketball.  The Gold, who are the affiliated of the NBA’s Denver Nuggets, won’t be the first professional basketball team to call Van Andel Arena home, the Grand Rapids Hoops of the now defunct CBA played there from 1996-2001.  The 2001 Big Ten Women’s Basketball tournament was also held at Van Andel Arena. MILB – Midwest League Baseball Yesterday South Bend Cubs 5, Dayton Dragons 1 – Game 1 Dayton Dragons 7, South Bend Cubs 2 – Game 2 West Michigan Whitecaps 16, Lake County Captains 8 Lansing Lugnuts 7, Cedar Rapids Kernels 3 Great Lakes Loons 5, Fort Wayne Tin Caps 2 Today West Michigan Whitecaps at Lake County Captains, 7:00 p.m. Cedar Rapids Kernels at Lansing Lugnuts, 7:05 p.m. Fort Wayne Tin Caps at Great Lakes Loons, 7:05 p.m. South Bend Cubs at Dayton Dragons, 7:05 p.m. MHSAA – High School Sports Yesterday Girls Soccer – District Championships Division 3 (Delton-Kellogg) Otsego 2, Portland 0 – OT Today Baseball Division 1 (Hudsonville) St. Joseph vs. Zeeland West, 1:00 p.m. Hudsonville vs. Holland West Ottawa, 1:00 p.m. -Championship game, 3:30 p.m. Division 4 (River Valley) River Valley vs. Eau Claire, 2:00 p.m. Michigan Lutheran vs. New Buffalo, 4:00 p.m. -Championship game, 6:00 p.m. Softball Division 4 (River Valley) River Valley vs. Eau Claire, 2:00 p.m. Bridgman vs. New Buffalo, 4:00 p.m. -Championship game, 5:30 p.m. Girls Soccer – District Finals Division 2 (Marshall) Gull Lake vs. Marshall, 6:00 p.m. Division 2 (Zeeland East) Plainwell vs. Zeeland West, 6:00 p.m. Division 3 (Berrien Springs) Three Rivers vs. South Haven, 6:00 p.m. Division 4 (Buchanan) Our Lady of the Lake vs. Michigan Lutheran, 5:00 p.m. Division 4 (Hartford) Saugatuck vs. Holland Black River, 5:00 p.m. MHSAA – High School Sports Saturday Girls Tennis – State Finals Division 2 at Hope College & Holland Christian HS St. Joseph, Battle Creek Lakeview, Portage Central, Mattawan, Berkley, Birmingham Groves, Birmingham Seaholm, Dexter, East Lansing, Forest Hills Central, Forest Hills Northern, Grosse Pointe, North Grosse Pointe, South Holly, , Midland, Petoskey, South Lyon, Temperance Bedford, Trenton Division 3 at Midland Tennis Center & Midland HS Lakeshore, Edwardsburg, Allegan, Otsego, Ada Forest Hills, Eastern Armada, BH Cranbrook Kingswood, Bloomfield Hills Marian, Chelsea, Detroit Country Day, East Grand Rapids, Grosse Ile, Haslett, Holland Christian, Ludington, Parma Western, Pontiac Notre Dame Prep, St. Johns, Whitehall, Williamston MHSAA – High School Sports Saturday (Continued) Girls Soccer – District Finals Division 2 (Mattawan) St. Joseph vs. Mattawan, 10:00 a.m. Division 1 (Portage Northern) Portage Central vs. Kal. Loy Norrix, 10:00 a.m. Baseball – District Semifinals/Final Division 1 (Portage Northern) Kalamazoo Central vs. Portage Northern, 10:00 a.m. Mattawan vs. Portage Central, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:00 p.m. Division 1 (Coldwater) Sturgis vs. Coldwater, 10:00 a.m. BC Lakeview vs. Jackson, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:30 p.m. Division 2 (Edwardsburg) Berrien Springs vs. Dowagiac, 10:00 a.m. Lakeshore vs. Edwardsburg, 12:30 p.m. -Championship game, 2:30 p.m. Division 2 (Holland Christian) South Haven vs. Hamilton, 10:00 a.m. Holland Christian vs. Zeeland East, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:00 p.m. Division 2 (Gull Lake) Gull Lake vs. Olivet, 10:00 a.m. Marshall vs. BC Pennfield, 12:30 p.m. -Championship game, 3:30 p.m. Division 2 (Parchment) Vicksburg vs. Three Rivers, 10:00 a.m. Paw Paw vs. Parchment, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:00 p.m. Division 2 (GR South Christian) Otsego vs. Wayland, 10:00 a.m. Hopkins vs. GR South Christian, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:30 p.m. Division 3 (Buchanan) Buchanan vs. Lawton, 10:00 a.m. Bridgman vs. Constantine, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:00 p.m. Division 3 (Bangor) Coloma vs. Bloomingdale, 10:00 a.m. Watervliet vs. Hartford, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:00 p.m. Division 3 (Centreville) Centreville vs. Climax-Scotts, 10:00 a.m. Schoolcraft vs. Comstock, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:00 p.m. Division 3 (Calvin Christian) Calvin Christian vs. Covenant Chr., 10:00 a.m. Fennville vs. Saugatuck, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:00 p.m. Division 4 (Decatur) Decatur vs. Marcellus, 10:00 a.m. Cassopolis (Bye) -Championship game, 12:00 p.m. Division 4 (Kalamazoo Hackett) Kal. Hackett vs. Kal. Christian, 10:00 a.m. Lawrence vs. Gobles, 12:15 p.m. -Championship game, 2:45 p.m. Softball – District Semifinals/Final Division 1 (Mattawan) St. Joseph vs. Portage Northern, 10:00 a.m. Mattawan vs. Kalamazoo Central, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:00 p.m. Division 1 (Coldwater) Coldwater vs. BC Lakeview, 10:00 a.m. Sturgis vs. BC Central, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:30 p.m. Division 2 (Berrien Springs) Niles vs. Edwardsburg, 10:00 a.m. Lakeshore vs. Berrien Springs, 12:30 p.m. -Championship game, 3:00 p.m. Division 2 (Paw Paw) Plainwell vs. Otsego, 10:00 a.m. South Haven vs. Paw Paw, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:00 p.m. Division 2 (BC Pennfield) Gull Lake vs. Three Rivers, 10:00 a.m. Vicksburg vs. Harper Creek, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:00 p.m. Division 3 (Buchanan) Buchanan vs. Brandywine, 10:00 a.m. Lawton vs. Schoolcraft, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:00 p.m. Division 3 (Bangor) Watervliet vs. Bangor, 10:00 a.m. Coloma vs. Bloomingdale, 11:30 a.m. -Championship game, 1:00 p.m. Division 3 (Centreville) Homer vs. Quincy, 10:00 a.m. Centreville vs. Bronson, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:00 p.m. Division 3 (Parchment) Parchment vs. Galesburg-Augusta, 10:00 a.m. Comstock vs. Climax-Scotts, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:00 p.m. Division 4 (Lawrence) Gobles vs. Kal. Christian, 10:00 a.m. Decatur vs. Lawrence, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:00 p.m. Division 4 (Marcellus) Marcellus vs. Howardsville Chr., 10:00 a.m. White Pigeon vs. Mendon, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:00 p.m.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

MLB – Major League Baseball Last Night Detroit Tigers 3, Minnesota Twins 2 Toronto Blue Jays 8, Chicago White Sox 3 Chicago Cubs 7, St. Louis Cardinals 5 Tigers 3, Twins 2 – Daz Cameron’s HR in 8th lifts surging Tigers past Twins 3-2 Daz Cameron hit a go-ahead, two-run homer in the eighth inning and the surging Detroit Tigers held on to beat the slumping Minnesota Twins 3-2. Cameron’s 416-foot shot to left-center came off Emilio Pagan. Alex Lange gave up two walks and struck out one in the pivotal eighth inning and Gregory Soto earned his 10th save. AL Central-leading Minnesota has lost seven of 10 games and is still the division’s only team with a winning record. The fourth-place Tigers have won seven of their last nine games after a poor start this season. Blue Jays 8 White Sox 3 – Manoah sharp as Blue Jays beat White Sox, win 8th straight Alek Manoah pitched into the eighth inning, Teoscar Hernández homered and the Toronto Blue Jays extended their winning streak to eight games by beating the Chicago White Sox 8-3. Santiago Espinal had three hits and three RBIs as the surging Blue Jays won for the 12th time in 15 games. Chicago was swept in the three-game series and has lost six of eight. Manoah allowed three runs and six hits, walked one and struck out five in 7 2/3 innings. He’s 9-0 with a 2.12 ERA in 13 career home starts. Cubs 7, Cardinals 5 – Schwindel, Contreras and Happ homer as Cubs top Cards 7-5 Frank Schwindel launched a long solo homer and doubled among his three hits and the Chicago Cubs topped the St. Louis Cardinals 7-5 for their third straight victory. Willson Contreras went deep for the third time in four games and Ian Happ also homered to help Chicago end the Cardinals’ three-game winning streak. St. Louis has also won five in a row at Wrigley Field dating to last July. Paul Goldschmidt doubled to extend his hitting streak to 24 games and reached safely for a career-best 38th consecutive game. Keegan Thompson allowed three runs and five hits in 5 1/3 innings for a win in his fourth straight outing. Today St. Louis (Mikolas 3-3) at Chicago Cubs (Stroman 2-4), 2:20 p.m. Detroit (Rodriguez 0-0) at N.Y. Yankees (Cole 4-1), 7:05 p.m.               WSJM/WCSY 6:45 Chicago White Sox (Velasquez 2-3) at Tampa Bay (McClanahan 5-2), 7:10 p.m. NBA – National Basketball Association – 2022 NBA Finals Last Night Boston Celtics 120, Golden State Warriors 108              (BOS Leads 1-0) Celtics 120, Warriors 108 – Celtics have huge 4th, beat Warriors in Game 1 of NBA Finals Jaylen Brown fueled a comeback charge and scored 24 points, Al Horford hit six 3-pointers and the Boston Celtics rode the most lopsided fourth quarter in NBA Finals history to a 120-108 victory over the Golden State Warriors in Game 1. Horford finished with 26 points and the Celtics outscored the Warriors 40-16 in the final 12 minutes after trailing by 15 points late in the third quarter. Boston made its first seven tries from long distance in the fourth and wound up 9 of 12 beyond the arc over the final 12 minutes as almost everybody got involved in the 3-point flurry. NBA – Silver says NBA likes ‘parity of opportunity’ for its teams Over the last three seasons, six franchises have reached the NBA Finals. The league has seen five Eastern Conference champions in the last five seasons. This will be the fourth consecutive year that the team which hoists the trophy won’t be the same as the one who did the year before. Adam Silver likes all these numbers. The NBA Commissioner, in his annual pre-NBA Finals address Thursday night held just before Game 1 of the series between the Golden State Warriors and Boston Celtics, repeated his familiar refrain that he doesn’t care who wins. But he also sees the value in some unpredictability from one year to the next as far as which teams make it to the title round. NHL – National Hockey League – 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs – Conference Finals Last Night Colorado Avalanche 4, Edmonton Oilers 0                        (COL Leads 2-0) Avalanche 4, Oilers 0 – Francouz, Kadri lead Avs to 4-0 win over Oilers in Game 2 Nazem Kadri had three assists in a 2:04 span in the second period, backup Pavel Francouz stopped 24 shots for his second career playoff shutout and the Colorado Avalanche beat the Edmonton Oilers 4-0 on Thursday night to take a 2-0 lead in the Western Conference finals. The Avalanche broke through in the second after a scoreless opening period that featured something rarely seen so far in this series — defense. Artturi Lehkonen and Josh Manson scored 15 seconds apart to get things going in the second, with Mikko Rantanen adding another on Kadri’s third assist. Nathan MacKinnon scored late in the third. Game 3 is Saturday in Edmonton. Tonight Tampa Bay Lightning at New York Rangers, 8:00 p.m.          (NYR Leads 1-0) NHL – Flames’ Sutter wins Jack Adams as NHL coach of the year Darryl Sutter of the Calgary Flames is this season’s recipient of the Jack Adams Award as the NHL’s top head coach.  Sutter oversaw the biggest one-year improvement by any team in the league guiding the Flames to the Pacific Division title a year after they missed the playoffs.  Sutter received 54 first-place votes to beat Florida’s Andrew Brunette and New York Rangers coach Gerard Gallant for the honor. WNBA – Women’s National Basketball Association Tonight Chicago Sky at Atlanta Dream, 7:30 p.m. WNBA – Griner receiving, answering WNBA players’ emails Brittney Griner has been able to receive emails and letters from WNBA players through an account Griner’s agent set up to allow them to communicate with her.  The emails are printed out and delivered sporadically in bunches to Griner by her lawyers after being vetted by Russian officials. Griner doesn’t have access to email. She’ll either write a response on paper and her lawyers will take a photo of it or she’ll dictate a response.  The two-time Olympic gold medalist has been detained in Russia for more than 100 days after vape cartridges containing oil derived from cannabis were allegedly found in her luggage at an airport near Moscow. Tennis – French Open – Gauff to face Swiatek in final It will be top-ranked Iga Swiatek against American Coco Gauff for the French Open women’s singles title on Saturday. Swiatek won her 34th straight match today, dominating Daria Kasatkina 6-2, 6-1. Gauff has reached her first Grand Slam final by beating Martina Trevisan of Italy 6-3, 6-1. NCAAFB – CFP board chair: New format ideally in place by June 2023 The university leaders who oversee the College Football Playoff want the next format for determining a champion settled by this time next year. Mississippi State President Mark Keenum says the conference commissioners in charge of building the postseason system for the 2026 season and beyond will restart the task in the coming weeks. Keenum is the chairman of the CFP board of managers. He added that he intends to meet with his fellow presidents and chancellors in August to discuss what comes next for the playoff. An attempt to expand the playoff from the current four-team format to 12 teams before the current 12-year contract with ESPN expires after the 2025 season fell apart last fall. NCAA – Roger Valdiserri, Notre Dame SID for 3 decades, dies at 95 Roger Valdiserri, who helped tell the story of some of Notre Dame’s greatest football teams as the school’s sports information director for three decades, has died. He was 95. Valdiserri’s family says he died of natural causes at a retirement community outside Chicago. The family said he was surrounded by his five children at the time of his death. Valdiserri was a native of Pennsylvania who graduated from Notre Dame in 1954. His first job at the school was an administrative assistant for football coaches Frank Leahy and Terry Brennan. He took over as the school’s sports information director in 1966 under coach Ara Parseghian. Notre Dame won the first of four national titles in football during Valdiserri’s tenure that season. NBAGL – NBA G League – Grand Rapids Gold moving to Van Andel Arena One month after officials decided that the DeltaPlex Arena will close, the Grand Rapids Gold of the NBA G-League have had to search for a new home venue.  The team will move to the downtown Van Andel Arena starting this upcoming season.  Van Andel Arena is the 4th largest arena in the state of Michigan and is currently the home of the American Hockey League’s Grand Rapids Griffins, who are the Detroit Red Wings primary affiliate.  Van Andel Arena holds just under 11,000 for hockey, and 11, 500 for basketball.  The Gold, who are the affiliated of the NBA’s Denver Nuggets, won’t be the first professional basketball team to call Van Andel Arena home, the Grand Rapids Hoops of the now defunct CBA played there from 1996-2001.  The 2001 Big Ten Women’s Basketball tournament was also held at Van Andel Arena. MILB – Midwest League Baseball Yesterday South Bend Cubs 5, Dayton Dragons 1 – Game 1 Dayton Dragons 7, South Bend Cubs 2 – Game 2 West Michigan Whitecaps 16, Lake County Captains 8 Lansing Lugnuts 7, Cedar Rapids Kernels 3 Great Lakes Loons 5, Fort Wayne Tin Caps 2 Today West Michigan Whitecaps at Lake County Captains, 7:00 p.m. Cedar Rapids Kernels at Lansing Lugnuts, 7:05 p.m. Fort Wayne Tin Caps at Great Lakes Loons, 7:05 p.m. South Bend Cubs at Dayton Dragons, 7:05 p.m. MHSAA – High School Sports Yesterday Girls Soccer – District Championships Division 3 (Delton-Kellogg) Otsego 2, Portland 0 – OT Today Baseball Division 1 (Hudsonville) St. Joseph vs. Zeeland West, 1:00 p.m. Hudsonville vs. Holland West Ottawa, 1:00 p.m. -Championship game, 3:30 p.m. Division 4 (River Valley) River Valley vs. Eau Claire, 2:00 p.m. Michigan Lutheran vs. New Buffalo, 4:00 p.m. -Championship game, 6:00 p.m. Softball Division 4 (River Valley) River Valley vs. Eau Claire, 2:00 p.m. Bridgman vs. New Buffalo, 4:00 p.m. -Championship game, 5:30 p.m. Girls Soccer – District Finals Division 2 (Marshall) Gull Lake vs. Marshall, 6:00 p.m. Division 2 (Zeeland East) Plainwell vs. Zeeland West, 6:00 p.m. Division 3 (Berrien Springs) Three Rivers vs. South Haven, 6:00 p.m. Division 4 (Buchanan) Our Lady of the Lake vs. Michigan Lutheran, 5:00 p.m. Division 4 (Hartford) Saugatuck vs. Holland Black River, 5:00 p.m. MHSAA – High School Sports Saturday Girls Tennis – State Finals Division 2 at Hope College & Holland Christian HS St. Joseph, Battle Creek Lakeview, Portage Central, Mattawan, Berkley, Birmingham Groves, Birmingham Seaholm, Dexter, East Lansing, Forest Hills Central, Forest Hills Northern, Grosse Pointe, North Grosse Pointe, South Holly, , Midland, Petoskey, South Lyon, Temperance Bedford, Trenton Division 3 at Midland Tennis Center & Midland HS Lakeshore, Edwardsburg, Allegan, Otsego, Ada Forest Hills, Eastern Armada, BH Cranbrook Kingswood, Bloomfield Hills Marian, Chelsea, Detroit Country Day, East Grand Rapids, Grosse Ile, Haslett, Holland Christian, Ludington, Parma Western, Pontiac Notre Dame Prep, St. Johns, Whitehall, Williamston MHSAA – High School Sports Saturday (Continued) Girls Soccer – District Finals Division 2 (Mattawan) St. Joseph vs. Mattawan, 10:00 a.m. Division 1 (Portage Northern) Portage Central vs. Kal. Loy Norrix, 10:00 a.m. Baseball – District Semifinals/Final Division 1 (Portage Northern) Kalamazoo Central vs. Portage Northern, 10:00 a.m. Mattawan vs. Portage Central, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:00 p.m. Division 1 (Coldwater) Sturgis vs. Coldwater, 10:00 a.m. BC Lakeview vs. Jackson, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:30 p.m. Division 2 (Edwardsburg) Berrien Springs vs. Dowagiac, 10:00 a.m. Lakeshore vs. Edwardsburg, 12:30 p.m. -Championship game, 2:30 p.m. Division 2 (Holland Christian) South Haven vs. Hamilton, 10:00 a.m. Holland Christian vs. Zeeland East, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:00 p.m. Division 2 (Gull Lake) Gull Lake vs. Olivet, 10:00 a.m. Marshall vs. BC Pennfield, 12:30 p.m. -Championship game, 3:30 p.m. Division 2 (Parchment) Vicksburg vs. Three Rivers, 10:00 a.m. Paw Paw vs. Parchment, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:00 p.m. Division 2 (GR South Christian) Otsego vs. Wayland, 10:00 a.m. Hopkins vs. GR South Christian, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:30 p.m. Division 3 (Buchanan) Buchanan vs. Lawton, 10:00 a.m. Bridgman vs. Constantine, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:00 p.m. Division 3 (Bangor) Coloma vs. Bloomingdale, 10:00 a.m. Watervliet vs. Hartford, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:00 p.m. Division 3 (Centreville) Centreville vs. Climax-Scotts, 10:00 a.m. Schoolcraft vs. Comstock, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:00 p.m. Division 3 (Calvin Christian) Calvin Christian vs. Covenant Chr., 10:00 a.m. Fennville vs. Saugatuck, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:00 p.m. Division 4 (Decatur) Decatur vs. Marcellus, 10:00 a.m. Cassopolis (Bye) -Championship game, 12:00 p.m. Division 4 (Kalamazoo Hackett) Kal. Hackett vs. Kal. Christian, 10:00 a.m. Lawrence vs. Gobles, 12:15 p.m. -Championship game, 2:45 p.m. Softball – District Semifinals/Final Division 1 (Mattawan) St. Joseph vs. Portage Northern, 10:00 a.m. Mattawan vs. Kalamazoo Central, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:00 p.m. Division 1 (Coldwater) Coldwater vs. BC Lakeview, 10:00 a.m. Sturgis vs. BC Central, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:30 p.m. Division 2 (Berrien Springs) Niles vs. Edwardsburg, 10:00 a.m. Lakeshore vs. Berrien Springs, 12:30 p.m. -Championship game, 3:00 p.m. Division 2 (Paw Paw) Plainwell vs. Otsego, 10:00 a.m. South Haven vs. Paw Paw, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:00 p.m. Division 2 (BC Pennfield) Gull Lake vs. Three Rivers, 10:00 a.m. Vicksburg vs. Harper Creek, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:00 p.m. Division 3 (Buchanan) Buchanan vs. Brandywine, 10:00 a.m. Lawton vs. Schoolcraft, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:00 p.m. Division 3 (Bangor) Watervliet vs. Bangor, 10:00 a.m. Coloma vs. Bloomingdale, 11:30 a.m. -Championship game, 1:00 p.m. Division 3 (Centreville) Homer vs. Quincy, 10:00 a.m. Centreville vs. Bronson, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:00 p.m. Division 3 (Parchment) Parchment vs. Galesburg-Augusta, 10:00 a.m. Comstock vs. Climax-Scotts, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:00 p.m. Division 4 (Lawrence) Gobles vs. Kal. Christian, 10:00 a.m. Decatur vs. Lawrence, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:00 p.m. Division 4 (Marcellus) Marcellus vs. Howardsville Chr., 10:00 a.m. White Pigeon vs. Mendon, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:00 p.m.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

MLB – Major League Baseball Last Night Detroit Tigers 3, Minnesota Twins 2 Toronto Blue Jays 8, Chicago White Sox 3 Chicago Cubs 7, St. Louis Cardinals 5 Tigers 3, Twins 2 – Daz Cameron’s HR in 8th lifts surging Tigers past Twins 3-2 Daz Cameron hit a go-ahead, two-run homer in the eighth inning and the surging Detroit Tigers held on to beat the slumping Minnesota Twins 3-2. Cameron’s 416-foot shot to left-center came off Emilio Pagan. Alex Lange gave up two walks and struck out one in the pivotal eighth inning and Gregory Soto earned his 10th save. AL Central-leading Minnesota has lost seven of 10 games and is still the division’s only team with a winning record. The fourth-place Tigers have won seven of their last nine games after a poor start this season. Blue Jays 8 White Sox 3 – Manoah sharp as Blue Jays beat White Sox, win 8th straight Alek Manoah pitched into the eighth inning, Teoscar Hernández homered and the Toronto Blue Jays extended their winning streak to eight games by beating the Chicago White Sox 8-3. Santiago Espinal had three hits and three RBIs as the surging Blue Jays won for the 12th time in 15 games. Chicago was swept in the three-game series and has lost six of eight. Manoah allowed three runs and six hits, walked one and struck out five in 7 2/3 innings. He’s 9-0 with a 2.12 ERA in 13 career home starts. Cubs 7, Cardinals 5 – Schwindel, Contreras and Happ homer as Cubs top Cards 7-5 Frank Schwindel launched a long solo homer and doubled among his three hits and the Chicago Cubs topped the St. Louis Cardinals 7-5 for their third straight victory. Willson Contreras went deep for the third time in four games and Ian Happ also homered to help Chicago end the Cardinals’ three-game winning streak. St. Louis has also won five in a row at Wrigley Field dating to last July. Paul Goldschmidt doubled to extend his hitting streak to 24 games and reached safely for a career-best 38th consecutive game. Keegan Thompson allowed three runs and five hits in 5 1/3 innings for a win in his fourth straight outing. Today St. Louis (Mikolas 3-3) at Chicago Cubs (Stroman 2-4), 2:20 p.m. Detroit (Rodriguez 0-0) at N.Y. Yankees (Cole 4-1), 7:05 p.m.               WSJM/WCSY 6:45 Chicago White Sox (Velasquez 2-3) at Tampa Bay (McClanahan 5-2), 7:10 p.m. NBA – National Basketball Association – 2022 NBA Finals Last Night Boston Celtics 120, Golden State Warriors 108              (BOS Leads 1-0) Celtics 120, Warriors 108 – Celtics have huge 4th, beat Warriors in Game 1 of NBA Finals Jaylen Brown fueled a comeback charge and scored 24 points, Al Horford hit six 3-pointers and the Boston Celtics rode the most lopsided fourth quarter in NBA Finals history to a 120-108 victory over the Golden State Warriors in Game 1. Horford finished with 26 points and the Celtics outscored the Warriors 40-16 in the final 12 minutes after trailing by 15 points late in the third quarter. Boston made its first seven tries from long distance in the fourth and wound up 9 of 12 beyond the arc over the final 12 minutes as almost everybody got involved in the 3-point flurry. NBA – Silver says NBA likes ‘parity of opportunity’ for its teams Over the last three seasons, six franchises have reached the NBA Finals. The league has seen five Eastern Conference champions in the last five seasons. This will be the fourth consecutive year that the team which hoists the trophy won’t be the same as the one who did the year before. Adam Silver likes all these numbers. The NBA Commissioner, in his annual pre-NBA Finals address Thursday night held just before Game 1 of the series between the Golden State Warriors and Boston Celtics, repeated his familiar refrain that he doesn’t care who wins. But he also sees the value in some unpredictability from one year to the next as far as which teams make it to the title round. NHL – National Hockey League – 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs – Conference Finals Last Night Colorado Avalanche 4, Edmonton Oilers 0                        (COL Leads 2-0) Avalanche 4, Oilers 0 – Francouz, Kadri lead Avs to 4-0 win over Oilers in Game 2 Nazem Kadri had three assists in a 2:04 span in the second period, backup Pavel Francouz stopped 24 shots for his second career playoff shutout and the Colorado Avalanche beat the Edmonton Oilers 4-0 on Thursday night to take a 2-0 lead in the Western Conference finals. The Avalanche broke through in the second after a scoreless opening period that featured something rarely seen so far in this series — defense. Artturi Lehkonen and Josh Manson scored 15 seconds apart to get things going in the second, with Mikko Rantanen adding another on Kadri’s third assist. Nathan MacKinnon scored late in the third. Game 3 is Saturday in Edmonton. Tonight Tampa Bay Lightning at New York Rangers, 8:00 p.m.          (NYR Leads 1-0) NHL – Flames’ Sutter wins Jack Adams as NHL coach of the year Darryl Sutter of the Calgary Flames is this season’s recipient of the Jack Adams Award as the NHL’s top head coach.  Sutter oversaw the biggest one-year improvement by any team in the league guiding the Flames to the Pacific Division title a year after they missed the playoffs.  Sutter received 54 first-place votes to beat Florida’s Andrew Brunette and New York Rangers coach Gerard Gallant for the honor. WNBA – Women’s National Basketball Association Tonight Chicago Sky at Atlanta Dream, 7:30 p.m. WNBA – Griner receiving, answering WNBA players’ emails Brittney Griner has been able to receive emails and letters from WNBA players through an account Griner’s agent set up to allow them to communicate with her.  The emails are printed out and delivered sporadically in bunches to Griner by her lawyers after being vetted by Russian officials. Griner doesn’t have access to email. She’ll either write a response on paper and her lawyers will take a photo of it or she’ll dictate a response.  The two-time Olympic gold medalist has been detained in Russia for more than 100 days after vape cartridges containing oil derived from cannabis were allegedly found in her luggage at an airport near Moscow. Tennis – French Open – Gauff to face Swiatek in final It will be top-ranked Iga Swiatek against American Coco Gauff for the French Open women’s singles title on Saturday. Swiatek won her 34th straight match today, dominating Daria Kasatkina 6-2, 6-1. Gauff has reached her first Grand Slam final by beating Martina Trevisan of Italy 6-3, 6-1. NCAAFB – CFP board chair: New format ideally in place by June 2023 The university leaders who oversee the College Football Playoff want the next format for determining a champion settled by this time next year. Mississippi State President Mark Keenum says the conference commissioners in charge of building the postseason system for the 2026 season and beyond will restart the task in the coming weeks. Keenum is the chairman of the CFP board of managers. He added that he intends to meet with his fellow presidents and chancellors in August to discuss what comes next for the playoff. An attempt to expand the playoff from the current four-team format to 12 teams before the current 12-year contract with ESPN expires after the 2025 season fell apart last fall. NCAA – Roger Valdiserri, Notre Dame SID for 3 decades, dies at 95 Roger Valdiserri, who helped tell the story of some of Notre Dame’s greatest football teams as the school’s sports information director for three decades, has died. He was 95. Valdiserri’s family says he died of natural causes at a retirement community outside Chicago. The family said he was surrounded by his five children at the time of his death. Valdiserri was a native of Pennsylvania who graduated from Notre Dame in 1954. His first job at the school was an administrative assistant for football coaches Frank Leahy and Terry Brennan. He took over as the school’s sports information director in 1966 under coach Ara Parseghian. Notre Dame won the first of four national titles in football during Valdiserri’s tenure that season. NBAGL – NBA G League – Grand Rapids Gold moving to Van Andel Arena One month after officials decided that the DeltaPlex Arena will close, the Grand Rapids Gold of the NBA G-League have had to search for a new home venue.  The team will move to the downtown Van Andel Arena starting this upcoming season.  Van Andel Arena is the 4th largest arena in the state of Michigan and is currently the home of the American Hockey League’s Grand Rapids Griffins, who are the Detroit Red Wings primary affiliate.  Van Andel Arena holds just under 11,000 for hockey, and 11, 500 for basketball.  The Gold, who are the affiliated of the NBA’s Denver Nuggets, won’t be the first professional basketball team to call Van Andel Arena home, the Grand Rapids Hoops of the now defunct CBA played there from 1996-2001.  The 2001 Big Ten Women’s Basketball tournament was also held at Van Andel Arena. MILB – Midwest League Baseball Yesterday South Bend Cubs 5, Dayton Dragons 1 – Game 1 Dayton Dragons 7, South Bend Cubs 2 – Game 2 West Michigan Whitecaps 16, Lake County Captains 8 Lansing Lugnuts 7, Cedar Rapids Kernels 3 Great Lakes Loons 5, Fort Wayne Tin Caps 2 Today West Michigan Whitecaps at Lake County Captains, 7:00 p.m. Cedar Rapids Kernels at Lansing Lugnuts, 7:05 p.m. Fort Wayne Tin Caps at Great Lakes Loons, 7:05 p.m. South Bend Cubs at Dayton Dragons, 7:05 p.m. MHSAA – High School Sports Yesterday Girls Soccer – District Championships Division 3 (Delton-Kellogg) Otsego 2, Portland 0 – OT Today Baseball Division 1 (Hudsonville) St. Joseph vs. Zeeland West, 1:00 p.m. Hudsonville vs. Holland West Ottawa, 1:00 p.m. -Championship game, 3:30 p.m. Division 4 (River Valley) River Valley vs. Eau Claire, 2:00 p.m. Michigan Lutheran vs. New Buffalo, 4:00 p.m. -Championship game, 6:00 p.m. Softball Division 4 (River Valley) River Valley vs. Eau Claire, 2:00 p.m. Bridgman vs. New Buffalo, 4:00 p.m. -Championship game, 5:30 p.m. Girls Soccer – District Finals Division 2 (Marshall) Gull Lake vs. Marshall, 6:00 p.m. Division 2 (Zeeland East) Plainwell vs. Zeeland West, 6:00 p.m. Division 3 (Berrien Springs) Three Rivers vs. South Haven, 6:00 p.m. Division 4 (Buchanan) Our Lady of the Lake vs. Michigan Lutheran, 5:00 p.m. Division 4 (Hartford) Saugatuck vs. Holland Black River, 5:00 p.m. MHSAA – High School Sports Saturday Girls Tennis – State Finals Division 2 at Hope College & Holland Christian HS St. Joseph, Battle Creek Lakeview, Portage Central, Mattawan, Berkley, Birmingham Groves, Birmingham Seaholm, Dexter, East Lansing, Forest Hills Central, Forest Hills Northern, Grosse Pointe, North Grosse Pointe, South Holly, , Midland, Petoskey, South Lyon, Temperance Bedford, Trenton Division 3 at Midland Tennis Center & Midland HS Lakeshore, Edwardsburg, Allegan, Otsego, Ada Forest Hills, Eastern Armada, BH Cranbrook Kingswood, Bloomfield Hills Marian, Chelsea, Detroit Country Day, East Grand Rapids, Grosse Ile, Haslett, Holland Christian, Ludington, Parma Western, Pontiac Notre Dame Prep, St. Johns, Whitehall, Williamston MHSAA – High School Sports Saturday (Continued) Girls Soccer – District Finals Division 2 (Mattawan) St. Joseph vs. Mattawan, 10:00 a.m. Division 1 (Portage Northern) Portage Central vs. Kal. Loy Norrix, 10:00 a.m. Baseball – District Semifinals/Final Division 1 (Portage Northern) Kalamazoo Central vs. Portage Northern, 10:00 a.m. Mattawan vs. Portage Central, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:00 p.m. Division 1 (Coldwater) Sturgis vs. Coldwater, 10:00 a.m. BC Lakeview vs. Jackson, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:30 p.m. Division 2 (Edwardsburg) Berrien Springs vs. Dowagiac, 10:00 a.m. Lakeshore vs. Edwardsburg, 12:30 p.m. -Championship game, 2:30 p.m. Division 2 (Holland Christian) South Haven vs. Hamilton, 10:00 a.m. Holland Christian vs. Zeeland East, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:00 p.m. Division 2 (Gull Lake) Gull Lake vs. Olivet, 10:00 a.m. Marshall vs. BC Pennfield, 12:30 p.m. -Championship game, 3:30 p.m. Division 2 (Parchment) Vicksburg vs. Three Rivers, 10:00 a.m. Paw Paw vs. Parchment, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:00 p.m. Division 2 (GR South Christian) Otsego vs. Wayland, 10:00 a.m. Hopkins vs. GR South Christian, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:30 p.m. Division 3 (Buchanan) Buchanan vs. Lawton, 10:00 a.m. Bridgman vs. Constantine, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:00 p.m. Division 3 (Bangor) Coloma vs. Bloomingdale, 10:00 a.m. Watervliet vs. Hartford, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:00 p.m. Division 3 (Centreville) Centreville vs. Climax-Scotts, 10:00 a.m. Schoolcraft vs. Comstock, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:00 p.m. Division 3 (Calvin Christian) Calvin Christian vs. Covenant Chr., 10:00 a.m. Fennville vs. Saugatuck, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:00 p.m. Division 4 (Decatur) Decatur vs. Marcellus, 10:00 a.m. Cassopolis (Bye) -Championship game, 12:00 p.m. Division 4 (Kalamazoo Hackett) Kal. Hackett vs. Kal. Christian, 10:00 a.m. Lawrence vs. Gobles, 12:15 p.m. -Championship game, 2:45 p.m. Softball – District Semifinals/Final Division 1 (Mattawan) St. Joseph vs. Portage Northern, 10:00 a.m. Mattawan vs. Kalamazoo Central, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:00 p.m. Division 1 (Coldwater) Coldwater vs. BC Lakeview, 10:00 a.m. Sturgis vs. BC Central, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:30 p.m. Division 2 (Berrien Springs) Niles vs. Edwardsburg, 10:00 a.m. Lakeshore vs. Berrien Springs, 12:30 p.m. -Championship game, 3:00 p.m. Division 2 (Paw Paw) Plainwell vs. Otsego, 10:00 a.m. South Haven vs. Paw Paw, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:00 p.m. Division 2 (BC Pennfield) Gull Lake vs. Three Rivers, 10:00 a.m. Vicksburg vs. Harper Creek, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:00 p.m. Division 3 (Buchanan) Buchanan vs. Brandywine, 10:00 a.m. Lawton vs. Schoolcraft, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:00 p.m. Division 3 (Bangor) Watervliet vs. Bangor, 10:00 a.m. Coloma vs. Bloomingdale, 11:30 a.m. -Championship game, 1:00 p.m. Division 3 (Centreville) Homer vs. Quincy, 10:00 a.m. Centreville vs. Bronson, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:00 p.m. Division 3 (Parchment) Parchment vs. Galesburg-Augusta, 10:00 a.m. Comstock vs. Climax-Scotts, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:00 p.m. Division 4 (Lawrence) Gobles vs. Kal. Christian, 10:00 a.m. Decatur vs. Lawrence, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:00 p.m. Division 4 (Marcellus) Marcellus vs. Howardsville Chr., 10:00 a.m. White Pigeon vs. Mendon, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:00 p.m.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

MLB – Major League Baseball Last Night Detroit Tigers 3, Minnesota Twins 2 Toronto Blue Jays 8, Chicago White Sox 3 Chicago Cubs 7, St. Louis Cardinals 5 Tigers 3, Twins 2 – Daz Cameron’s HR in 8th lifts surging Tigers past Twins 3-2 Daz Cameron hit a go-ahead, two-run homer in the eighth inning and the surging Detroit Tigers held on to beat the slumping Minnesota Twins 3-2. Cameron’s 416-foot shot to left-center came off Emilio Pagan. Alex Lange gave up two walks and struck out one in the pivotal eighth inning and Gregory Soto earned his 10th save. AL Central-leading Minnesota has lost seven of 10 games and is still the division’s only team with a winning record. The fourth-place Tigers have won seven of their last nine games after a poor start this season. Blue Jays 8 White Sox 3 – Manoah sharp as Blue Jays beat White Sox, win 8th straight Alek Manoah pitched into the eighth inning, Teoscar Hernández homered and the Toronto Blue Jays extended their winning streak to eight games by beating the Chicago White Sox 8-3. Santiago Espinal had three hits and three RBIs as the surging Blue Jays won for the 12th time in 15 games. Chicago was swept in the three-game series and has lost six of eight. Manoah allowed three runs and six hits, walked one and struck out five in 7 2/3 innings. He’s 9-0 with a 2.12 ERA in 13 career home starts. Cubs 7, Cardinals 5 – Schwindel, Contreras and Happ homer as Cubs top Cards 7-5 Frank Schwindel launched a long solo homer and doubled among his three hits and the Chicago Cubs topped the St. Louis Cardinals 7-5 for their third straight victory. Willson Contreras went deep for the third time in four games and Ian Happ also homered to help Chicago end the Cardinals’ three-game winning streak. St. Louis has also won five in a row at Wrigley Field dating to last July. Paul Goldschmidt doubled to extend his hitting streak to 24 games and reached safely for a career-best 38th consecutive game. Keegan Thompson allowed three runs and five hits in 5 1/3 innings for a win in his fourth straight outing. Today St. Louis (Mikolas 3-3) at Chicago Cubs (Stroman 2-4), 2:20 p.m. Detroit (Rodriguez 0-0) at N.Y. Yankees (Cole 4-1), 7:05 p.m.               WSJM/WCSY 6:45 Chicago White Sox (Velasquez 2-3) at Tampa Bay (McClanahan 5-2), 7:10 p.m. NBA – National Basketball Association – 2022 NBA Finals Last Night Boston Celtics 120, Golden State Warriors 108              (BOS Leads 1-0) Celtics 120, Warriors 108 – Celtics have huge 4th, beat Warriors in Game 1 of NBA Finals Jaylen Brown fueled a comeback charge and scored 24 points, Al Horford hit six 3-pointers and the Boston Celtics rode the most lopsided fourth quarter in NBA Finals history to a 120-108 victory over the Golden State Warriors in Game 1. Horford finished with 26 points and the Celtics outscored the Warriors 40-16 in the final 12 minutes after trailing by 15 points late in the third quarter. Boston made its first seven tries from long distance in the fourth and wound up 9 of 12 beyond the arc over the final 12 minutes as almost everybody got involved in the 3-point flurry. NBA – Silver says NBA likes ‘parity of opportunity’ for its teams Over the last three seasons, six franchises have reached the NBA Finals. The league has seen five Eastern Conference champions in the last five seasons. This will be the fourth consecutive year that the team which hoists the trophy won’t be the same as the one who did the year before. Adam Silver likes all these numbers. The NBA Commissioner, in his annual pre-NBA Finals address Thursday night held just before Game 1 of the series between the Golden State Warriors and Boston Celtics, repeated his familiar refrain that he doesn’t care who wins. But he also sees the value in some unpredictability from one year to the next as far as which teams make it to the title round. NHL – National Hockey League – 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs – Conference Finals Last Night Colorado Avalanche 4, Edmonton Oilers 0                        (COL Leads 2-0) Avalanche 4, Oilers 0 – Francouz, Kadri lead Avs to 4-0 win over Oilers in Game 2 Nazem Kadri had three assists in a 2:04 span in the second period, backup Pavel Francouz stopped 24 shots for his second career playoff shutout and the Colorado Avalanche beat the Edmonton Oilers 4-0 on Thursday night to take a 2-0 lead in the Western Conference finals. The Avalanche broke through in the second after a scoreless opening period that featured something rarely seen so far in this series — defense. Artturi Lehkonen and Josh Manson scored 15 seconds apart to get things going in the second, with Mikko Rantanen adding another on Kadri’s third assist. Nathan MacKinnon scored late in the third. Game 3 is Saturday in Edmonton. Tonight Tampa Bay Lightning at New York Rangers, 8:00 p.m.          (NYR Leads 1-0) NHL – Flames’ Sutter wins Jack Adams as NHL coach of the year Darryl Sutter of the Calgary Flames is this season’s recipient of the Jack Adams Award as the NHL’s top head coach.  Sutter oversaw the biggest one-year improvement by any team in the league guiding the Flames to the Pacific Division title a year after they missed the playoffs.  Sutter received 54 first-place votes to beat Florida’s Andrew Brunette and New York Rangers coach Gerard Gallant for the honor. WNBA – Women’s National Basketball Association Tonight Chicago Sky at Atlanta Dream, 7:30 p.m. WNBA – Griner receiving, answering WNBA players’ emails Brittney Griner has been able to receive emails and letters from WNBA players through an account Griner’s agent set up to allow them to communicate with her.  The emails are printed out and delivered sporadically in bunches to Griner by her lawyers after being vetted by Russian officials. Griner doesn’t have access to email. She’ll either write a response on paper and her lawyers will take a photo of it or she’ll dictate a response.  The two-time Olympic gold medalist has been detained in Russia for more than 100 days after vape cartridges containing oil derived from cannabis were allegedly found in her luggage at an airport near Moscow. Tennis – French Open – Gauff to face Swiatek in final It will be top-ranked Iga Swiatek against American Coco Gauff for the French Open women’s singles title on Saturday. Swiatek won her 34th straight match today, dominating Daria Kasatkina 6-2, 6-1. Gauff has reached her first Grand Slam final by beating Martina Trevisan of Italy 6-3, 6-1. NCAAFB – CFP board chair: New format ideally in place by June 2023 The university leaders who oversee the College Football Playoff want the next format for determining a champion settled by this time next year. Mississippi State President Mark Keenum says the conference commissioners in charge of building the postseason system for the 2026 season and beyond will restart the task in the coming weeks. Keenum is the chairman of the CFP board of managers. He added that he intends to meet with his fellow presidents and chancellors in August to discuss what comes next for the playoff. An attempt to expand the playoff from the current four-team format to 12 teams before the current 12-year contract with ESPN expires after the 2025 season fell apart last fall. NCAA – Roger Valdiserri, Notre Dame SID for 3 decades, dies at 95 Roger Valdiserri, who helped tell the story of some of Notre Dame’s greatest football teams as the school’s sports information director for three decades, has died. He was 95. Valdiserri’s family says he died of natural causes at a retirement community outside Chicago. The family said he was surrounded by his five children at the time of his death. Valdiserri was a native of Pennsylvania who graduated from Notre Dame in 1954. His first job at the school was an administrative assistant for football coaches Frank Leahy and Terry Brennan. He took over as the school’s sports information director in 1966 under coach Ara Parseghian. Notre Dame won the first of four national titles in football during Valdiserri’s tenure that season. NBAGL – NBA G League – Grand Rapids Gold moving to Van Andel Arena One month after officials decided that the DeltaPlex Arena will close, the Grand Rapids Gold of the NBA G-League have had to search for a new home venue.  The team will move to the downtown Van Andel Arena starting this upcoming season.  Van Andel Arena is the 4th largest arena in the state of Michigan and is currently the home of the American Hockey League’s Grand Rapids Griffins, who are the Detroit Red Wings primary affiliate.  Van Andel Arena holds just under 11,000 for hockey, and 11, 500 for basketball.  The Gold, who are the affiliated of the NBA’s Denver Nuggets, won’t be the first professional basketball team to call Van Andel Arena home, the Grand Rapids Hoops of the now defunct CBA played there from 1996-2001.  The 2001 Big Ten Women’s Basketball tournament was also held at Van Andel Arena. MILB – Midwest League Baseball Yesterday South Bend Cubs 5, Dayton Dragons 1 – Game 1 Dayton Dragons 7, South Bend Cubs 2 – Game 2 West Michigan Whitecaps 16, Lake County Captains 8 Lansing Lugnuts 7, Cedar Rapids Kernels 3 Great Lakes Loons 5, Fort Wayne Tin Caps 2 Today West Michigan Whitecaps at Lake County Captains, 7:00 p.m. Cedar Rapids Kernels at Lansing Lugnuts, 7:05 p.m. Fort Wayne Tin Caps at Great Lakes Loons, 7:05 p.m. South Bend Cubs at Dayton Dragons, 7:05 p.m. MHSAA – High School Sports Yesterday Girls Soccer – District Championships Division 3 (Delton-Kellogg) Otsego 2, Portland 0 – OT Today Baseball Division 1 (Hudsonville) St. Joseph vs. Zeeland West, 1:00 p.m. Hudsonville vs. Holland West Ottawa, 1:00 p.m. -Championship game, 3:30 p.m. Division 4 (River Valley) River Valley vs. Eau Claire, 2:00 p.m. Michigan Lutheran vs. New Buffalo, 4:00 p.m. -Championship game, 6:00 p.m. Softball Division 4 (River Valley) River Valley vs. Eau Claire, 2:00 p.m. Bridgman vs. New Buffalo, 4:00 p.m. -Championship game, 5:30 p.m. Girls Soccer – District Finals Division 2 (Marshall) Gull Lake vs. Marshall, 6:00 p.m. Division 2 (Zeeland East) Plainwell vs. Zeeland West, 6:00 p.m. Division 3 (Berrien Springs) Three Rivers vs. South Haven, 6:00 p.m. Division 4 (Buchanan) Our Lady of the Lake vs. Michigan Lutheran, 5:00 p.m. Division 4 (Hartford) Saugatuck vs. Holland Black River, 5:00 p.m. MHSAA – High School Sports Saturday Girls Tennis – State Finals Division 2 at Hope College & Holland Christian HS St. Joseph, Battle Creek Lakeview, Portage Central, Mattawan, Berkley, Birmingham Groves, Birmingham Seaholm, Dexter, East Lansing, Forest Hills Central, Forest Hills Northern, Grosse Pointe, North Grosse Pointe, South Holly, , Midland, Petoskey, South Lyon, Temperance Bedford, Trenton Division 3 at Midland Tennis Center & Midland HS Lakeshore, Edwardsburg, Allegan, Otsego, Ada Forest Hills, Eastern Armada, BH Cranbrook Kingswood, Bloomfield Hills Marian, Chelsea, Detroit Country Day, East Grand Rapids, Grosse Ile, Haslett, Holland Christian, Ludington, Parma Western, Pontiac Notre Dame Prep, St. Johns, Whitehall, Williamston MHSAA – High School Sports Saturday (Continued) Girls Soccer – District Finals Division 2 (Mattawan) St. Joseph vs. Mattawan, 10:00 a.m. Division 1 (Portage Northern) Portage Central vs. Kal. Loy Norrix, 10:00 a.m. Baseball – District Semifinals/Final Division 1 (Portage Northern) Kalamazoo Central vs. Portage Northern, 10:00 a.m. Mattawan vs. Portage Central, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:00 p.m. Division 1 (Coldwater) Sturgis vs. Coldwater, 10:00 a.m. BC Lakeview vs. Jackson, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:30 p.m. Division 2 (Edwardsburg) Berrien Springs vs. Dowagiac, 10:00 a.m. Lakeshore vs. Edwardsburg, 12:30 p.m. -Championship game, 2:30 p.m. Division 2 (Holland Christian) South Haven vs. Hamilton, 10:00 a.m. Holland Christian vs. Zeeland East, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:00 p.m. Division 2 (Gull Lake) Gull Lake vs. Olivet, 10:00 a.m. Marshall vs. BC Pennfield, 12:30 p.m. -Championship game, 3:30 p.m. Division 2 (Parchment) Vicksburg vs. Three Rivers, 10:00 a.m. Paw Paw vs. Parchment, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:00 p.m. Division 2 (GR South Christian) Otsego vs. Wayland, 10:00 a.m. Hopkins vs. GR South Christian, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:30 p.m. Division 3 (Buchanan) Buchanan vs. Lawton, 10:00 a.m. Bridgman vs. Constantine, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:00 p.m. Division 3 (Bangor) Coloma vs. Bloomingdale, 10:00 a.m. Watervliet vs. Hartford, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:00 p.m. Division 3 (Centreville) Centreville vs. Climax-Scotts, 10:00 a.m. Schoolcraft vs. Comstock, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:00 p.m. Division 3 (Calvin Christian) Calvin Christian vs. Covenant Chr., 10:00 a.m. Fennville vs. Saugatuck, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:00 p.m. Division 4 (Decatur) Decatur vs. Marcellus, 10:00 a.m. Cassopolis (Bye) -Championship game, 12:00 p.m. Division 4 (Kalamazoo Hackett) Kal. Hackett vs. Kal. Christian, 10:00 a.m. Lawrence vs. Gobles, 12:15 p.m. -Championship game, 2:45 p.m. Softball – District Semifinals/Final Division 1 (Mattawan) St. Joseph vs. Portage Northern, 10:00 a.m. Mattawan vs. Kalamazoo Central, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:00 p.m. Division 1 (Coldwater) Coldwater vs. BC Lakeview, 10:00 a.m. Sturgis vs. BC Central, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:30 p.m. Division 2 (Berrien Springs) Niles vs. Edwardsburg, 10:00 a.m. Lakeshore vs. Berrien Springs, 12:30 p.m. -Championship game, 3:00 p.m. Division 2 (Paw Paw) Plainwell vs. Otsego, 10:00 a.m. South Haven vs. Paw Paw, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:00 p.m. Division 2 (BC Pennfield) Gull Lake vs. Three Rivers, 10:00 a.m. Vicksburg vs. Harper Creek, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:00 p.m. Division 3 (Buchanan) Buchanan vs. Brandywine, 10:00 a.m. Lawton vs. Schoolcraft, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:00 p.m. Division 3 (Bangor) Watervliet vs. Bangor, 10:00 a.m. Coloma vs. Bloomingdale, 11:30 a.m. -Championship game, 1:00 p.m. Division 3 (Centreville) Homer vs. Quincy, 10:00 a.m. Centreville vs. Bronson, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:00 p.m. Division 3 (Parchment) Parchment vs. Galesburg-Augusta, 10:00 a.m. Comstock vs. Climax-Scotts, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:00 p.m. Division 4 (Lawrence) Gobles vs. Kal. Christian, 10:00 a.m. Decatur vs. Lawrence, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:00 p.m. Division 4 (Marcellus) Marcellus vs. Howardsville Chr., 10:00 a.m. White Pigeon vs. Mendon, 12:00 p.m. -Championship game, 2:00 p.m.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week on Face Off, hosts Sean Baligian and Greg Durham are joined by Forest Hills Central junior Crandall Quinn.Lorne Plant is also joined by Dr. John Morasso from the Detroit Medical Center Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan.Presented by Lawrence Technological University and sponsored by the MHSAA, DMC Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan, and the DAC Athlete of the Year Award.

On this episode of the Poolside Podcast, Lorne Plant & David Zulkiewski are joined by Forest Hills Central High School head coach Dennis Neat.Presented by LTU Athletics & sponsored by the MHSAA, DMC Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan, Goodman Acker P.C., and the Detroit Athletic Club Athlete of the Year Award.--Recruit yourself to any of over two-dozen varsity NAIA programs at Lawrence Technological University by visiting www.ltuathletics.comLearn more about becoming a registered MHSAA Official at https://www.mhsaa.com/officialsCheck out all of the Game Changers segments on YouTube: https://bit.ly/DMCGameChangersOr visit www.dmc.org/gamechangers to schedule an appointment to take your game to the next level.Check out the Goodman Acker Good Decision Great Play of the Week on YouTube: bit.ly/GoodmanAckerPOTWOr learn more about the Goodman Acker Law Firm: www.goodmanacker.comNominations are now being accepted for the Detroit Athletic Club Athlete of the Year Award. If you're a high school senior who has earned (or is projected to earn) All-State Honors, maintains a GPA of 3.0 or higher, and loves to give back to the community, download your application from www.dacathleteoftheyear.com

On this episode of the Poolside Podcast, Lorne Plant & David Zulkiewski are joined by Forest Hills Central High School head coach Dennis Neat. Presented by LTU Athletics & sponsored by the MHSAA, DMC Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan, Goodman Acker P.C., and the Detroit Athletic Club Athlete of the Year Award. -- Recruit yourself to any of over two-dozen varsity NAIA programs at Lawrence Technological University by visiting www.ltuathletics.com Learn more about becoming a registered MHSAA Official at https://www.mhsaa.com/officials Check out all of the Game Changers segments on YouTube: https://bit.ly/DMCGameChangers Or visit www.dmc.org/gamechangers to schedule an appointment to take your game to the next level. Check out the Goodman Acker Good Decision Great Play of the Week on YouTube: bit.ly/GoodmanAckerPOTW Or learn more about the Goodman Acker Law Firm: www.goodmanacker.com Nominations are now being accepted for the Detroit Athletic Club Athlete of the Year Award. If you're a high school senior who has earned (or is projected to earn) All-State Honors, maintains a GPA of 3.0 or higher, and loves to give back to the community, download your application from www.dacathleteoftheyear.com

Nolan and Tate discuss the opening week of league play in the OK Conference, recruiting updates, and a power ranking update. Games discussed: Northview's win over Grand Rapids Christian, Grand Haven's win over Hudsonville, East Grand Rapids' win over Forest Hills Central, Catholic Central's win over South Christian. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/tate529/support

Coach George represents what the Coach's Edge Podcast is all about: teaching, sharing and learning the game. We hope you enjoy this episode as Coach George shares certain trends and themes from todays game all the way on down. Be sure to connect with Coach George at the links below. The HoopSmart Coaches Clinic is in Grand Rapids, MI on October 24th. Register here: kengeorgebasketball.com Boys varsity coach at Forest Hills Central from 1994-2018. Hope College assistant - 2020-current He won 341 games over 24 seasons at Forest Hills Central in Ada, Michigan, and led the Rangers to nine conference championships, four Michigan High School Athletic Association district titles and three MHSAA regional championships. He also operates camps and clinics for youth basketball players and coaches in Grand Rapids through the West Michigan Guard Academy and HoopSmart. twitter.com/kengeorgebball Check the links below to connect with us! Website: www.coachsedge.coach Email: contact@cramerbasketball.com Camps: www.Cramerbasketball.com Online Training: https://cramerbasketball.mypthub.net/3/p/133059 Twitter.com/coachsedge1 Twitter.com/steve21cramer Facebook.com/cramerbasketball Youtube.com/cramerbasketball Instagram.com/cramer_basketball --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/coachsedge/support

Thank you for checking out this short bonus episode. If you find it beneficial be sure to check out our full length episode this Friday. For more information on Coach George as well as the Coach's Edge, be sure to check the links below. The HoopSmart Coaches Clinic is in Grand Rapids, MI on October 24th. Register here: kengeorgebasketball.com Boys varsity coach at Forest Hills Central from 1994-2018. Hope College assistant - 2020-current Check the links below to connect with us! Website: www.coachsedge.coach Email: contact@cramerbasketball.com Camps: www.Cramerbasketball.com Online Training: https://cramerbasketball.mypthub.net/3/p/133059 Twitter.com/coachsedge1 Twitter.com/steve21cramer Facebook.com/cramerbasketball Youtube.com/cramerbasketball Instagram.com/cramer_basketball --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/coachsedge/support

This week, Sean Baligian and Greg Durham are joined by Forest Hills Central head coach Andy Shira, fresh off an overtime win against East Grand Rapids. We talk with him about how COVID has affected his team and how they've been able to overcome the adversity. We also look at how the game has evolved on the west side of Michigan and how it's become so popular. Coach Shira also takes a look at his team and talks about his expectations for the season.Presented by Lawrence Technological University, the MHSAA, DMC Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan, and the DAC Athlete of the Year Award.

This week, Sean Baligian and Greg Durham are joined by Forest Hills Central head coach Andy Shira, fresh off an overtime win against East Grand Rapids. We talk with him about how COVID has affected his team and how they've been able to overcome the adversity. We also look at how the game has evolved on the west side of Michigan and how it's become so popular. Coach Shira also takes a look at his team and talks about his expectations for the season. Presented by Lawrence Technological University, the MHSAA, DMC Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan, and the DAC Athlete of the Year Award.

The MHSAA football regular season has come to a close so Lorne, Scott, and Matt are back. We start off the podcast recapping some of the top week 6 games. We take a deep dive into the microwave dynasty that Clarkston Everest has built and South Lyon's win streak over South Lyon East. We thank West Bloomfield for giving a full dose of Donovan Edwards and we look at the rematch of last year's Division 2 State Championship between Detroit King and Muskegon Mona Shores.Then we look ahead to the playoffs, where we start of talking about Forest Hills Central and some sleeper teams to watch for. Then we preview Division 1, where we take a close look at Belleville, a different looking Division 2, and the countless storylines in Division 3. Before we close, we give an update of the Anvil Award and Mr. Football contests, presented by Hungry Howie's Pizza.Presented by Lawrence Technological University, Hungry Howie's Pizza, and the MHSAA.