Wednesday September 4th Local Sports
BOSTON (AP) — The Minnesota Twins are slugging their way toward an AL Central title, adding two more homers and another big victory Tuesday night.
Nelson Cruz and Miguel Sanó connected in the fifth inning to pad Minnesota’s record home run total and the Twins beat the Boston Red Sox 6-5 Tuesday night.
Jake Cave added a two-run triple for the Twins, who won for the ninth time in 10 games and hold a 6 1/2 game lead in the AL Central with 24 games remaining. Minnesota extended its major league record to 271 homers with nearly four weeks left in the regular season.
Six Twins pitchers combined on a six-hitter, with only four hits allowed before Andrew Benintendi’s two-out homer in the eighth off Taylor Rogers.
MASON CITY — The Newman girls and the West Fork boys won the team titles at the Newman Cross Country Invitational at the Mercy West Campus course in Mason City on Tuesday. The Knights girls had four runners finish in the top 16 to win with 61 points. Iowa Falls-Alden was second with 85, Osage was third with 104. Ellie Meyer of Iowa Falls-Alden was the individual winner in a time of 19:30. Abby Christians of Garner-Hayfield-Ventura was second in a time of 20:37. Chloe Nelson had the best Newman time, finishing fifth in 22:37. Clear Lake finished eighth with 168 points. Jadyn Heesch had the best Lion time, finishing 11th in 23:02.
West Fork edged St. Ansgar for the team title, with the Warhawks having 92 points, five points better than the Saints. Clear Lake finished third with 105, with Newman fourth with 109 points. Carson Rygh of Lake Mills was the individual champion with a time of 17:08. Seth Hershey and Riley Witt of St. Ansgar were the next two in with times of 17:24 and 17:30. Justin Wright had the best Clear Lake time, finishing fifth in 18:01. Braden Petree had Newman’s best finish, coming in sixth in 18:05.
You can see the full results of the Newman Cross Country Invite by clicking here
MASON CITY — The latest team and individual cross country rankings are out from the Iowa Association of Track Coaches. Looking at the top three teams in each class and other area teams in the rankings:
=== 1A Boys — Earlham, Madrid, Maquoketa Valley, Newman (10th)
=== 1A Girls — Logan-Magnolia, Iowa City Regina, Hudson, Newman (8th)
=== 2A Boys — Tipton, Monticello, South Hardin
=== 2A Girls — Mid-Prairie Wellman, Williamsburg, Woodbury Central/Kingsley-Pierson
=== 3A Boys — Carlisle, Dallas Center-Grimes, Clear Creek-Amana
=== 3A Girls — Ballard, Dubuque Wahlert, Dallas Center-Grimes, Charles City (14th)
=== 4A Boys — Dowling, Dubuque Hempstead, Pleasant Valley
=== 4A Girls — Johnston, Southeast Polk, Waukee
Click here for the full list of team rankings
Individually ranked runners from the area include:
=== 3A Girls — 11th: Kiki Connell, Charles City
=== 2A Girls — 6th: Abby Christians, GHV
=== 1A Boys — 4th: Carson Rygh, Lake Mills; 22th: Seth Hershey, St. Ansgar
Click here for the full list of individual rankings
— high school volleyball from last night
Mason City 25-25-25, Des Moines North 6-7-4
Forest City 25-25-25, Garner-Hayfield-Ventura 20-19-8
Lake Mills 25-25-25, Belmond-Klemme 8-16-21
North Iowa 23-26-25-16-15, North Union 25-24-18-25-9
Osage 25-25-25, Central Springs 5-3-12
Rockford 21-16-25-25-15, West Fork 25-25-17-12-5
IOWA CITY — Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz says he would prefer not to open Big Ten play in week two. After opening with a win over Miami of Ohio the Hawkeyes get ready to open league play by hosting Rutgers.
It is the earliest a Ferentz coach Iowa team has ever opened the league race.
Ferentz says tackle Alaric Jackson will miss the next two games with a sprained knee but could possibly return for the Hawkeyes’ final non-conference game against Middle Tennessee State.
Guard Cole Banwart has returned to practice after missing the opener and defensive backs Julius Brents and Riley Moss will be sidelined for a few weeks.
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Rutgers coach Chris Ash says quarterback Carter McLane will need to protect the football in the Scarlet Knights’ Big Ten opener at Iowa. The Texas Tech transfer passed for 340 yards and two touchdowns in a 48-21 win over UMass but he was also picked off three times.
As a native of Ottumwa, Ash is very familiar with the Iowa program.
Ash says competing against Iowa begins in the trenches.
Former Rutgers defensive coordinator Jay Niemann is the assistant defensive line coach at Iowa but Ash says that will have no factor on the outcome.
Kickoff on Saturday between Iowa and Rutgers is scheduled for 11 o’clock, with the pre-game at 9 o’clock on AM-1300 KGLO.
CEDAR FALLS — The University of Northern Iowa announced alcohol will be available for purchase at Panther football and men’s basketball games beginning with Saturday’s football game. Jerek Wolcott is the assistant athletic director for communications.
Wolcott says beer had been available on a limited basis in both venues.
Wolcott says the sales will not include wine at first.
UNI hosts Southern Utah on Saturday.
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Carli Lloyd scored twice and the U.S. national team extended its winning streak to 16 games with a 3-0 exhibition victory over Portugal in St. Paul last night. It was Jill Ellis’ 105th victory as the U.S. coach, tying her with Tony DiCicco’s record from 1994-1999. Ellis plans to step down in October following the team’s final two victory tour matches. The match at Allianz Field was the third of a five-city tour celebrating the U.S. team’s World Cup victory this summer in France.
