Baseball
Former Husky gets win over Phillies
Junior right-handed pitcher Dylan Barrow earned the pitching win as top-ranked Tampa downed the Philadelphia Phillies 6-2 in an exhibition game Sunday at Bright House Field in Clearwater, Fla.
Barrow, who played with the Duluth Huskies last summer, allowed two hits in two innings of relief.
It is the first time an NCAA team has beaten an MLB team since Miami (Fla.) defeated the Marlins in 2011. Sunday was the Phillies’ spring training opener.
College women’s basketball
’Jackets denied NCAA berth
Wisconsin-Superior was left out of the 64-team NCAA Division III women’s basketball tournament field, announced Monday.
UWS (19-8) tied a program record for wins this season and won its first WIAC regular-season title in its final year in the league. The Yellowjackets will play in the UMAC starting this fall.
Wisconsin-Oshkosh, which beat Superior 66-61 in the WIAC tournament title game Sunday at Mertz Mortorelli Gymnasium, earned the conference’s automatic qualifier into the NCAA tournament while denying the Yellowjackets their first berth.
The Titans, the WIAC’s lone representative in the tournament, opens against North Central, Ill., in Friday’s first round. UMAC champions Minnesota-Morris faces unbeaten St. Thomas on Friday.
College men’s hockey
UMD still third in PairWise
Minnesota Duluth remained No. 6 in the latest United States College Hockey Online.com Division I poll, released Monday, and stayed at No. 3 in the more important PairWise Rankings.
UMD (19-12-3) tied Miami twice over the weekend at home, losing a pair of shootouts that don’t affect their PairWise standing.
The Bulldogs close the regular season with a pair of games at Western Michigan this weekend before entering next week’s NCHC tournament. The Bulldogs are two points behind fourth-place Denver, which finishes with a pair of games at St. Cloud State, for home-ice advantage in the playoffs.
The NCHC continues to have five of the top eight-ranked teams in the USCHO poll, led by No. 1 North Dakota. Miami is No. 5, Denver seventh and Nebraska-Omaha eighth.
Curling
US women win first match at junior worlds
The United States rink skipped by Duluth’s Cory Christensen won its first match at the World Junior Championships on Monday in Tallinn, Estonia, before dropping a later match to Scotland.
Christensen defeated Eun Bi Kim’s South Korean side 10-4 in the morning, then dropped an 8-2 match to Gina Aitken’s undefeated Scottish side to fall to 1-3 in the round-robin standings.
Team USA faces the Czech Republic today.
On the men’s side, Duluth’s Ethan Meyers lost 8-5 to Sweden’s Fredrik Nyman to fall to 1-3 overall. Meyers, who is a student at the University of Minnesota, is tied for seventh in the 10-team field, meaning today’s matches against undefeated Switzerland and South Korea are crucial.
College skiing
Saints sending three to NCAAs
St. Scholastica will send an unprecedented three skiers to the NCAA Skiing Championships next week in Lake Placid, N.Y., after finding out Monday that Paul Schommer, Sharmila Ahmed and Anita Kirvesniemi qualified.
It will be the third NCAA appearance for Schommer, who finished 13th Sunday at the NCAA Central Regionals in Ishpeming, Mich. Schommer was eighth at the 2014 NCAAs.
Ahmed is headed back for the second time, while the Finnish Kirvesniemi is going for the first time after earning All-Central Region honors for placing eighth at the regional meet.
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College women’s hockey
UMD falls out of top 10
Minnesota Duluth’s season likely came to an end with a first-round WCHA playoff loss to Bemidji State over the weekend, and the Bulldogs dropped out of the United States College Hockey Online.com Division I poll, released Monday.
UMD lost two of three games to the Beavers at Amsoil Arena and were knocked out of the playoffs. The Bulldogs (20-12-5) are tied for ninth with Cornell in the PairWise Rankings, which simulate the formula used by the NCAA selection committee. Eight teams qualify for the Division I tournament.
WCHA teams Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota and Bemidji State are ranked second, third, eighth and 10th by USCHO.com.
Hockey
Grand Rapids-Greenway standout commits to Mankato
Grand Rapids-Greenway senior Jordan McLaughlin on Sunday committed to play college hockey at Minnesota State-Mankato.
The senior forward guided the Lightning to a 16-10-1 record this winter while scoring 28 goals and collecting 32 assists for 60 points. She had 29 goals and 25 assists as a junior.
McLaughlin will join a Mankato team that struggled to a 3-32-1 mark this season.
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