opener

To think that four-goal first-half performance didn’t even involve John McGinn.

A traditional 4-4-2 brought the best out of Scott McTominay, if that’s even more possible. Although we all know the Napoli star’s position was never in any doubt.

Bologna’s Lewis Ferguson, who captain Robertson said “turned into a man” , externalduring the qualification campaign, again showed his maturity and ability to dictate play in the middle of the park. Cultured, some might say.

But, in truth, the first half was dominated by the work done down the wings by Bournemouth pair Ben Gannon-Doak and Ryan Christie.

Long before he was even in the squad, Gannon-Doak excited supporters. He was the Billy Gilmour of the Euro 2024 team, picking up an injury before the squad jetted off to Germany.

Since then, he’s reminded everyone what they missed with his absence. The epitome of a Duracell Bunny, the 20-year-old dazzled on Saturday.

At times, his end-product has been his downfall, but it wasn’t of concern stateside.

“Ben did himself the power of good today,” Clarke acknowledged. “We know what he can give us.”

Clarke also knows what Christie can provide. In many positions. He was lively down the left, with an instinct to cut in and create.

Many were crying out for Findlay Curtis to start, given his first international goal last weekend, but its hard to make a case for Christie not starting somewhere on Sunday.

It’s perhaps the biggest head-scratcher of them all for Clarke, but what a problem to have.

COLLEGE STATION, Texas — USC couldn’t hold on to the lead Adrian Lopez provided with a home run in the bottom of the eighth Friday night.

Texas State’s Chase Mora greeted reliever Adam Troy with a monstrous two-run home run to left field in the top of ninth inning, propelling the Bobcats to a 5-4 upset before a crowd of 6,956 at Blue Bell Park.

The Trojans had plenty of chances, and they wasted most of them in the opening round of the NCAA tournament’s College Station Regional.

Even though the Bobcats’ shaky defense spotted USC two unearned runs, the Trojans will surely lament stranding runners in scoring position in each of the first seven innings.

The Trojans will face Lamar University, which blew a five-run lead in a 7-5 loss against host Texas A&M, on Saturday at 1 p.m. PT.

If coach Andy Stankiewicz’s Trojans return to the Men’s College World Series for the first time since 2001, the 12-time national champions must do it out of the losers bracket.

USC right-hander Grant Govel, an All-Big Ten First Team selection, settled for a no-decision after giving up three runs on four hits with two walks and six strikeouts over 5⅔ innings.

He was relieved by freshman left-hander Sax Matson with one on and two outs in the top of the sixth. Matson escaped unscathed in the sixth, but he was relieved by right-hander Andrew Johnson with one on and two outs in the seventh.

The Trojans (43-16), who reached the Big Ten Tournament semifinals, have lost four of their last five games.

Mora’s sacrifice fly to right field gave the Bobcats a 1-0 lead in the second inning. The Trojans countered to tie the score with a run in the bottom of the second.

With runners on first and second and two outs, Abbrie Covarrubias hit a grounder to first. Texas State first baseman Jaquae Stewart booted the grounder for an error, allowing Isaac Cadena to score. Stewart almost made the situation worse with a wild throw to second, but Dean Carpentier was thrown out trying to reach third on the poor throw to second.

The Trojans benefited from more poor defense in the third. With one out in the inning, Augie Lopez reached on an error by Mora at third. Kevin Takeuchi followed with a double off the center-field wall. Jack Basseer broke the tie with an RBI single through the left side.

Covarrubias hit a solo home run to left in the fourth to put USC ahead 3-1. Texas State sophomore shortstop Brady Boles, who entered the regional with only one home run this season and two in his college career, tied the score 3-3 with a two-run home run to left field in the top of the fifth.

UCLA loses to Alabama

Megan Grant hit her 41st home run of the season to tie a UCLA career record Thursday night, but top-seeded Alabama rallied behind a five-run surge to beat the eighth-seeded Bruins 6-3 on opening day at the Women’s College World Series.

UCLA starter Taylor Tinsley took a 3-1 lead into the fifth inning but walked leadoff batter Jena Young then surrendered a 249-foot home run to Alexis Pupillo two batters later to tie the score.

In the sixth, Alabama’s Kristen White beat out a grounder to third and Young dropped a bloop single to left, setting the stage for Brooke Wells, who drove a pitch from Tinsley 239 feet to center field to give the Crimson Tide the lead.

The Bruins (52-9) will have to beat the winner of the game between Arkansas and Nebraska on Friday night to avoid elimination.

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Angels rout the Tigers

Grayson Rodriguez pitched five strong innings as the Angels beat the Detroit Tigers 7-1 on Thursday for their fifth victory in six games.

The Angels won back-to-back series for the first time this season, sweeping Texas at home before winning two of three in Detroit.

Detroit has gone 4-18 since May 4, losing seven straight series.

Rodriguez (2-1) allowed one run on two hits and two walks in five innings. He struck out five.

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Angels box score

MLB standings

MLB team owners propose a salary cap

From Bill Shaikin: They had balloons, baseball caps and a splashy video. They even had Dusty Baker, because any day with Dusty Baker is a good day.

And, as a campaign called “The Sacramento Pitch” unveiled its plan to lure a Major League Baseball expansion team to the state capital, the mayor made his pitch a blunt one.

“This region has earned its place in the majors,” Sacramento Mayor Kevin McCarty said Thursday. “And, frankly, MLB could use Sacramento.”

We’ll see. But, as McCarty and other dignitaries rallied in Sacramento, a more important gathering was happening in New York, at which MLB owners formally proposed the salary cap players have vowed to resist.

Whether owners can get a cap — either by persuasion through the fall and winter, or more likely by canceling games next spring so players go unpaid — remains to be seen. For Sacramento and the other American and Canadian cities pursuing two expansion teams, the outcome of collective bargaining could determine the fee MLB would charge for each one.

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Mason Edwards leads USC to College Baseball World Series

From Joaquin Ruiz: Mason Edwards has first-round hype ahead of July’s 2026 MLB draft for a reason.

USC’s ace takes the mound like a boxer enters the ring, eager to land blow after blow. And as the Trojans (43-15) open the NCAA tournament in College Station, Texas, at 6 p.m. PDT Friday (ESPNU), the southpaw packs a serious punch. He carries a nation-leading 160 strikeouts and the second-best 1.43 ERA.

“They’re getting a competitor,” Edwards said of what people can expect when he pitches. “There have been a lot of situations where I’ve had to battle and fight adversity. So, I think you’ll see a good fight when I toe the rubber. I’m not going to shy away from any type of competition.”

If anything, the competition probably shies away from Edwards.

Named the Big Ten 2026 Pitcher of the Year after stacking a record 113 strikeouts in conference play, Edwards is integral to what has been USC’s best team since the early 2000s.

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Can UCLA win the College Baseball World Series?

From Joaquin Ruiz: No. 1 UCLA’s quest for the second baseall national title in school history starts Friday.

The Bruins (51-6, 28-2 Big Ten) enter the NCAA tournament as the top overall seed and host against Saint Mary’s (34-25, 15-12 West Coast) to begin the Los Angeles Regional at Jackie Robinson Stadium.

After winning its first Big Ten tournament championship in program history on Sunday, UCLA is focused on continuing its dominance and embracing the target on its back as a College World Series favorite.

“We’ll see what happens, but I think just staying with us and not trying to do too much and just stay present,” UCLA junior outfielder Payton Brennan said. “That’s the main thing — and staying with each other.”

Their record and conference dominance aside, the Bruins sit atop several statistical categories and are intimidating across the diamond.

But UCLA coach John Savage said UCLA isn’t looking past its regional foes — Saint Mary’s, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and Virginia Tech.

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This day in sports history

1946 — Two-year-old fillies Chakoora and Uleta become the first thoroughbreds to complete a transcontinental flight. They’re flown from New York to Inglewood by the American Air Express Corp., a 2,446-mile trip that lasts 20 hours due to bad weather.

1968 — European Cup Final, Wembley Stadium, London: Bobby Charlton scores twice as Manchester United beats Benfica, 4-1; first English club to win the trophy.

1971 — Al Unser wins his second straight Indianapolis 500 with a record mark of 157.735 mph and finishes 22 seconds ahead of Peter Revson. The pace car, ridden by Eldon Palmer, crashes into the portable bleachers and injures 20 people.

1977 — A.J. Foyt becomes the first driver to win four Indianapolis 500s and Janet Guthrie becomes the first woman in the race. Guthrie is forced to drop out after 27 laps with mechanical problems.

1977 — Australian Sue Prell first female golfer to hit consecutive holes-in one; 13th and 14th holes at Chatswood Golf Club, Sydney.

1980 — Larry Bird beats out Magic Johnson for NBA rookie of year.

1983 — After three second-place finishes, Tom Sneva wins the Indianapolis 500 by 11 seconds over three-time champion Al Unser.

1985 — 29th European Cup: Juventus beats Liverpool 1-0 at Brussels.

1988 — Rick Mears overcomes an early one-lap deficit, then overpowers the rest of the field on the way to his third Indianapolis 500 victory. Mears gives team-owner Roger Penske an unprecedented seventh victory and fourth in five years.

1990 — Stefan Edberg and Boris Becker, the top two seeds, are bounced in the first round of the French Open by two European teenagers, the first time the top two men’s seeds are eliminated in the first round of a Grand Slam tournament. Edberg is swept easily in straight sets by 19-year-old Sergi Bruguera of Spain, and Becker loses to 18-year-old Yugoslav Goran Ivanisevic.

1991 — 35th European Cup: Red Star Belgrade beats Marseille (0-0, 5-3 on penalties) at Bari.

1993 — Wayne Gretzky’s overtime goal gives the Kings a 5-4 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs in the Western Conference finals. The Kings become the first NHL team to play the full 21 games in the first three rounds.

1998 — Eighteen-year-old Marat Safin, ranked 116th in the world and playing in his first Grand Slam tournament, beats defending champion Gustavo Kuerten, 3-6, 7-6 (7-5), 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 in the second round of the French Open.

2005 — Dan Wheldon wins the Indianapolis 500 when Danica Patrick’s electrifying run falls short. Patrick is the first woman to lead at Indy, getting out front three separate times for a total of 19 laps. But Wheldon passes her with seven of the 200 laps to go and easily holds on.

2006 — Rafael Nadal passes Guillermo Vilas as the King of the clay courts and begins his pursuit of a second successive French Open trophy. Nadal earns his 54th consecutive win on clay, breaking the Open era record he shared with Vilas by beating Robin Soderling in straight sets in the first round at Roland Garros.

2011 — JR Hildebrand, one turn from winning the Indianapolis 500, skids high into the wall on the final turn and Dan Wheldon drives past to claim an improbable second Indy 500 win in his first race of the year.

2011 — Roger Federer sets another record by reaching the French Open quarterfinals, and Novak Djokovic closes in on a pair of his own. Federer extends his quarterfinal streak at major tournaments to 28 with a 6-3, 6-2, 7-5 victory over Stanislas Wawrinka. Djokovic maintains his perfect season to 41-0 and stretches his overall winning streak to 43 matches by beating Richard Gasquet of France 6-4, 6-4, 6-2.

2012 — Serena Williams loses in the first round of a major tournament for the first time, falling to Virginie Razzano of France 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-3 at the French Open. Williams enters the day with a 46-0 record in first-round matches at Grand Slam tournaments.

2016 — Alexander Rossi wins the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500.

2017 — Tiger Woods is arrested and charged with driving under the influence in Jupiter, Fla.

2021 — UEFA Champions League Final, Porto: Kai Havertz scores just before halftime to give Chelsea a 1-0 win over Manchester City in an all-English final; Blues’ second CL title.

Compiled by the Associated Press

This day in baseball history

1916 — Christy Mathewson defeated the Boston Braves 3-0 for the New York Giants’ 17th consecutive road win.

1922 — The U.S. Supreme Court ruled organized baseball was primarily a sport and not a business, and therefore not subject to antitrust laws and interstate commerce regulations. The suit had been brought by the Federal League’s Baltimore franchise.

1928 — Bill Terry hit for the cycle to lead the New York Giants to a 12-5 win over Brooklyn at Ebbets Field. Terry became the first player in major league history to include a grand slam as part of the cycle.

1942 — New York’s Lefty Gomez, self-described as the worst-hitting pitcher in baseball, banged out four hits while pitching a 16-1 four-hitter against Washington.

1956 — Dale Long went hitless for the Pirates, ending his major league record streak of home runs in eight consecutive games. The Brooklyn Dodgers beat Pittsburgh, 10-1.

1965 — Philadelphia’s Richie Allen hit a 529-foot home run over the roof of Connie Mack Stadium off Chicago’s Larry Jackson in the Phillies’ 4-2 victory.

1976 — Houston’s Joe Niekro was the winning pitcher and hit a home run off his brother, Phil Niekro. The Astros beat the Atlanta Braves 4-1. It was the only home run hit by Joe in his 22-year major league career.

1990 — Oakland’s Rickey Henderson broke Ty Cobb’s 62-year-old American League stolen base record, but the Toronto Blue Jays still beat the Athletics 2-1. Henderson’s 893rd steal came in the sixth inning.

2000 — Oakland second baseman Randy Velarde turned the 10th unassisted triple play in regular-season history during a 4-1 loss to the New York Yankees. With runners on first and second in motion, Shane Spencer hit a line drive to Velarde who caught the ball, tagged out Jorge Posada (running from first) and stepped on second to beat Tino Martinez.

2002 — Roger Clemens recorded the 100th double-digit strikeout game of his career, fanning 11 in seven innings against Chicago. Nolan Ryan (215) and Randy Johnson (175) were the others to have 100 double-digit strikeout games.

2002 — In an article in Sports Illustrated former NL MVP Ken Caminiti stated that about 50% of current major league players used some form of steroids.

2003 — Colorado, behind Todd Helton’s three home runs and Ron Belliard’s five hits beat the visiting Dodgers 12-5. Helton added a single and drove in six runs.

2010 — Philadelphia’s Roy Halladay threw the 20th perfect game in major league history, beating the Florida Marlins 1-0. It was the first time in the modern era that there were a pair of perfect games in the same season. Halladay faced three Marlins pinch-hitters in the ninth. Mike Lamb led off with a long fly ball, Wes Helms struck out, and Ronny Paulino to hit a grounder to third for the 27th out. Halladay struck out 11 and went to either 3-1 or 3-2 counts seven times, twice in the game’s first three batters.

2013 — Chris Davis went 4 for 4 with two home runs, and the Baltimore Orioles overcame three homers by Ryan Zimmerman to beat the Washington Nationals 9-6.

2013 — Dioner Navarro had the first three-homer game of his career, connecting from both sides of the plate at Wrigley Field to lead the Chicago Cubs to a 9-3 win over the Chicago White Sox. Navarro drove in a career-high six runs and scored four times.

2014 — Diamondbacks pitcher Josh Collmenter faces the minimum 27 batters in spite of giving up three hits in a complete game shutout defeat of the Cincinnati Reds. The three Reds baserunners were erased on double plays.

2015 — Lewis-Clark State wins their 17th NAIA baseball title.

2021 — The Twins’ Josh Donaldson scored the two-millionth run in major league history.

2025 — Chris Sale becomes the fastest pitcher to reach 2,500 strikeouts, doing so in 2,026 innings, fewer than the 39 men who have preceded him to the mark.

Compiled by the Associated Press

Until next time…

That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

Injured captain Alphonso Davies is expected to miss co-hosts Canada’s opening World Cup game, but head coach Jesse Marsch believes the full-back will still play a part in the tournament.

Davies, 25, suffered a hamstring injury in Bayern Munich’s Champions League semi-final second leg against Paris St-Germain on 6 May, with the German club saying at the time he was expected to be out of action “for several weeks”.

He only made 13 Bundesliga appearances for Bayern during a campaign heavily disrupted by injuries.

Canada will open their home World Cup campaign against Bosnia-Herzegovina in Toronto on 12 June before meeting Qatar and Switzerland on 18 and 24 June in Vancouver.

“I think Alphonso will play in the World Cup,” Marsch told reporters in Charlotte, North Carolina, where Canada will train this week before their 26-man World Cup squad is announced on Friday.

“I don’t think he’ll be ready quite on June 12… but we’ll see.”

Davies was among 32 players invited to the camp, but Marsch said the Canada skipper would only join the team on the eve of their friendly against Uzbekistan in Edmonton on 1 June.

They will also face the Republic of Ireland in Montreal on 5 June in another World Cup preparation game.

Davies last played for Canada against the United States in March last year, when he suffered an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury.

He missed the March 2026 friendlies against Iceland and Tunisia because of a hamstring strain.

The former Vancouver Whitecaps left-back was part of Canada’s World Cup squad in 2022 and scored in a 4-1 defeat by eventual semi-finalists Croatia in the group stage.

MILWAUKEE — Something about American Family Field in the regular season disagrees with the Dodgers.

They began this road trip with a pair of statement series, sweeping the Angels and edging out the Padres. But their momentum came to a grinding halt when they fell 5-1 to the Brewers on Friday in Milwaukee.

The loss brought back memories of last year, when the Brewers swept the regular-season series, before the Dodgers swept them in the National League Championship Series.

“I don’t think people appreciate how well this team plays baseball,” manager Dave Roberts said before the game. “There’s not a lot of fanfare as far as name recognition. But the way [Brewers manager] Pat Murphy gets these guys to play, it’s a fun brand of baseball.

“They don’t strike out much. They put the ball in play. They bunt, they hit and run, they steal bases, they can pitch. It’s a good matchup. Last year, during the regular season, we couldn’t beat these guys once, so I expect us to play better baseball this year.”

That brand of baseball was a bit of a nightmare for Dodgers starter Justin Wrobleski in the first inning. The Brewers batted around en route to a five-run rally. Five of their six hits were singles. The one exception was William Contreras’ three-run homer.

The next inning, they tacked on another run when Contreras singled and then scored when Andrew Vaughn’s double ricocheted off the wall in the right-field gap.

Wrobleski turned around his outing by blanking the Brewers for the next three innings, but the deficit proved to be too steep for the Dodgers to overcome.

Wrobleski has only given up more than two runs in one other start this season. That one also featured one high-scoring inning and a mid-game adjustment.

The Dodgers’ offense, in contrast to the Brewers’, didn’t record a hit off Brewers starter Logan Henderson until the fourth inning. He faced the minimum through the first three innings — a leadoff walk erased when Shohei Ohtani was caught stealing.

Finally in the fourth, Ohtani worked a 2-2 count and lined a hung change-up into right field. Then Freddie Freeman and Andy Pages drew walks to load the bases with two outs. But the Dodgers failed to capitalize.

The Dodgers again threatened after the Brewers replaced Henderson with left-handed reliever Shane Drohan, drawing a pair of walks to put runners on first and second. But the inning ended with a long flyout from Max Muncy, just a few feet shy of a base hit.

They needed some help from the Brewers’ defense to finally put a run on the board. Third baseman Luis Rengifo mishandled a ground ball to let Teoscar Hernández reach base in the seventh inning. A single from Dalton Rushing and a fly out from Miguel Rojas moved him to third. Ohtani delivered the sacrifice fly.

The Dodgers’ Max Muncy leaves the game after being hit by a pitch during the eighth inning against the Brewers at American Family Field on Friday in Milwaukee, Wisc.

(Patrick McDermott / Getty Images)

The Dodgers may have to deal with additional repercussions. Muncy exited in the top of the eighth inning after being hit in the hand/wrist by a pitch.

Muncy shouted as soon as the 95.5-mph sinker struck him, and he appeared to cradle his right arm. After consulting with an athletic trainer, he touched first base and was replaced by Santiago Espinal.

The severity of Muncy’s injury was not immediately clear.

Chris Taylor retires

The MiLB transaction log Friday showed that former Dodger Chris Taylor has retired after a 12-year major-league career. He spent a decade with the Dodgers, was named the 2017 NLCS MVP, won two World Series, and was an All-Star in 2021.

MILWAUKEE — Left-hander Eric Lauer strode up the bullpen mound at Petco Park as the Dodgers-Padres series finale Wednesday transitioned into the late innings.

He had been available to provide length as a reliever, but the plan had been for him to throw either way, he said.

The Dodgers didn’t end up needing him to cover innings, so he tossed a side session. And now Lauer has the weekend to address the mechanical issues that plagued his bumpy first six weeks of the season with the Toronto Blue Jays before making his Dodgers debut Tuesday as a starter against the Rockies at Dodger Stadium.

“It’s nice having a little change of scenery, because it gives me a nice full-blown reset,” Lauer said. “I can get my feet back under me, I can get out of my head a little bit more, understand what makes me good and what’s got me to this point, and run with that.”

Lauer, who landed on waivers at a convenient time for the Dodgers, is their immediate answer to a sudden rotation depth problem.

They don’t expect him to save the day in the absence of Blake Snell (elbow surgery to remove loose bodies) and Tyler Glasnow (back spasms). But the Dodgers saw an opportunity to fill a hole in their roster and ideally help him reverse his early-season regression.

“We’ve had our guys take a look and we’ll sit down and talk through some stuff, see how much we can do on the fly, how much of it is not just subconscious,” general manager Brandon Gomes said. “But we know the makeup is really good, and we’re looking forward to getting our hands on him and helping him be as successful as he’s been in the past.”

As long as Lauer gradually improves, his presence allows the Dodgers to keep their starters on a six- to seven-day rotation, without taxing their relievers with regular bullpen days, at least while they wait for other pitchers to return to health and/or build up their workloads.

Lauer’s only months removed from success. He owned a career-best 3.18 ERA last season and was even better in the postseason, authoring 5 ⅔ scoreless innings against the Dodgers in the World Series.

Dodgers reliever Will Klein, who threw opposite Lauer in the 18-inning Game 3 of the World Series, was one of the first people he met when he joined the team in San Diego.

“He introduced himself, and I was like, ‘All right, I know you, I remember you,’” Lauer said.

Coming off of winning the pennant, Lauer’s ERA ballooned this year to 6.96 ERA. In mid-April, the Blue Jays tried using an opener in front of Lauer when he faced the Diamondbacks. And his reaction made headlines.

“To be real blunt, I hate it,” he told reporters then. “I can’t stand it. But you work with what you got.”

This week, surrounded by different set of reporters in the visitors dugout at Petco Park earlier this week after joining the Dodgers, Lauer gave a knowing smile when the topic of usage with Toronto came up.

“There was no ill will there, there was no hurt feelings,” he said of his comments on openers. “It was a very simple question, I thought, how do you feel about an opener? I think if you ask most starters in the league, they would probably have the same response, that they don’t like it. But it doesn’t mean that I’m not willing to do it. It doesn’t mean that I’m not a team player.”

He said he cleared it up with Blue Jays pitching coach Pete Walker and manager John Schneider right away.

“I’m not going to have a problem if there is somebody in front of me,” he said. “It’s part of the game, it’s become part of the game. And we’re all here to win ballgames. It’s not about any individual player. So that was a lot more than I expected that to turn into.”

So far, Lauer has praised the Dodgers’ communication. And he’s been reunited with pitching coach Mark Prior, who was the Padres’ minor-league pitching coordinator when Lauer began his professional career in San Diego’s system.

When Lauer diagnoses his season, he sees two sets of issues working in concert.

“A couple things had compounded for me, and it was just kind of eating at me a little bit too much,” Lauer told The Times. “And I work with a mental skills coach and stuff, to where that shouldn’t happen. But I wasn’t mentally my best, which was making me not my best physically, which made me start to want to tinker.”

Lauer feels like he has a hold on the mental side. Now it’s working from the ground up to get his delivery back in sync. The goal, as Lauer explains it, is to find positions that create tension in his delivery, and pattern them until they feel like second nature.

Making mechanical adjustments during the season, however, tends to be two steps forward, one step back.

Lauer isn’t expected to have it all figured out for his start Tuesday. The Dodgers just want to see him compete with whatever he has that day.

“We compete, and then we go back to the process,” Lauer said. “…Then hopefully the process over time becomes more patterned, more grooved. And then it becomes less process, more just fine-tuning to compete.”

The Bruin Bombers struck again Friday night, capping an epic rally during the opening round of the Los Angeles NCAA Regional.

The No. 7 UCLA softball team has been dubbed the Bruin Bombers because of the record-setting home runs they’ve been hitting this season. That clutch hitting helped the Bruins avoid a painful loss to open postseason play.

Shortstop Aleena Garcia became the hero on Friday night at Easton Stadium, hitting a sacrifice fly to right field with one out to in the seventh inning bring in Rylee Slimp and seal a 12-11 win over California Baptist (43-18). The Lancers held an 11-7 lead going into the sixth inning before UCLA mounted a comeback.

“It’s a credit to [associate head] coach Lisa [Fernandez,]” first baseman Jordan Woolery said when asked about the team’s nickname. “Her offensive coaching style has changed how we’ve all played this year, and you can see it [batters] one through nine.”

The fifth inning was a disaster for UCLA, nearly costing the Bruins the win.

UCLA gave up 10 runs, with a combination of defensive errors and starting pitcher Taylor Tinsley miscues allowing California Baptist to score eight runs. Brynne Nally replaced Tinsley on the mound and gave up a two-run home run before the Bruins finally stopped the Lancers’ onslaught.

“That was not a typical Taylor Tinsley game, and I know she will bounce back,” UCLA coach Kelly Inouye-Perez said.

The Bruins scored two runs in the sixth before Joylna Lamar hit a two-run home run in the seventh.

Slimp hit a single and California Baptist walked UCLA batting stars Megan Grant and Woolery to set up the game-winning fly ball Garcia hit to right field.

Inouye-Perez said she doesn’t like talking about Woolery and Grant much because she gets emotional, but she noted they bring calm to the Bruins’ lineup and help every player contribute to game-changing rallies.

“We already had our senior banquet and had a lot of tears,” Inouye-Perez said. “But taking the responsibility to be the ones to carry the team and come through in big moments, these two have done it together.”

The Bruins (48-8) will play South Carolina on Saturday at 2 p.m. at Easton Stadium. UCLA played the Gamecocks in February and won 5-4 on a walk-off. California Baptist will play Cal State Fullerton at 4:30 p.m.

Inouye-Perez said Friday night she had not yet decided who would pitch against the Gamecocks.

UCLA’s Rylee Slimp, right, and Bri Alejandre react after scoring the winning run against California Baptist on Friday at Easton Stadium.

(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)

Fullerton falls in opener

Cal State Fullerton held a one-run lead during the top of the the fifth inning, but South Carolina surged ahead and earned a 7-4 win on Friday to open NCAA regional play at UCLA’s Easton Stadium.

Left fielder Quincee Lilio hit a three-run home run in the bottom of the sixth to give the Gamecocks a lead they didn’t surrender.

The Titans pulled ahead a 2-0 at the top of the second before the Gamecocks splashed a two-run home run in the bottom of the second to tie 2-2. Both teams scored on fielding errors and Cal State Fullerton scored off a single before South Carolina’s game-sealing home run.

On the day he learned he would be England’s new opener, Emilio Gay drove from Durham to Bedford to tell his parents about his first international call-up.

The 26-year-old Durham batter received a phone call at 08:00 BST from his county director of cricket and new England national selector Marcus North, telling the left-hander he is in the squad to play New Zealand at Lord’s on 4 June.

“He actually kind of woke me up,” Gay told BBC Radio 5 Live.

Instead of then calling his parents to relay the news, Gay decided to jump in the car as part of his journey to the County Championship game against Kent at Beckenham on Friday.

“I didn’t really want to ring them, because we’ve been through so much,” said Gay. “I thought I’ve got to be there to tell them. I drove back to Bedford.

“My brother videoed it and it was a moment I’ll never forget. It was a really good day.”

Gay’s mother is Italian, which is how he qualified to play three T20 internationals for Italy last year.

His father’s family hail from Grenada and it was a trip to the Caribbean in 2007, around the time West Indies hosted the World Cup, that sparked Gay’s love of cricket. He even got a signed shirt from former Windies all-rounder Dwayne Bravo.

“I fell in love with the game through my dad’s family roots in the Caribbean,” said Gay.

“That’s how I really got into it properly at seven years old, and from there it built and built. One day I dreamed of getting called up to play for England and that day came today.”

Just like Sir Alastair Cook, the most successful opener ever to play for England, Gay is a former pupil of Bedford School.

He began his professional career at Northamptonshire and moved to Durham last season. A specialist opener by trade, he usually bats at three for the north-east county.

Though Gay is one of two uncapped batters in the England squad for the first Test against New Zealand, alongside Somerset’s James Rew, director of cricket Rob Key has confirmed it will be Gay opening at Lord’s against the Black Caps.

He will take the place of Zak Crawley, who has been dropped following the 4-1 Ashes defeat in Australia.

Crawley’s omission has been expected for some time, with Gay’s three centuries at the beginning of the new County Championship season putting him in the spotlight.

Barcelona have announced that Lamine Yamal’s domestic season in Spain is over, but that the international forward should be fit to represent his country at this summer’s World Cup.

The 18-year-old striker helped Spain to the Euro 2024 title, while also lifting La Liga with Barca last season.

His club side are well on the way to defending that title, with a nine-point lead over Real Madrid, although they will have to do so now without their iconic starlet.

Al Jazeera Sport looks at how Yamal’s injury grabbed global headlines after their football game on Wednesday, and what the road to World Cup 2026 may now look like for the Catalan.

What happened to Lamine Yamal?

Barcelona were looking to re-establish their nine-point advantage over Real when they played Celta Vigo on Wednesday, April 22.

With the deadlock yet to be broken, Yamal won a penalty for his side – which he scored.

In the immediate aftermath of striking the ball, however, he crumpled to the ground in pain and was quickly substituted.

The strike would prove enough to score a 1-0 win for Barca, but it has come at some cost.

What is Lamine Yamal’s injury?

Rumours swirled into Thursday morning that Yamal’s participation at this summer’s World Cup for Spain could be in doubt.

The early exit from Barca’s win suggested the injury would be serious enough to keep him out for at least a couple of weeks.

The Catalan club, however, confirmed in a statement on Thursday that the injury was to his hamstring and that he would no longer play any part in the club’s defence of their title with six games to play as a result.

How bad is Lamine Yamal’s injury?

“The tests carried out have confirmed that first-team player Lamine Yamal has a hamstring injury in his left leg (biceps femoris muscle),” read Barcelona’s statement, which was first posted on social media platform X.

Such injuries are grouped into three grades: minor, moderate or severe strain/tear.

The recovery periods range from one week to six months.

“The player will follow a conservative treatment plan. Lamine Yamal will miss ‌the remainder of the season, and he is expected to be available for the World Cup,” Barcelona’s statement concluded.

Given the Spanish season runs for another four weeks, until May 24, it is likely that Yamal has at very least a moderate strain.

Such an injury ranges from a four-to-six-week recovery.

Will Lamine Yamal be fit for Spain’s World Cup opener?

What Barcelona’s statement on Thursday did not reveal was just how long the recovery period is expected to be, as the World Cup is set to begin on June 11, when Mexico face South Africa in the first match.

Spain’s first game is being played four days later, against Cape Verde. They then face Saudi Arabia on June 21, before completing the initial group phase with what could be a crunch game against Uruguay on June 27.

Whether Yamal is risked for the opening match on June 15, only seven-and-a-half weeks after he sustained the injury, remains to be seen.

The final game of the group stages is just over nine weeks from the now infamous penalty kick against Celta. That is more than week clear of the longest expected recovery time for a moderate strain.

Why is Lamine Yamal so important to Spain?

Yamal was an integral part of the Spain side that lifted the Euro 2024 title with their 2-1 win against England.

While he was only 16 years of age at the time, his speed and guile on the ball marked him as one of the hottest properties in global football.

His stock rose dramatically with a memorable curled effort from outside the box – now his trademark effort – against France in the semifinals.

Despite his young age, Yamal has already scored six goals in total for Spain in 25 international appearances.

Has Lamine Yamal given an update following his injury?

“This injury is keeping me off the pitch just when I wanted to be there ⁠the most, and it hurts more than I can put into words,” Yamal wrote on his social media ⁠accounts on Thursday.

“It hurts not to be able to fight ⁠alongside my teammates, not to be able to help when the team needs me … But I’ll be there, even if it’s from the sidelines, supporting, cheering and pushing them on just ‌like one of the lads.

“This isn’t the end, it’s just a break. I’ll come back stronger, more determined than ever, and next season will be ‌better.”

How well did Lamine Yamal do for Barcelona this season?

A year after the Euro 2024 triumph, Yamal lifted the La Liga title for the first time when he helped his native Barcelona pip Real Madrid in a closely fought affair that saw just four points separating the sides in the end.

Yamal scored 18 goals that season, including three in the last four games of the La Liga season.

His penalty against Celta was his 24th goal of this season for Barcelona, which ends for him with his side still having six further games to play.