In the spring of 2020, Doug Caines was burned out and finished coaching football.
“The COVID season probably broke me,” he said.
He had been head coach at Dos Pueblos High since 2018. He had been head coach at Santa Barbara from 2012-14. He remained at Dos Pueblos as a media arts teacher and focused on his own kids.
Then, in 2023, he was approached about becoming the girls’ flag football coach in the first season of the sport. It changed his life.
“Honestly, I’ve never had this much fun coaching football,” he said. “Man is it fun. The girls are just coachable and want to play and most are other athletes first.”
Dos Pueblos flag football receiver Brooklyn Hedricks, left, and quarterback Kacey Hurley.
(Michael Owen Baker/For The Times)
That feeling of fun, players wanting to learn and parents watching to enjoy the game instead of worrying about college recruiters best describes the third season of flag football. Everyone realizes this purity probably won’t last for long. Players are already getting offered flag football scholarships to colleges. High schools have started to seek out players.
Yet for now, the participants are enjoying just having the chance to play a sport that used to be reserved for boys.
“Before freshman year, I had never played and never heard of it,” said star Dos Pueblos receiver/defensive back Brooklyn Hendricks, whose father, George, is head baseball coach and also an assistant flag coach.
Dos Pueblos head coach Doug Caines, center, talks with his players during halftime.
(Michael Owen Baker/For The Times)
She was a travel ball player for years in softball. Her parents spent lots of time and money taking her to games around the country. Guess what has happened in her junior year of high school?
“Softball was my best sport, but flag football honestly is my best,” she said. “To get a scholarship offer is crazy.”
Dos Pueblos is 18-2 and part of a strong group of teams from Ventura County and the Santa Barbara area ready to challenge the powerful teams in Orange County. Dos Pueblos’ took 18-1 Orange Lutheran to overtime before losing.
“That was the most intense game I’ve played in,” Hendricks said. “It was such a battle back and forth. It was so much fun.”
Besides Hendricks, who has more than 30 interceptions in her flag football career, quarterback Kacey Hurley has been a key contributor. Last season Hurley was the center snapping the ball to the quarterback. Now she’s the one firing spirals, with 49 touchdown passes so far.
The regular season ends on Oct. 15. The playoffs are Oct. 21, 25, 28 and Nov. 1 with the championship games on Nov. 8.
Caines has been revitalized and rejuvenated.
“It’s been magical,” he said. “The first year was so fun. No expectations. Everything was new — the first game, the first touchdown, the first interception. We’ve been able to keep that going.”
Based on Caines’ coaching experience, a real trend in the coming years could be veteran 11-man football coaches switching to flag football to get back to the days of players learning from scratch and appreciating every moment at practice and games.
Meanwhile, the players will keep having strange dances before and after games, applying eyeblack like it’s makeup and, most of all, having fun playing a sport that isn’t their main one but could be one day.
“This team has great chemistry,” Hendricks said. “There’s never any drama. We have a good set of coaches, We focus on having more fun. We love a win. That’s great. But it’s more of a family.”
The softball team from Westchester Del Rey Little League won the West Regional in San Bernardino on Friday, beating Tucson 12-2 in a five-inning mercy rule to advance to the Little League World Series in Greenville, N.C.
Pitcher Gabriela Uribe started the game with three scoreless innings and ended up finishing.
Gabriela Uribe pitched Westchester’s softball team to the Little League World Series with a win in the West Regional.
(Craig Weston)
After an early 2-2 tie, Westchester broke the game open. Westchester’s pitching has been very good behind Uribe and Kaylee Braunlich.
June 27 (UPI) — The Department of Health and Human Services has opened a civil rights investigation into the Minnesota Department of Education over a transgender teenager competing on a girls’ softball team.
The investigation, announced Thursday, is the latest from the Trump administration connected to the teenager from Champlin Park High School competing in the girls’ Minnesota State High School League. The team earlier this month won the 2025 State Tournament.
HHS said in a statement Thursday that it is investigating the Minnesota Department of Education and the MSHSL under Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination in education programs and activities of HHS funding recipients. It is seeking see if the state’s policies violated federal civil rights laws.
“The investigation will examine whether Minnesota engaged in discrimination on the basis of sex by allowing male athletes to compete on sports teams reserved for females,” the statement said.
The federal Department of Justice and the Department of Education have already opened investigations related to the transgender teenager’s participation in the sports league.
The effort to ban transgender girls from girls’ sports teams has been a Republican effort for years and part of a larger movement targeting the LGBT community, which gained a federal partner under the Trump administration.
In early February, President Donald Trump signed an executive order titled Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports to ensure transgender women and girls do not play on women or women’s or girls’ sports sports teams.
Proponents of the ban argue that allowing transgender females in girls’ and women’s sports gives them an unfair advantage while being discriminatory to athletes who were born female. Critics, meanwhile, contend that the science does not support claims that transgender girls have an unfair advantage, that this is a non-issue given how few transgender athletes there are and that transgender athletes have the right to compete alongside their peers.
The American Academy of Pediatrics has also voiced support for transgender athletes participating in sports competitions that align with their gender identity, stating it “helps youth develop self-esteem, correlates positively with overall mental health, and appears to have a protective effect against suicide.
Four years ago, after seeing freshman outfielder Kai Minor for the first time during the first softball practice, Orange Lutheran High coach Steve Miklos remembers arriving at home and telling his wife, “This girl is special.” And she was.
Minor, headed to Oklahoma after four spectacular seasons at Orange Lutheran, saved her best for her senior season, exceeding even the highest of expectations with 44 hits, a .500 batting average, 34 RBIs and 17 doubles for the Trinity League championship team. Defensively, she was a wizard with her glove.
“She makes plays routine that others wouldn’t make,” Miklos said.
Kai Minor when she was a 15-year-old freshman.
(Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)
For a season of exceptional performances, Minor has been selected The Times’ player of the year in softball.
“It was a joy to see her develop not only as a great player but as a mentor to younger players,” Miklos said.
He called Minor “the best player” in his 28 seasons of coaching.
Her speed was used on the bases and on defense. Opposing coaches who had never seen her play always came away impressed.
“People watch her and they’re amazed,” Miklos said. “They go, ‘Who’s that?’”
She’s a five-tool player in the world of softball.
“She hits for power, she’s a line-drive hitter, a great baserunner. She’s complete,” Miklos said.
Now his son, Michael Jr., enters his senior year at St. Genevieve hoping to show everyone he can play quarterback as well as his father once did and perhaps be an even better passer.
The younger Wynn is coming off a junior season in which the Valiants switched to using four receivers to take advantage of his athleticism. He passed for 2,014 yards and 24 touchdowns with just one interception. Aided by a year’s experience running the offense, look for Wynn to be even better this fall. He had seven touchdowns running, so he’s got some of his father’s speed.
St. Genevieve coach Billy Parra is expecting big things from Wynn, who’s 6 feet, 200 pounds and gaining in confidence. …
June is a big month for seven-on-seven passing competitions. Western in Anaheim is hosting an event on Saturday that includes defending Southen Section Division 1 champion Mater Dei. Simi Valley is also hosting a competition for mainly Ventura County schools. …
Championship games in baseball and softball will be played on Saturday at home sites to determine Southern California regional champions. Here’s the schedule.
This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email [email protected].
Addison Moorman could finally breathe. The senior pitcher couldn’t hold her emotions back. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she embraced her teammates on Cal State Northridge’s softball diamond.
A year ago, she struck out 19 batters — only to fall short 1-0 in14 innings. Two years previous, Granada Hills was one run away from City Section glory.
On Saturday in Northridge, so close to home, the City Section Open Division title, the program’s first since 1981, was Moorman’s — and the Highlanders — to celebrate in an 11-2 drubbing of archrival Carson. Moorman put the team on her back, striking out 11 while giving up just four hits and two earned runs across her complete-game performance.
“It feels so good to go out on top, especially against [Carson],” said Moorman, who signed with Lehigh in November. “To finally beat them, overcome that hurdle and then leave as a champion, feels really great.”
Carson held a 1-0 lead early in the game when Atiana Rodriguez and Letu’u Simi combined for back-to-back doubles in the second inning, but from the bottom of the second onward, it was all Granada Hills at the plate.
Addison Moorman delivers a pitch against Carson on Saturday.
(Craig Weston)
The Highlanders capitalized off of two Colts errors in the second inning. Second baseman Lainey Brown and right fielder Elysse Diaz singled home runs, while Giselle Merida tripled to bring home another.
“I’ve been waiting,” said Diaz who went two for four with two RBIs and a double. “It was just boiling and boiling and then here, [the offense] just exploded.”
By the time Moorman returned to the circle for her third inning of work, Granada Hills had scored seven runs on six hits against Carson pitcher Giselle Pantoja — who shut the Highlanders down in 2024 — building a cushion for its star pitcher to go out and do what she’d done all season: dominate.
“‘Every time a pitcher always feels that burden of carrying the team, and [Moorman] dealt with it well,” said Granada Hills coach Ivan Garcia. “Her character is greater than her talent, the way she handles her teammates, the way she leads by example. I mean, you wouldn’t know that she’s a star pitcher, the way she puts bases away, the way she cleans up.”
Moorman made just one big mistake on Saturday — leaving a pitch over the plate to Colts center fielder Rylee Gardner, who desposited the ball over the center-field wall for a solo home run (her eighth of the year) in the sixth inning.
Otherwise, Moorman kept Carson off balance all game. She set down 13 consecutive batters between the second and sixth innings, striking out her 11th batter of the game as the penultimate at-bat of her high school career.
Giselle Merida slides safety into the base for an RBI triple against Carson in the second inning Saturday.
(Craig Weston)
For Moorman, winning a CIF title just 10 minutes away from Granada Hills High, was a moment worth savoring, she said. For Garcia — who said he was happy to see his team goofing off and having fun at a pregame lunch, loosening up before the biggest game of his coaching career — he is looking forward to the 1981 title no longer lurking around his shoulders.
“Third time’s the charm,” he said.
Earlier in the day in Northridge, Taft won its first City Section title in the softball program’s history with an 8-3 victory over Marquez in the Division II final. Legacy made no doubt of its City Section Division I title triumph later Saturday afternoon, shutting out Port of Los Angeles 5-0.
Norco High’s softball program under coach Richard Robinson has been setting the standard for excellence in the Southern Section for years. The top-seeded Cougars will seek to add a seventh section title on Saturday in the Division 1 final against El Modena in a 7 p.m. game at Bill Barber Park in Irvine.
This team has lots of top hitters. Leighton Gray is batting .455 with 40 hits, eight home runs and 25 RBIs. Ashley Duran has six home runs, 34 RBIs and a .438 batting average. Tamryn Shorter is hitting .407 with 37 hits, nine home runs and 24 RBIs. Sophomore Coral Williams has emerged as a quality pitcher with a 16-0 record, backed by junior Peyton May.
El Modena has gotten hot in the playoffs behind second baseman Kaitlyn Galasso and shortstop Kylie Tafua. Don’t doubt that the Vanguards can score runs if needed. They were able to knock off high-scoring Sherman Oaks Notre Dame 6-4 in the quarterfinals and scored 13 runs in a semifinal win over Temescal Canyon. …
Cal State Northridge will be the site for three City Section softball championship games on Saturday, with the featured matchup at 3 p.m. in the Open Division in which Carson will try to defeat Granada Hills for a third consecutive year. The Division I final at noon has Port of Los Angeles facing Legacy. Taft faces Marquez in the Division II final at 9 a.m.
This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email [email protected].
Marina won the Southern Section Division 3 softball championship with an 8-1 win over Westlake in Irvine on Friday.
Aviana Valbuena had three hits and four RBIs. Sister Mia Valbuena struck out 13 with one walk.
Marina improved to 19-13.
Los Alamitos won the Division 2 championship with a 3-0 win over JSerra that took 10 innings. Cienna Kowaleski hit a two-run home run in the 10th to end a great pitching duel.
JSerra’s Liliana Escobar struck out 16. Los Alamitos’ Jaliane Brooks threw all 10 innings, striking out five.
In Division 6, Irvine University defeated Rio Hondo Prep 4-1. In Division 7, Rancho Mirage defeated Culver City 7-3.
Granada Hills has earned the top seed in the City Section Open Division softball playoffs three years in a row, but in that time it has yet to be No. 1 at the end of the season.
The Highlanders will get another chance to do just that — and get a little redemption in the process — when they face their nemesis Carson in the championship game Saturday at 3 p.m. at Cal State Northridge.
“You’re peaking at the right time,” head coach Ivan Garcia told his team after Wednesday’s five-inning 19-0 semifinal shutout of visiting Venice. “This was the best game we’ve played so far from start to finish, but we have one more. Let’s put a punctuation mark on the season!”
Pitcher Addison Moorman struck out nine of the 16 batters she faced and got plenty of support from the offense as the Highlanders (27-3) batted around in the first inning and scored six runs. They added four runs in the second on RBI singles by Samantha Esparza, Annabella Ramirez and Jasmine Soriano and an RBI triple by Zoe Justman.
In the third, the home side kept pouring it on as Lainey Brown hit a two-run single and Elysse Diaz added a two-run triple. Granada Hills finished with 15 hits — three each by Esparza and Diaz and two each by Soriano, Justman and Brown. The Highlanders’ defense was also on display as center fielder Jocelyn Jimenez made a running over-the-shoulder grab to rob Gondoliers hitter Sandy Carrera of extra bases in the fourth.
Granada Hills senior Addison Moorman tossed a one-hitter with nine strikeouts in five innings in a 19-0 shutout of Venice.
(Steve Galluzzo / For The Times)
Granada Hills has outscored its first two playoff opponents 32-0 and only a bloop single in the second inning kept Moorman from back-to-back no-hitters.
“We’ve bonded more since last year and I’ve worked on my changeup,” said Moorman, who signed with Lehigh University in Pennsylvania in November. “We’re playing as a team right now and we know what it’s like to be on the big stage.”
The Highlanders have posted an 80-12 record the last three seasons, their only two defeats in City competition coming in extra innings to Carson in the finals. They get another crack at the third-seeded Colts (22-3-1), who routed San Pedro 11-1 in Wednesday’s other semifinal, and hope the third time’s the charm. Granada Hills will not participate in the SoCal Regionals like it did one year ago.
“Losing in the finals the last two years has helped us with our mindset and will help to eliminate the nerves because we know what to expect,” said Brown, a Manhattan University commit who graduates alongside Moorman on Thursday night. “Our coaches have preached all season ‘next man up’ and go base to base. We’ve all put in a ton of work and we’re extra motivated because of who we’re playing [in the finals].”
Brown is happy the game will be at CSUN instead of in the South Bay, where the previous two finals were played (at Cal State Dominguez Hills in 2023 and at Long Beach State last spring when Carson prevailed 1-0 in 14 innings despite Moorman’s 19 strikeouts).
Samantha Esparza slides home in the third inning of Granada Hills’ 19-0 victory over Venice.
(Steve Galluzzo / For The Times)
“I’ve done camps there [at Northridge] and the last two years it’s been long bus rides,” Brown added. “Last year we got there late and couldn’t warm up efficiently, so I’m glad this time it’s right down the street.”
Carson also appears to be rounding into postseason form. The Colts mercied Birmingham 16-5 in the quarterfinals of the eight-team Open bracket and avenged two Marine League losses to second-seeded San Pedro (17-4) on Wednesday for their sixth win in a row.
Carson has won five City crowns, all in the upper division, since 2011. Granada Hills is seeking its first title in 44 years, having won the 4A Division in 1975, 1980 and 1981.
“I’m graduating tomorrow night, yet it’s been hard to focus on school,” Moorman admitted. “It slips my mind. It’s all about Saturday right now.”
UCLA softball is heading to its 33rd Women’s College World Series after rallying from a game down to win the Columbia Super Regional, defeating South Carolina 5-0 in the series decider at Beckham Field on Sunday.
“I couldn’t be more proud,” UCLA coach Kelly Inouye-Perez said. “To be able to be a final eight [team] is a goal, and the ability to overcome day one is because they [players] were so committed to the process and allowed them to take a trip back to OKC.”
After Jordan Woolery kept UCLA’s (54-11) season alive with a walk-off home run in Game 2, she picked up right where she left off with a first-inning RBI single off South Carolina (44-17) starting pitcher Sam Gress. The Bruins failed to tack on runs with the bases loaded, but Kaitlyn Terry made sure the early tally was enough.
Terry threw 5 ⅔ innings of two-hit shutout ball with four strikeouts before giving way to Saturday’s starting pitcher, Taylor Tinsley. She allowed only one runner into scoring position through the first five innings, handcuffing South Carolina’s powerful offense all day. Between Terry and Tinsley over the last two days, the Bruins only allowed four runs and 12 hits, all singles, across their two victories.
“I think honestly it was just spinning the ball and trusting my stuff,” Terry said.
From nine runs given up on Friday to four Saturday and a shutout in the rubber game, UCLA’s pitching only improved as the series went on.
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NBA PLAYOFFS RESULTS
All Times Pacific
Conference finals
Western Conference
No. 1 Oklahoma City vs. No. 6 Minnesota at Oklahoma City 114, Minnesota 88 (box score) at Oklahoma City 118, Minnesota 103 (box score) at Minnesota 143, Oklahoma City 101 (box score) Monday at Minnesota, 5:30 p.m., ESPN Wednesday at Oklahoma City, 5:30 p.m., ESPN Friday at Minnesota, 5:30 p.m., ESPN* Sunday at Oklahoma City, 5 p.m., ESPN*
Eastern Conference
No. 3 New York vs. No. 4 Indiana Indiana 138, at New York 135 (OT) (box score) Indiana 114, at New York 109 (box score) New York 106, at Indiana 100 (box score) Tuesday at Indiana, 5 p.m., TNT Thursday at New York, 5 p.m., TNT Saturday at Indiana, 5 p.m., TNT* Monday, June 2 at New York, 5 p.m., TNT*
Before the game, he faced hitters for the first time since undergoing Tommy John revision surgery in 2023, drawing a large crowd in the visitor’s dugout at Citi Field as he touched 97 mph with his fastball and struck out two batters in five at-bats.
Four and a half hours later, the two-way star dazzled with his bat, as well, belting a second-deck leadoff blast in the first inning against Mets ace and fellow Japanese star Kodai Senga to tie the major league lead with 18 home runs on the season.
“I thought that infused some life into us,” manager Dave Roberts said.
Alas, it wouldn’t last, the Dodgers instead going quiet the rest of the night in a 3-1 rubber-match loss to the New York Mets.
It wasn’t just handling the 40-man roster general manager Perry Minasian assembled. The 73-year-old skipper, in his second season leading the Halos, identified a characteristic missing from last year’s Angels. Washington said his goal was for the Angels to become a family.
Looking back on two weeks ago, when the Angels stumbled to a 17-25 record after a hot start to begin the season, Washington said he felt the buy-in to the family ideology already seeped into the walls of the clubhouse — featuring a roster makeup mixing veterans with postseason success along his young starters across his infield. The results, however, were yet to come.
“My clubhouse was already jelled,” Washington said. “We just had to start playing good baseball.”
The Angels didn’t just play good baseball. They were the best in baseball across the last two weeks. With seven of eight victories coming on the road — a three-game sweep of the Dodgers and a four-game sweep of the Athletics — the Angels riddled off an eight-game winning streak.
After dropping Saturday’s game to the Marlins (21-30) in 6-2 fashion, the Angels (25-27) couldn’t respond Sunday, falling 3-0 to Miami to lose the weekend series. Marlins right-hander Edward Cabrera sailed through 5 2/3 shutout innings, striking out 10 as the Angels’ offense struggled to produce for back-to-back days and tallied just three hits.
From Anthony De Leon: Against the Chicago Sky, the Sparks found themselves in a must-win situation, not in the grand scheme of the standings, but for peace of mind. A win to help with confidence and morale.
After a week riddled with injuries and a three-game skid, Sunday’s matchup carried weight beyond the court — it mattered in the locker room. The pressure was starting to show, with visible signs of frustration from head coach Lynne Roberts down to the end of the bench.
The Sparks were a team searching for anything to swing the momentum back in their favor.
That shift came in the form of their superstar, Kelsey Plum, who took it upon herself to ignite the turnaround with a shooting clinic in the third quarter. Her flurry helped lift L.A. to a much-needed 91-78 win over the Sky at Crypto.com Arena.
Alex Palou took the ceremonial swig of milk in victory lane at the Indianapolis 500. His wife had a sip, she in turn gave a sip to their baby, and team owner Chip Ganassi ended up with the bottle and took a drink, as well.
“Whole milk,” he said before switching to Spanish. “Esta muy, muy buena.”
Then, the first Spaniard to win “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing” took a victory lap with them around Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the back of a pickup truck. At one point, Palou climbed onto its roof and raised his arms in triumph, the winning wreath draped around his neck. He briefly lost his balance and Ganassi instinctively reached out to grab his star driver.
No need.
Palou rarely makes a wrong move.
“All my family around, it’s amazing, honestly,” he said, smiling. “All the team around, they make me look really good on the track.”
Central 2 Dallas vs. Pacific 3 Edmonton at Dallas 6, Edmonton 3 (summary) Edmonton 3, at Dallas 0 (summary) at Edmonton 6, Dallas 1 (summary) Tuesday at Edmonton, 5 p.m., ESPN Thursday at Dallas, 5 p.m., ESPN Saturday at Edmonton, 5 p.m., ABC* Monday, June 2 at Dallas, 5 p.m., ESPN*
Eastern Conference
Metro 2 Carolina vs. Atlantic 3 Florida Florida 5, at Carolina 2 (summary) Florida 5, at Carolina 0 (summary) at Florida 6, Carolina 2 (summary) Monday at Florida, 5 p.m., TNT Wednesday at Carolina, 5 p.m., TNT* Friday at Florida, 5 p.m., TNT* Sunday at Carolina, 5 p.m., TNT*
* If necessary
THIS DAY IN SPORTS HISTORY
1963 — French Championships Men’s Tennis: Australian Roy Emerson beats home favorite Pierre Darmon 3-6, 6-1, 6-4, 6-4.
1963 — French Championships Women’s Tennis: Australian Lesley Turner wins the first of 2 French titles; beats England’s Ann Jones 2-6, 6-3, 7-5.
1972 — Joe Frazier TKOs Ron Stander in 5 for heavyweight boxing title.
1982 — 26th European Cup: Aston Villa beats Bayern Munich 1-0 at Rotterdam.
1985 — Danny Sullivan misses almost certain disaster and holds off Mario Andretti and the rest of the fastest field in auto racing to win the Indianapolis 500. On the 119th lap, Sullivan spins his racer 360 degrees, narrowly avoiding both the wall and Andretti.
1987 — Boston’s Larry Bird steals an inbounds pass from Detroit’s Isiah Thomas and feeds over his shoulder to a cutting Dennis Johnson for the winning basket as the Celtics pulls out an improbable 108-107 win over Detroit in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals.
1988 — The Edmonton Oilers, with MVP Wayne Gretzky leading the way, beat the Boston Bruins 6-3 to complete a four-game sweep and win their fourth Stanley Cup in five years.
1991 — Rick Mears passes Michael Andretti with 12 laps to go and wins his fourth Indianapolis 500, by 3.1 seconds. Mears joins A.J. Foyt and Al Unser as the only four-time winners.
1993 — 1st UEFA Champions League Final: Marseille beats Milan 1-0 at Munich.
1994 — Haiti’s Ronald Agenor wins the longest match since the French Open adopted the tiebreaker. Agenor takes the 71st and final game of a second-round match with David Prinosil of Germany. His five-hour, 6-7 (4-7), 6-7 (2-7), 6-3, 6-4, 14-12 victory involves the most games in a French Open match since 1973.
1999 — 7th UEFA Champions League Final: Manchester United beats Bayern Munich 2-1 at Barcelona.
2000 — New Jersey finishes the greatest comeback in a conference final when the Devils win the last three games of the series, beating the Flyers 2-1 in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference final. Patrik Elias scores his second goal of the game with 2:32 to play for the win.
2004 — Andy Roddick loses at the French Open — to Frenchman Olivier Mutis, who is ranked 125th. With the five-set loss, Roddick joins Andre Agassi and eight other compatriots on the way home, making it the first Grand Slam tournament in more than 30 years without a U.S. man in the third round.
2005 — Americans Andy Roddick, James Blake and Vince Spadea fail to make it through the opening week at the French Open. For the second year in a row — and the second time at a Grand Slam event in more than 30 years — no American man makes it out of the second round.
2008 — Syracuse wins its 10th NCAA men’s lacrosse championship, beating defending champion Johns Hopkins 13-10 behind three goals from Dan Hardy. The crowd of 48,970 at Foxborough, Mass., is the largest to see an NCAA championship outdoors in any sport — the BCS football championship game isn’t an NCAA event.
2009 — NHL Eastern Conference Final: Pittsburgh Penguins beat Carolina Hurricanes, 4 games to 0.
2012 — Toronto FC ends its MLS record nine-game losing streak to open a season with a 1-0 win over the Philadelphia Union on a late goal by Danny Koevermans.
2013 — Tony Kanaan ends years of frustration by finally winning the Indianapolis 500. Kanaan drives past Ryan Hunter-Reay on a restart with three laps to go, then coasts across the finish line under yellow when defending race winner Dario Franchitti crashes far back in the field. The Brazilian finished second in 2004 and twice finished third.
2013 — Senior PGA Championship, Bellerive CC: Kōki Idoki of Japan wins his lone PGA event by 2 strokes from Jay Haas and Kenny Perry.
2015 — Cleveland Cavaliers win the NBA Eastern Conference.
2018 — UEFA Champions League Final, Kiev: Real Madrid beats Liverpool, 3-1 for third straight title. Zinédine Zidane first manager to win 3 consecutive titles.
2019 — Indianapolis 500: 2016 IndyCar Series champion Simon Pagenaud of France finishes just two-tenths of a second ahead of Alexander Rossi for Team Penske’s record-extending 18th victory in the event.
2019 — Senior PGA Championship, Oak Hill CC: American Ken Tanigawa wins his first career major title by 1 stroke ahead of Scott McCarron.
THIS DAY IN BASEBALL HISTORY
1916 — Benny Kauff of the Giants was picked off first base three times by Boston’s Lefty Tyler. The miscues didn’t hurt as New York won its 14th consecutive road victory beating the Braves, 12-1.
1925 — In Detroit’s 8-1 win over the Chicago White Sox, Ty Cobb became the first to collect 1,000 career extra-base hits. He finished his career with 1,139.
1929 — Pinch-hitters Pat Crawford of the Giants and Les Bell of the Boston Braves hit grand slams in New York’s 15-9 victory.
1930 — Joe Sewell of the Cleveland Indians, who fanned only three times in 353 at-bats during the season, was struck out twice in the same game by Pat Caraway of the White Sox.
1937 — Billy Sullivan and Bruce Campbell appeared for the Cleveland Indians as pinch hitters. Each hit a home run, making this the first time two American League pinch hitters hit home runs in the same game. The Indians beat the Athletics, 8-6.
1956 — Cincinnati Reds pitchers John Klippstein, Hershell Freeman and Joe Black combined for 9 2-3 hitless innings, but lost 2-1 in 11 innings to the Philadelphia Phillies.
1959 — Harvey Haddix of Pittsburgh pitched 12 perfect innings before losing to Milwaukee 1-0 in the 13th on an error, a sacrifice and Joe Adcock’s double.
1962 — Sandy Koufax struck out 16 Phillies to lead the Dodgers to a 6-3 victory.
1969 — Hank Aaron of the Atlanta Braves hits his 500th career double, becoming only the third major leaguer to reach 500 doubles and 500 home runs.
1995 — USC and Fresno State combined for an NCAA postseason baseball record of 39 runs in the Trojans’ 22-17 win in the West Regional. USC scored three runs in the top of the ninth to break the record of 37 set by the Trojans and Houston in 1990.
1996 — The Chicago White Sox became the 16th team in AL history to hit four homers in one inning in their 12-1 win over Milwaukee. Frank Thomas, Harold Baines and Robin Ventura hit consecutive homers and Chad Kreuter added another in Chicago’s seven-run eighth.
1997 — Chicago’s Sammy Sosa and the Pirates’ Tony Womack hit inside-the-park homers in the sixth inning of the Cubs’ 2-1 win. It was the first time two inside-the-park homers had been hit in the same inning in 20 years.
2004 — Daryle Ward hit for the cycle and tied his career best with six RBIs in Pittsburgh’s 11-8 win over St. Louis.
2006 — Derek Jeter gets his 2,000th career hit, becoming the eighth player in Yankees history to reach the milestone.
2008 — Chase Utley tied the National League lead with his 16th homer and drove in six runs as Philadelphia routed Colorado 20-5. The Phillies batted around three times and had season-highs in hits (19) and runs.
2011 — The hot-hitting Boston Red Sox routed the Detroit Tigers 14-1 in an eight-inning, rain-shortened game. The Red Sox, who beat Cleveland 14-2 the previous day, scored at least 14 runs in back-to-back games for the first time since 1998.
2016 — Major League Baseball hands out a suspension of 82 games to Braves OF Hector Olivera, following a domestic violence incident in April. It is by far the most severe penalty yet handed out under baseball’s new domestic violence policy.
2018 — Mike Trout has the first five-hit game of his career and drives in 4 runs to lead the Angels to an 11-4 win over the Yankees.
2021 — Commissioner Rob Manfred issues his ruling following the completion of the investigation of allegations of improper behavior towards a number of women against former manager and coach Mickey Callaway. Callaway is found guilty of violating Major League Baseball policies and is declared ineligible for the remainder of this season and all of 2022, after which he may apply for reinstatement. For their part, the Angels fire him from his position of pitching coach, from which he has been suspended since the allegations surfaced in February, and the Indians, who were Callaway’s employer when some of the offensive incidents took place, state that they will take steps to ensure a more respectful environment in which employees feel empowered to denounce workplace harassement in the future.
2023 — Craig Kimbrel becomes the eighth pitcher to record 400 career saves in Philadelphia’s 6 – 4 win over the Braves, barely two weeks after Kenley Jansen became the seventh.
Compiled by the Associated Press
Until next time…
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