Harman takes lead with 4-under 66; Spieth (73) slides

Brian Harman shot a 4-under 66 on Friday to move to 10-under par and watched that hold up for the second-round lead in the Travelers Championship in Cromwell, Conn., thanks in part to a 10-second rule.

Harman finished a stroke ahead of Matt Jones and first round co-leader Zach Johnson, who lost a stroke during his round of 68 when his birdie putt hung on the lip of the cup at the third hole for longer than the maximum allowed 10 seconds before falling in, giving him a par.

“After 10 seconds, the ball was moving and at that point even if the ball is moving, It’s deemed to be at rest, because it’s on the lip,” Johnson said. “Don’t ask me why, but that’s just the way it is.”

Harman had his short game working for the second consecutive day, taking 26 putts after needing only 23 during the first round.

“The putter has been really good so far, but I’ve been in position a lot,” he said. “I’ve had a lot of good looks at it. I’m just able to put a little pressure on the course right now, which is nice.”

Jones hit 16 of 18 greens for the second consecutive day, following up his first round 65 with a 66.

Bryson DeChambeau (66), Paul Casey (67) and Russell Henley (65) were two strokes back going into the weekend.

Lanto Griffin and twotime Travelers champion Bubba Watson were at even par coming into Friday. But both shot a 63 to move into contention heading into the weekend, three shots behind the leader. Watson jump started his round with an eagle on his third hole, the par-5 13th.

“I had some mental mistakes yesterday, and then I didn’t make some putts,” said Watson. “Today I started out hotter. I made a good shot on 11, our second hole, made the putt, making a solid par putt on 12, and then that freed me up a little bit. Gave me some confidence going into the next hole where I made the eagle.”

Rory McIlroy also is at 7 under after a 69. McIlroy, Watson and Justin Thomas (5 under) were grouped together Thursday and Friday, drawing large galleries.

Defending champion Jordan Spieth, tied with Johnson after an opening 63, had a 73 to drop into a tie for 25th at 4 under. Masters champion Patrick Reed, coming off a fourth-place finish in the U.S. Open, shot a 67 to miss the cut by a shot at minus-1.

Champions: Steve Stricker made himself at home at the top of the leaderboard on a rainy and breezy at the American Family Insurance Championship in Madison, Wis.

The hometown star and tournament host shot an 8-under 64 at University Ridge to take a one-stroke lead over 63-year-old Brad Bryant. John Daly, Colin Montgomerie and Steve Flesch shot 67.

The 51-year-old Stricker had his 30th consecutive Champions round under par.

LPGA Tour: Former Arkansas star Gaby Lopez shot a career-low 8-under 63 to take the first-round lead in the NW Arkansas Championship. Lopez, a three-time All-American for the Razorbacks, was one stroke up on Moriya Jutanugarn, Minjee Lee, Catriona Matthew, Nasa Hataoka, Lizette Salas, Mirim Lee and Aditi Ashok.

Florida carried a five-run lead into the bottom of the seventh inning against Texas Tech, but Gators coach Kevin O’Sullivan never let himself get comfortable.

“We knew they weren’t going away,” O’Sullivan said. “They hung in there with us, and we knew it would be a nine-inning ballgame.”

It was every bit a nine-inning game Thursday night.

Fortunately for the Gators, they built enough cushion to survive Texas Tech’s six-run outburst over the seventh and eighth innings and eliminate the Red Raiders from the College World Series with a 9-6 win.

The Gators (49-20) have won two straight since a loss to Tech in their CWS opener and moved to the Bracket 2 final against Southeastern Conference rival Arkansas. The No. 1 national seed needed to beat the Razorbacks late Friday and again Saturday to return to the best-of-three championship round next week.

Florida freshman Jack Leftwich (5-5) allowed seven hits, walked two and struck out five in 6⅓ innings. He escaped trouble in the second and fourth innings before leaving with two runners on base in the seventh.

That’s when Tech (45-20) and its high-scoring offense started to make trouble for the Gators and their bullpen.

“Right now, you don’t feel too good,” Tech coach Tim Tadlock said. “They compete and they love playing, and we’re proud of how they go about and play the game. We thought we could get through this and get to next week. Right now, we probably need to process all of it.”

Tech scored three times against four pitchers in the seventh to make it a two-run game. The Gators got those three runs back in the top of the eighth, with Brady Smith tripling off the center-field wall.

The Red Raiders came back with three more runs in the eighth against three relievers to make it 8-6. Florida got one of those runs back in the ninth.

O’Sullivan was forced to go to closer Michael Byrne with two outs in the eighth, and he pitched a 1-2-3 ninth for his 16th save.

“It would have been nice not to use him,” O’Sullivan said. “We’re going to need somebody else to step up and get us some outs if we want to advance here the next couple games.”

JJ Schwarz broke his right hand May 18 and returned to the lineup for Florida’s first CWS game. The Oakland Athletics’ eighth-round draft pick was 1-for-11 in Omaha when he sent a 1-1 pitch from Ty Harpenau into the leftfield bullpen for a 5-0 lead in the sixth. It was his 13th homerthis year and No. 50 of his career.

“I wouldn’t have missed this for the world,” Schwarz said about making it back from his injury. “I definitely felt a little better at the plate, more comfortable. Today was a good step in the right direction. I wasn’t very comfortable the first couple games. I was a little rusty. I’m getting the hang of things again.”

The Gators went up 1-0 without getting a hit against Caleb Kilian (9-3) in the fourth when Jonathan India walked, took second on a wild pitch, stole third and came home on another wild pitch. They broke through for two runs on three hits in the fifth and extended their lead on Schwarz’s homer.

The Red Raiders loaded the bases with one out in the second and had runners on first and second with one out in the fourth against Leftwich.

Josh Jung went 3-for-5 with two RBIs but said he and his teammates needed to get going offensively earlier against Leftwich.

“Seems every time we got a base runner, he was able to shut us down pretty quick. Then they killed our momentum after we scored three in the seventh. They scored three. We got it right back and got three more. Just hats off to them for their performance.”

Oregon State 12, Mississippi State 2: The Beavers used a five-run second inning to build a big lead and Brandon Eisert pitched a season-long 5⅓ innings of one-hit shutout relief in a win over the Bulldogs on Friday afternoon.

Oregon State (51-11-1) has staved off elimination three times since losing its CWS opener to North Carolina, beating Washington, North Carolina and now Mississippi State. Another win over the Bulldogs (39-18) Saturday would send the Beavers to the best-of-three CWS finals for the first time since 2007.

Oregon State continued its offensive tear against an MSU team that had allowed just two runs in 18 innings.

The Beavers sent 11 batters to the plate while breaking it open in the second inning. Mississippi State starter Jacob Billingsley (5-4) left after he walked the bases loaded. Keegan James walked the first batter he faced to force in a run. Adley Rutschman, batting .500 (7-for-14) with a CWS-leading nine RBIs in Omaha, followed with a tworun single as Oregon State built a 6-1 lead.